A cursory glance at the stock prices of the newspaper companies is enough to tell you that these are tough times for that group, and they face a lot of difficult questions. The big questions surround the issue of the internet, and the roll of their publications, print and online, in the new era: Will there be print newspapers in the future? Can they still sell them, while giving the stuff away for free online? Can they charge for online access? etc.
University of Chicago Economist Matthew Gentzkow has taken some important first stabs at answering these questions in a paper called "Valuing New Goods in a Model With Complementarity: Online Newspapers".
You can read a brief summary of it here, but it's a worthwhile read for with an interest in the subject.
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