Tribune Chair, Zell Knows How to Save Newspapers: PDFs!

Everyone knows that print journalism is in a death rattle, and it’s tempting to wax nostalgic as paper after paper bites the dust. But when you hear comments like those of Tribune Chairman Sam Zell, it’s tough to have a lot of sympathy.

During an interview with CNBC, Zell was asked about the future of the newspaper business. What is his visionary prediction? PDFs. That’s right–the staggering problem of remaining profitable in the newspaper industry could be solved if only we could figure out a way to deliver PDF versions of publications.

“going forward, it’s going to require all kinds of different approaches, including probably most significant, the elimination of home delivery and the replacement of it by PDFs.”

To be fair, no one has really figured out a good way monetize online news.  Print circulation and ad dollars continue to drop as a majority of readers now get their news from the web. But my guess is that the solution is not going to be simply digitizing news content in PDF form.

The reasons that newspapers are struggling to remain relevant are pretty obvious:

1. Slow to React – By the time a story gets to the printed page, it’s not news anymore. In 2010, news can be broken almost instantaneously through social networks like Twitter and Facebook. Who wants to wait until the next morning for this information?
2. Static Content – Once a paper goes to press, it cannot be updated. A story cannot evolve over time, even if the facts do.
3. No Multimedia – The best online news sources include audio, video and interactive graphics. None of this is possible on the printed page. (with a few exceptions)
4. No User Participation – Sure, you can write a letter to the editor and hope it gets published. But that’s about as close as you’ll come.

So let’s think about how the mighty PDF will solve these problems:

1. Slow to React – The process for producing a PDF is essentially the same as it would be for the printed version. You’d only be knocking off the time spent at the press and delivery.
2. Static Content – A PDF may be digital, but it’s still static content. The only way to update would be to send a new version.
3. No Multimedia – It is possible to embed multimedia in a PDF. But I hope your inbox doesn’t have a file size limit, because those would be some biiiig files.
4. No User Participation – I have yet to see a PDF that allowed user comments.

Verdict? The PDF will save print journalis….errrrrrr … this is about the dumbest thing you could propose as the chairman of a newspaper empire. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised by these comments considering how crappy the design and usability of www.chicagotribune.com are. (And the Tribune’s attempt at an iPhone app (iTunes link) was also a spectacular failure.) This is clearly not a group with good prospects for surviving in the digital age. (Don’t worry Trib– the New York Times has a similarly firm grasp of these technologies.)

So what do you do if you want to maintain relevance in this changing media landscape? You embrace the possibilities that this new technology provides to  give your readers added value. Case in point: www.abanow.org

Watch Zell’s comments on CNBC: