MediaShift offers some ideas

On the PBS Website is a section titled MediaShift. It is described as:

MediaShift tracks how new media -- from weblogs to podcasts to citizen journalism -- are changing society and culture.

In a posting Thursday, the column's author, Mark Glaser, offered up some interesting advice on new business models for newspapers. With all the gnashing of teeth lately about the future of newspapers, the comment of "we're still looking for a new business model" has been uttered more than a few times. Well, Glaser offers up some thoughts on new models.

You'll want to read the entire piece by clicking here. His ideas include creating blog networks, classified networks and personalized papers.

Also interesting in this column, Glaser provides a prognosis on each of his points -- how the industry is currently faring in those areas and what the future might hold.

One of the areas he talks about is niche Web sites. We'd be interested in knowing about niche sites of our North Carolina newspapers. Please let us know what you are doing so we can share your ideas.