The economic answer to newspaper profitability-employ the "suits"

I like the synopsis that Steve Boriss puts over this morning on the economic background of newspapers.

In a week that has seen Trinity Mirror shares crash in the Uk and the announcement of 150 jobs losses at the LA Times,he talks of the implications of the latter

the audience and reach of newspapers have never been greater – it’s just that they are reading the Internet editions, which are free and more up-to-date. And, local advertisers should still be most interested in the most popular local sites, a position that many papers already hold. So, the only thing, but no small thing, keeping papers from returning to their historically high margins are costly resources not covered by print revenues and not necessary for Internet revenues.

According to Steve,papers must face up to the facts that they must quickly shed the unnecessary resources,that they must be able to identify them and thirdly that unfortunately these strategic moves will have to be taken by businessmen who can deal with hard and calculating decisions.

The problem of identification is a problem for all organisations who business model shares cost and revenue centres.