If TNS Media Intelligence is right, the local newspaper advertising revenues grew in 2003 by 13.4%, the national by 5.8%, the internet by 15.4%. The local part and the internet part are of particular interest here:
As newspapers are in the connecting people business (and always have been, and much more so in a local setting), the business challenge is to find ways to hook the trust and the inherent networking competencies they still enjoy in most places to the manyfolded “macro and micro know/trust networks” (Mary Hodder) that are emerging, i.e. “facilitating and unifying open conversation within their OWN space” (Steve Outing).
This will give us business answers in respect to the menace of localized paid searches as much as to a localized trust based community such as ebay (and its classified advertising thrust).