If you are wondering how to save print newspapers in Canada, Jonathan Kay at the National Post thinks he has the answer.

He argues that apart from young people gravitating to the web, newspapers face two additional problems: (a) the death of spare time; and (b) the death of community.

He reckons that three forms of print media will survive – a business-oriented media, premium publications and hyperlocal newspapers.

Kay’s column has provoked lively comments on the Post’s website and some reaction from others with an interest in print.

As the NewspaperBlog,ca notes:

It’s a variation on a theme we’ve heard before: Newspaper readership is going to narrow and narrow until each publication serves only a specific group, and addresses only specific themes.

Canada’s media is hardly immune from the financial pressures facing newspapers in the US and Kay’s piece is a good overview of the challenges facing print, but he is asking the wrong question.

The issue is less have to keep print alive and more how to keep quality journalism alive.  Print is simply one way of delivering news.

It is time to shift the debate away from one that focuses on a means of distribution – print – and instead looks at what is really important, the journalism itself.