There’s been a parade of newspaper layoffs from these past few weeks, big and small, with cuts upwards of 10 percent of each paper’s workforce.  What’s puzzling is how constant layoffs are going to help the industry.  The philosophy seems to be charge more for less.  They’ve been trying this for almost ten years and yet here come more layoffs.

How are these layoffs meant to help the companies and industry?  Many leaving these papers are excellent journalists.  Why not have them write for the website?

Newspapers still view their websites as supplements to the paper rather than extensions of each other.  It’s frustrating going to a newspaper’s website looking for news and only finding the top stories from this morning, without links or ways to find more information.  All these people newspapers are laying off could be generating content, from blogs to exclusive articles that keep the website fresh and connected.  I can’t understand why all columnists and journalists don’t blog.

Newspapers aren’t dying.  Just big ones that charge too much for too little.  Free dailies have been steadily growing in the United States after years of success in Europe, helping bring in new readers who don’t read regular newspapers.

Newspapers need to plan long term.  That’s hard to do with investors watching every quarter, but no one’s going to be happy with another 10 years of plummeting revenue.  They should use the staff they already have, train them, and build quality on and offline news organizations.  Try offering more than less should be the first step.