A new study from the University of Missouri-Columbia reports that investing in the newsroom provides a greater return on investment than sinking money into the Advertising or Circulation departments.

The researchers studied financial statements of more than 900 daily and weekly newspapers dating back 10 years. They concluded that whenever a company invested in the newsroom, it made more money.

Unfortunately, I haven’t read anything that explains the methodology of such a conclusion. But it makes rational sense and lines up with what Philip Meyer suggested in his book, “The Vanishing Newspaper.”

Still, the whole study presents a false premise. The choices in a modern world aren’t as simple as, “Do I invest in the newsroom, advertising or circulation?” The entire business model needs to be shaken and tweaked to benefit from an online-focused marketplace.

This study feeds into the journalism fairytale that if we just do better journalism, then we’ll all live happily ever after. The myriad of opportunity and challenges facing the journalism industry aren’t solved just by adding more reporters to the budget.

They are solved by confronting the hard realities and doing something about them.