The blogosphere is aflutter with the woes of the newspaper industry. I think most papers won’t make it, with the printed newspaper becoming as quaint as home milk delivery.
Newspapers are really in two different businesses that got fused together: content and distribution.
The Internet is replacing proprietary distribution (i.e. printing newspapers). The content side can’t stand alone because of increasing non-newspaper competition, and (I suspect) value subsidy from their proprietary distribution (e.g. what you paid for getting the news at your doorstep was subsidizing the newsroom).
Remember AOL: the Internet killed the dialup business, and they didn’t shift content fast enough to be compelling without a captive dialup user base.
Cable companies & TV networks are next: as bandwidths increase, users are starting to get their video on-line, instead of through proprietary cable and TV networks. Over time, the “cable networks” will feel like the old TELNET network, and get disconnected like copper phone lines.
What’s the next business to have a proprietary distribution model blown up by the Internet?