H-Dons - that story you mention is here: http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/fairfax-roger-corbett-digital-media-australian-new-pd20120619-VE64M?OpenDocument&src=sph&src=rot. The guy who tried to tell the CEO about the loss of classifieds was Eric Beecher. Today News Limited will announce between 400-1000 job losses, half in editorial. so that's between 2300 and almost 3000 newspaper industry people gone. Simple logic says that this type of loss of knowledge and expertise will have to have an impact. And no - the industry is far from stable right now. And those in the industry are really pissed off about it.
Getting value for the advertising buck is going to be harder in future as corporations lean up. I think there will be more of the deplorable masterchef product placements (it is refreshing to see it getting beaten in the ratings) Quality journalism from now on will probably flit between individual blog sites, where and how they can be seen as able to afford this incisive analysis (probably only in the left v right sphere rather than in the let's engender debate), and quality magazines discussing issues of the day. There are more than enough magazines with articles of depth and quality to satisfy current demand, particularly as on-line gives a compelling competitor. Mind you, the Melbourne earthquake was a clear showing of the power of new media over old. Twitter > Facebook > News Limited > Fairfax > ROFL Ten News
Lucas - the first place I visited to find out about the earthquake - Twitter. Sure enough, Twitter feed going bananas with good information, expressions of concern and humour. First place my wife visited - Facebook -again, good information, check up on family and friends, etc. Absolute rolled gold example of the new ways we have developed to get information quickly.
The trend is with bloggers/social media continuing to eat into big media's pie. Wikipedia another example of an info source maintained by thousands of volunteers being our 1st stop for info, over the former heavyweight encyclopedias. The writing was on the wall years ago.
Agree with all the comments here. As a reader, I'll subscribe and pay to both HS and Fairfax. If enough do, then the content will remain strong and that way you can get balanced reporting between the Bolts of HUN and the Leanore Taylors / David Marrs of Fairfax. I've become an online news junky as the quality of the services have improved, and I'm strongly of the view that if we want diversity in our media, then we need to be prepared to pay for it. If we don't dig into our pockets, we'll get the quality we deserve.