Conclusion: The Ideal Paper

An ideal paper would likely look very different, possibly in tabloid or Berliner form. A large, single story would dominate the page – which would continue from page one to page two, and each story in the paper would flow seamlessly from the one before it. On the side, perhaps one column of a four-column layout, a list of all the story headlines, along with a page number which the stories are printed on. Politics, crime, accidents, and other stories would all be sequestered into different sections, with politics given the lion’s share of coverage. Sports sections would be sold separately or incorporated into the main bulk of the paper.

The ideal story would cover material in depth, provide a history of the item, solicit reader feedback on that particular story, provide information on how to get involved in the story, and be written in a conversational (but conforming to style) tone that explains the impact on society that the story has, as well as the impact on local people.

None of these are any guarantee that people will come back to newspapers. With the advent of the Web, it’s not even really that necessary to save newspapers as a medium (although newspaper companies have resources that web startups usually do not.) But if one wants to take advantage of any increase in overall civic engagement, it is important to not present barriers to participation in order to cater to tradition.