Interesting post today at masteringmultimedia, who pulls this piece from Rosenblumtv’s post he calls microeconomics:

The web offers not just another platform for distribution of product, but rather an entirely new calculus for how an online media company can be run. By its very nature, it changes the construct of most media businesses. Migrate your newspaper to the web completely and you suddenly lose the cost of ink, paper, presses, pressmen, delivery trucks, distribution and paperboys. Tell your writers to work from home and you can lose the building, the desks, the lights, the cleaning services and most of the management as well. Cut all those costs, and suddenly your ad based web revenue can look pretty good in comparison. Its the overhead that is killing you. Lose it. You don’t need it.

This reminds me of a post on wemediaguru in which Jason talked about newspapers opening a coffeeshop in the newsroom (or at least the building) and inviting the public in to work and hang out.

At the time, I thought it was a little goofy, but now it seems to me that if news organizations ditch all the old baggage, they could move to downtown spaces, upgrade the facilities and have all those reporter-bloggers punching away next to freelance programmers, designers and whoever dropped in for a mega-latte.

I think the key is to retain the paper’s brand more than anything. I was up in Vancouver, Wash. a couple of weeks ago in the Columbian’s brand new building. It’s beautiful, and the paper’s staff uses the first four floors, with office space available on the top two. But what really grabbed me was the use of the paper’s brand in the architecture.

The pictures here don’t do it justice, but the cool lobby area features huge portions of the paper’s nameplate etched in the glass and inside on the walls. Clips help set the paper in the city’s history.*

My point is that what matters is the brand and the product, not how it’s delivered.

*Note: The fancy building didn’t help the Columbian. In Dec, 2008, they were forced to move back into their old location. In May, they filed for Chapter 11 protection.