Jack Shafer of Slate.com offers his opinion about another factor killing the newspaper business.  He writes, “Not that long ago, the daily newspaper was an indispensable coiner of social currency, and it gave its readers piles of the stuff in each edition. The phrase, which comes from sociology, is often used to describe the information we acquire and then trade—or give away—to start, maintain, and nurture relationships with our fellow humans.”

Essentially, he believes that newspapers have gotten away from the type of information that helps people connect and interact with each other.  He continues, “For as long as anybody can remember, the newspaper has been the primary info-hub through which people interacted. Oh, people might have talked to the shoe-shine man or their broker about what they heard on the radio or saw on television, but nothing could beat the newspaper as a source for socially lubricating conversation. How many times have you heard a conversation start, “Didja see that article …”?”

Shafer notes that Facebook is picking up where newspapers are failing.  “What is Facebook but the Federal Reserve Bank of social currency? And it’s all social currency you can use! Like cocktail chatter, a Facebook posting—be it a link, a list, a photo, or travel plans—conveys the message, I am here. Listen to me. A well-executed Facebook presence, like a superb pontification at the bar or a great phone-in to sports talk radio, demonstrates one’s status within one’s existing social network. If skillfully wielded, a Facebook page can increase a person’s status by attracting “cooler” or more influential friends.”

He concludes, “The social networking that takes place via instant messaging, microblogging, or e-mail further steals from newspapers the mindshare they once owned. You no longer need to rely on a paper for the social currency that a weather report, movie listings, classified ads, shopping bargains, sports info, stock listings, television listings, gossip, or entertainment news provide.”

But Shafer also makes an important point.  The decline of newspapers (and also of radio) doesn’t have anything to do with journalism.  The world is changing, and they have to find a way to keep up.

How do they do that?  That’s the billion dollar question.  The AP has issued a study titled “A New Model for News: Studying the Deep Structure of Young Adult News Consumption.”