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We all know the dire trends in the newspaper world even though we may not know the exact stats.

It’s like the worst of the movie “Deep Impact” combined with the apocalyptic visions of Al Gore’s “Inconvenient Truth”.

Eyeballs are supposed to be moving online away from tangible newspapers, and the numbers bear it out. Everyone in the industry wants to be taken over to alleviate responsibility to navigate this minefield.

The large companies are trying to figure out how to squeeze profits in this environment, but Gannett seems to be leading the way integrating Web 2.0 into their model.

Whether this works, it’s not for me to say. What I want to point out is that there is a tiny group of newspapers that are making money.

This little group of increasingly profitable newspapers all have circulations of 50,000 or less.

Why?

Ø Smaller staffs
Ø Lower salaries
Ø Less Competition
Ø “Zealous devotion to local news”

What is the most important? I think the latter.

You see, even on the greatest of corporate stages it’s all about a niche. Local newspapers have created one of the last remaining monopolies.
The niches and the micro-niches we talk about are the monopolies of the 21^st century. Finding the proper niche or micro-niche and you have the chance to hear the unending ka-chings from the slot machines straight into your bank account.

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