Christie Hefner Blogs: Will Newspapers Learn? Or Die?

Christie Hefner is the chairman and C.E.O. of Playboy Enterprises. Today, Hefner-the daughter of the original playa-will bring to Portfolio.com readers her distinct point of view on the Playboy brand and the media business. One day. One place: Portfolio.com.

Living in Chicago, home to the Tribune Co., I've been thinking about the newspaper business lately.

I am admittedly of the generation that still enjoys the experience of reading a paper on paper. Daily I read the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Trib and the Chicago Sun-Times.

But I also read three pre-selected subjects (technology, media, and retail) from the Financial Times online. I also go to news sites for information throughout the day, especially on a big news day; and I go to sites like the Huffington Post (which I've also blogged for), for opinions online.

It seems to me when I talk to people, usually younger, they hardly ever, if ever, read a paper in its physical form any more (if George Carlin were with us, what would he say about "papers without paper?"). In the main, they are still seeking information, just more frequently online or on television.

So when people say to me that "newspapers are dead, they just don't know it yet," because they look at the statistics regarding the fall off (the cliff) of younger readers, I wonder if the issue is less a diminishing interest in news and opinion, and more the failure (to date) to find a business model online to substitute for the business model in print that relied on basic monopolies, two revenue streams (circulation and advertising), and healthy ad rates.

If true, then rather than seemingly focusing on cost-cutting their way out of their problems, perhaps newspaper owners should be focused on first, how to make their online content and the online experience on their sites as compelling as possible, including (buckle your seat belts here!) marketing their sites; second, how to consider offering some of that content or some of those experiences in a disaggregated (i.e., not needing a subscription) manner with simple à la carte pricing--the iTunes model; and finally, how to educate advertisers about how to effectively deploy their online budgets, and why consumers online are worth a lot more than advertisers think.

That's a code worth cracking, since the overwhelming majority of original journalism, from local news coverage to in-depth investigative pieces, is funded by either newspapers or television or, of course, magazines [she says as the C.E.O. of the company whose flagship magazine broke the story that In the Valley of Elah, staring Tommy Lee Jones, was based on]. And we're all facing similar challenges.

So can newspapers learn from magazines? From what Condé Nast's done online? From Playboy's ability to grow its combined print and online audience and advertising last year?

Or are newspapers the canaries in the coal mine?