The big problem is that they let print business models get in the way of online. If there’s a conflict between the print model and online model, more often than not print wins. That’s changing, but probably too slowly to have an impact.

The Economist had an interesting piece a few weeks ago:
http://www.economist.com/printedition/displayStory.cfm?story_id=7830218&fsrc=RSS

At its peak in 2000, The San Jose Mercury News had a Sunday circulation of 326,839 subscribers, according to the newspaper. Last September, the company counted 278,470 Sunday subscribers, a drop of about 15 percent. Revenue from the company’s help-wanted ads fell to $18 million a year from more than $118 million, according to the paper. The newsroom was whittled to 280 people from 404, a 30 percent decline.

Magazines are probably in the same boat, especially those that focus on the younger generation and technology savvy people. I wrote a blog on this subject today. http://dondodge.typepad.com/the_next_big_thing/2006/09/are_newspapers_.html

Just wrote some further thoughts directly on the piece. linked here.

A further challenge for media is to losely integrate horizontally and not only vertically (as suggested by the manifesto). I wrote a brief post on this some time ago. Linked here, and there is also an interesting article on this on last weeks economist..