The recent massive layoffs at The Washington Post have divided people into two camps: Whether Jeff Bezos is a villain, or merely a smart businessman.
But let’s cut to the chase. If journalism updated its business model, we probably wouldn’t be having this conversation.
In my America’s Newspapers post from December 2025, I argued that many of the products and ideas being sold to newspapers are helpful, but only incrementally. Yes, it’s worth working to achieve operational excellence — I dedicated over two years to just such a turnaround project in Anniston, Alabama — but not every paper can achieve Lake Wobegon-like best-in-class status.
The newest model getting buzz is the charitable approach. Not just for public radio anymore, newspapers can benefit, too. But the benefit won’t be at the scale required to save most outlets, to say nothing of replenishing whole newsrooms.
Journalism coined the term “follow the money.” To find a new for-profit business model, we need to “follow the pain.” Solving a company’s pain — such as how to reach more customers — created the original business symbiosis through which newspapers and local business thrived for over 200 years.
If only businesses could help local businesses in new ways! Well, maybe they can.
The fact that about half of businesses fail within five years of launching isn’t just due to misguided ideas or a lack of capital. It’s nearly as often due to poor execution and an ignorance of the basic principles of business.
Your local chamber of commerce is likely hosting valuable networking events, but I doubt it is providing actionable data or other game-changing expertise to its members.
This is America. Shouldn’t we be the best on the planet at capitalism? But business isn’t always intuitive, and it’s rarely something a person can do alone.
Newspapers could help. But, how?
Traditionally, newspapers have employed some of the smartest people in town, a dedicated squad of savvy analysts and communicators who really dig down to the nitty-gritty of what’s relevant to the consumers and businesses in their community.
Some newspapers figured out a while ago they can focus on a business audience. Think The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News, and the business weeklies found in metro areas, such as the excellent Triangle Business Journal where I live in Raleigh.
Business-focused journalism stands out from the crowd as financially sound. While the average citizen these days seems less interested in facts than in tall tales spun by pundits, businesses by and large still want to know what really happened yesterday.
Businesses rely on accurate market data and on news about regulatory bodies, political initiatives and other movements in the business environment. They don’t gladly suffer “outrage algorithms” and the hallucinations of online robots.
Artificial intelligence can do quick analysis, but AI can’t be relied on to report the basic facts in the first place. Personally reported, camera-captured, high overhead news is taken for granted by nearly everyone, but it’s the valuable ore from which all other information, chatter and pontification emanate.
Even lifestyle articles — while binding together a community — have always served as market intelligence. Businesses are curious: “What are people doing with their time?” Fortunately, not all of life is online yet.
To tease out opportunity, publishers should go back to the drawing board and ask the following questions:
“How might I solve a company’s marketing and advertising problem more effectively than simply selling ads in my publication(s)?”
“What additional types of information might I gather, analyze and synthesize that businesses will value and pay dearly for? Could I repackage the information I’m already gathering in a way that makes it more valuable to the market?”
And, finally:
“What additional business problems might I learn to solve? How about a local entrepreneur’s struggles with financial management, strategy, leadership, talent recruitment and training, to name just a few of the challenges they might be facing?”
As an industry, we simply must find a way to bring new value to the market — and not just rely on the benevolence of billionaires. Besides, there are plenty of other causes besides journalism that people with money might choose to support.
My small team has been experimenting with new marketing and business services I believe newspapers can package, sell, and fulfill for the client. I’m encouraged by the reception I’m getting. Heck, we sold our first annual package last week — to the first business we pitched!
But our proof of concept work has a lot more ground to cover and can hardly move fast enough. This is about scaling, and scaling fast. Journalism’s quandary requires a real sense of urgency.
How might newspapers become the go-to source of value for area businesses again? If you’re intrigued enough by the question, please reach out, and let’s invent together.
If we can solve more business problems for our clients, we might just solve the biggest problem facing our industry today.
Eric Larson is CEO of The ORG Detectives based in Raleigh, North Carolina. Connect with him at elarson@theorgdetectives.com.
