New Study Agrees That Customized Newspapers Are The Future

"A week and a half ago, we wrote about Vin Crosbie's suggestion that newspapers need to offer completely customizable online versions to attract readers. Now, the Project for Excellence in Journalism has released a report entitled The State of the News Media that seems to come to pretty much the same conclusion. They say that, while circulation is declining and many newspapers are struggling, there is a light at the end of the tunnel for those who choose to head towards it. They believe that much more customized online news is what will save newspapers. So, I still stand by my original question: why should it be the newspapers who do this customization? Already, people can 'create their own newspapers' just using the web and finding the stories that are interesting to them. What additional advantage is there for the newspapers themselves to offer the customization tools? Is the role of the newspaper to write the news or to deliver the news - or both? "