I'm waiting for the killer e-ink devices. I love my reader and am anticipating it's evolution will eventually make it a staple for most adult millennials. Once that thing is crystal clear, fast, cheap (and perhaps can be folded in half), I find it hard to believe it won't rejuvenate the newspaper market.
better e-ink devices won't fix the problem that the internet has completely changed the advertising market and how brands reach consumers.
It's hard to see what newspapers could do to get the same returns per unit sold or page viewed as they have historically. And that means a couple possible things: readers bear more of the cost, advertisements get more intrusive (or crazier), or newspapers find some other way to make money.
Personally, I would love to pay more for magazines and newspapers without any advertising whatsoever. Advertising always seems to have some influence on what is reported. A newspaper or magazine will be very reluctant to say anything very negative about the companies/industries that advertise with them, because they might lose those ads then.
Then there's the problem of ads influencing me directly, causing me to spend more money on other things, than I otherwise would.
I guess advertising in general, can cause reporters to have an attitude of "if you have a problem, buy a product to solve said problem" rather than "if you have a problem, here's some knowledge to solve said problem".
So overall, I would probably save a significant amount of money by paying more for advertising-free media. But most people don't seem to understand this.
