Reduced newspaper delivery: Smart or death knell?

As newspapers struggle to stay afloat in the digital era, the notion of stopping or sharply reducing publication on days with little advertising is an option to consider.

The advantages are obvious. At most newspapers, advertising is concentrated on several days, often Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. On the days when it's light, the papers lose money. Rather than subsidize those skinny cash drains, why not use the money to bolster the paper's profitability and invest in a digital future? The risk, of course, is driving off the remaining print customers. Media consumption is very much a matter of habit. If there's no paper on Tuesday, or if you have to forage to find one at a newsstand (and it's a thin edition with very little in it), you might begin to question why you're still getting it at all. And while the future may be digital, newspapers are still heavily dependent on print advertising.