Also on the LA Times op-ed page today, Michael Kinsley offers some sorta-sage advice for the Tribune Publishing Company amid their recent attempts to chop up the LA Times:
In fact, there may be no better way to preserve The Times' role as a major newspaper (if that is of any interest to its owners). These days, on the one hand, thanks to the Internet, any newspaper can be a national newspaper. On the other hand, near universal availability of the New York Times print edition makes the traditional role of a regional paper like the Los Angeles Times superfluous.
But now imagine the Tribune chain as a single newspaper with separate editions in each of its cities. Call it the National Tribune. Or the papers could keep their separate identities, but carry a "Tribune" insert or wraparound with national and international news. This paper would start out with towering dominance in two of the nation's top three markets (Los Angeles and Chicago) and a solid position, via Newsday, in the largest (New York). It would even have a toehold in Washington (thanks to the Baltimore Sun). All this, and Orlando too.
Like the British papers, this new national paper could go after a demographic slice of the market instead of a geographical one. It could aim for the currently unoccupied sweet spot between USA Today and the New York Times, or it could take on the New York Times directly.
True enough. Problem is, the paper would lack an identity. The Chicago Tribune is a relatively conservative rag with a character both distinct and inferior to The LA Times. Newsday is its own animal, as is The Baltimore Sun. In this age, when Fox News dominates the cable rating and blogs seems so ascendant, the way to wrest market share from more established competitors cannot possibly be a dilution of an outlet's personality and opinion, but an amplification of it.
For all the complaints, America has a "paper of record" in the New York Times. It has a political broadsheet in the Washington Post. It has an economic chronicler in The Wall Street Journal. And all these papers are reasonably good at what they do. What it doesn't have is an opinionated paper, a la The Guardian. It lacks an aggressive, nationwide, ideological-but-not-partisan newspaper that could grab those frustrated by the fog and fat the technical conventions of faux-objectivity impose on so many news stories. The LA Times, under the guidance and treasure of Ron Burkle or another left-leaning billionaire could take a shot at that market opportunity, and open up a new front in the newspaper wars. A National Tribune, while benefitting from undeniable economies of scale, would be playing for well-defended and adequately governed territory.
