My nutritionist just told me she’s canceling the L.A. "Times". What should she get, the "Wall Street Journal" or the "New York Times"?

Interesting question. The NYT is the paper of record, it covers all the bases, but the WSJ has online content in her area of interest, health…maybe she should just subscribe to the WSJ online.

A wrenching transition is happening in the newspaper business and it affects you. Because newspapers gather the news. Most TV stations do barely any reporting. If the newspaper evaporates, who reports the news? Most bloggers are opinion writers, analysts… Who is going to get the big stories and deliver them to the American people?

Looks like it might be the WSJ.

It’s not the same paper since Murdoch took over. There’s tons of business coverage, general interest coverage, and the NYT just doesn’t see it coming, just isn’t adjusting.

As for the L.A. "Times"… A complete joke. The paper was best just after the "Tribune" took it over. Now, it’s been cut back so many times, the people left are so inured to the old ways, that the paper’s cratering. The new guys, the radio guys running the newspapers for Zell, realize it’s about the Web, but the paper’s Website SUCKS! How come the WSJ can get it so right, and no one else can?

Go to: Yahoo News This is the iTunes of news pages. Top stories AT THE TOP, the rest broken down by category, descending the page. Look at the NYT or LAT sites. Peppered with so much info, so many stories, as to be incomprehensible. Like a band site created by kids with ADD.

Now go to The Wall Street Journal Notice the similarity to the Yahoo news? The stories in one column, in descending order of importance? And clickable areas of interest on the left? Easily used. And online, usability is everything.

The stock tables exited the papers. What’s next, MUSIC REVIEWS?

I say to cancel all music reviews. There’s no need. Who wants someone not interested in the act giving an unbiased opinion? What we want is a biased opinion, delivered by someone who’s a fan of the band. What does a ten year old think of Miley Cyrus, not a fortysomething who hated New Kids On The Block. We go to the Web for this info, to hear what our brethren have to say.

I’m not sure I know what the future newspaper looks like. Whether it’s mostly local news. Whether all news just goes to the Net and the paper evaporates quickly.

But I do know that most people in the newspaper business are as unprepared for the imminent wrenching change as executives in the music business were.

Who gets to set the agenda?

We can now see with MTV/radio dictation history, music is in chaos. Sure, there’s a Top Forty format, but it means less than ever before. Are we heading towards chaos in news? And do we want the agenda set by Rupert Murdoch?

Be afraid, be very afraid.