State of the Media insight and such

The articles online were actually pretty interesting, in terms of where experts say newspaper and the news in general are going. It's pretty obvious that newspapers are declining, but the industry itself isn't so much dying out. I was surprised at how little online versions of papers bring in as in revenue. A small fact form the article is that a lot of the loss of readership of the big newspapers is because they switch to the online version of that same paper. Online, there tends to be less depth of subject, but in newspapers the stories are well-written at least. In the book it says that using "concrete detail" and creative observations, a story can become more than just facts. I agree with this, but the online stories we see today are often just the bare facts. Another main fact from the book, which I think actually goes along with stories on the Web, is to be precise in everything. This makes sense, but I feel like more readers just want the main story. They want to know briefly what happened and why. This isn't necessarily good, but it's true.
Going along this idea, the article also talked about how the online redesigns have prompted people to rethink newspapers' design. (http://www.stateofthenewsmedia.org/2007/narrative_newspapers_intro.asp?cat=1&media=3)

To me this sounds like every paper will become a dumbed down version of itself. The price of papers has increased, so why not the quality of content? The one thing I feel like could work for the online newspaper is the idea of showing instead of telling. Sometimes people want to feel like they are at the scene of a crime or a big event. To bring the reader in, it's necessary to use the senses to engage the reader to keep going.
I think the most positive thing I read was that there was a stop to circulation-padding. For instance, everytime I go to a hotel and there is a USA Today at my doorstep, that counted as part of its circulation. Most of those people never read the paper, or even wanted it, but it somehow counted.
In terms of where the news is today in general, I think newspapers are going to have to rethink who is really buying them to read the whole thing- most want to see a specific section or a certain story. The revenue they will get is from the mature, educated audience who wants to read the New York Times front to back.