Dying newsrooms should become museums

View of LA Times Building from Bradbury Room at LA City Hall
Kinda looks like a museum, doesn't it? (photo: calvinfleming via flickr)

I like the expression: “Invest in people, not buildings.”

Newspapers should rent out or sell building space to a historical foundation and let them turn the newsroom into a local museum, library or public forum. Create a vibrant, interactive museum about the city. Blend together news and history, photo and video. Newspapers are virtual time machines, but their secrets are locked away in microfiche.

No sense in having a central newsroom when the news is always “out there”. A city news agency should consist of dozens of bureaus, scattered geographically throughout the city, with mobile offices. Budget meetings could held virtually with Skype or something like it. A small production shop could produce the print edition, which is transmitted to printing presses and delivered freely in each community.