LA Daily News: 'Reports of the newspaper industry's death are exaggerated'

Mariel Garza, editorial page editor of the Los Angeles Daily News, has written an opinion piece 'Newspapers Will Still Survive' trying to puncture the pessimism surrounding the future of the newspaper industry.
She writes: "Yes, the nation's newspapers are feeling the economic downturn, just like the auto, retail, travel and any other industry that relies on people spending money. But while American newspapers might be losing money, they aren't losing readers. In fact, most online news sites are seeing record traffic, the L.A. Daily News included.
"Americans still want us, just not in the right way. The paid, subscription kind of way. All of you who are reading this online (you know who you are) for free, are the reason that newspapers are struggling. I'm not blaming you, though. It's not your fault. It's ours."
Garza adds: "When the online revolution happened in the 1990s, newspapers, of course, got into the action and started publishing their content on their Web sites for free. The idea was that someday they would just shift the subscription-ad formula of making money from a paper product to online.
"To make a long story short, thanks to the proliferation of technological devices that have replaced paper, millions of people prefer to get their news on Web sites, in e-mails, on their BlackBerrys while they are sitting in the dog park, rather than in the bulky format that just piles up in the pantry. And in the process, they've been trained to expect news is free. It surely isn't.
This brings us to winter 2008-09 when things went bust for the economy. Newspapers were hurt too, and those that were already in precarious financial situations found themselves in dire straits."
She concludes: "In the end, I think this turmoil is going to be a good thing for the news industry, forcing newspapers to take innovative steps to provide information that readers want and need and keeping us printing and newsgathering well into the 21st century. I don't know how, I'm just one of the ink-stained wretches. But it will happen because where there's a demand and there will be a supply. . .
"Sure, there's always going to be people who stop reading a newspaper because they don't agree with the editorial position, but they're a small percentage of readership.
"In any case, to paraphrase Mark Twain, reports of the newspaper industry's death are exaggerated. We might be changing, but we are not going away."