Presses, electricity, ink, cleanup chemicals, water, delivery fuel, hydrocarbons.....the list goes on....
I delivered for the Journal. Sunday Oregonian, though. MAN, those puppies were heavy! Had to take an extra trip back to the box.
The only advantage print paper still has in in coupons/ads. Until you can convince businesses to go 100% online in advertising, and have customers print out coupons, there will be a market (diminished, albeit) for newsprint. Or, convince advertisers that they don't need coupons in print, but Groupon and Living Social aren't exactly turning a profit, either.
I'm seeing more and more coupons via phone. I use my digital (and personalized, to boot) Safeway coupons all the time.
Apparently we are shortly away from the smart phone locating where you are and sending you notes and text for lunch specials in the area and coupons to local stores. Saw it on a documentary . . . my weak description doesn't give justice to how advanced personal advertising is going to become.
I just turned 17...I don't even know what "the Oregonian" is...but if you want news you guys should just go to oregonlive.com...jah Rastafari!
No one has found a model, yet. This form will unlikely be able to do so. They outsourced their core competencies (newsgathering) to groups like AP or UPI. So, what do they offer? Editorial content and feature writing that hasn't been shown to hold much value.
I get unsolicited coupon books in my mailbox all the time. Hell, even the classifieds have gotten killed by Craigslist. Print journalism will go local, not regional. The Pamplins have the right model. Large papers like the Oregonian are the walking dead.
Actually, it was one of the best in the nation when I was young. The MIC gradually siezed control of all major media over the last 40 years.