New report provides industry with new vision and resources for innovation

RESTON, Va. - The American Press Institute today released its report Newspaper Next 2.0: Making the Leap Beyond 'Newspaper Companies'--a follow-up to the project's 2006 report, Blueprint for Transformation.

The report, released through a webcast, details a new vision of what newspapers can and must become. Of this new vision, Newspaper Next (N2) Managing Director Steve Gray, said, "If newspaper companies stay on their present path, the future is clear - the core business model will keep shrinking, along with circulation, advertising and profit margins. It's time to make the leap - a mental leap, a leap of vision and leadership - beyond newspaper companies, to a larger, more diverse kind of company."

As part of Newspaper Next 2.0, the American Press Institute worked with Borrell Associates to provide an overview of the most promising online revenue opportunities, along with tools and resources to help newspapers take maximum advantage of them.

Below are links to spreadsheets outlining current local online spending by business category in every designated market area (DMA), as well as Borrell's Future Tool to enable newspapers to calculate what their potential revenue opportunity could be in any size market.

Download the Data Overview here. This is your user's guide to the data offered below.

Download the Market Selector here.

Download online spending figures per DMA here.

Download the Online Spending Analysis here.

Download the Future Tool for Quintile 1 here.

Download the Future Tool for Quintile 2 here.

Download the Future Tool for Quintile 3 here.

Download the Future Tool for Quintile 4 here.

Download the Future Tool for Quintile 5 here.

Download the Web Audit for Quintile 1 here.

Download the Web Audit for Quintile 2 here.

Download the Web Audit for Quintile 3 here.

Download the Web Audit for Quintile 4 here.

Download the Web Audit for Quintile 5 here.

Some questions about journalism innovation stump me. This one didn't.

A person who's trying to help journalists move into the digital world was trying to persuade some newspaper editors and writers to "build credibility with their users by having the courage to send users elsewhere for info when they can't meet the need." The editors were appalled and asked for "hard data to take home to convince their legacy managers this is a good idea."

You want hard data? Here's some hard data: Google.

The New York Times had an article recently about how the cost of continuing to send reporters out to travel with the campaigns has become steep enough that some news organizations, particularly newspapers, are deciding to pull their reporters back as a cost-cutting measure. Like that's a bad thing.

I think it's a good thing.

Heresy, I know, but hear me out. One of the hard decisions newspapers have to make in order to liberate resources for new growth is, as Bill Watson from the Pocono Record says, "what to stop doing."