4) Cut expenses

Even if the newspaper does start selling advertisers around its classifieds content, it’s probably never going to recoup all of the lost classifieds revenue. There are consequences to that realization.

The Classifieds section must shrink. Just like stock listings, we know readers don’t need all of them in the newspaper. Many categories should become online-only, where there are no costs to maintaining the market share. Only the classifieds categories that attract advertisers should be printed.

Tomorrow's entry: Step No. 5, Identify Competitive Advantages