Years ago, when I was still at the Star Tribune, we had a company meeting at which senior managers like publisher Joel Kramer (now the guy behind Minnpost.com) and editor Tim McGuire (now at Arizona State) performed in a play. I think Chris Mahai (now Aveus.com) wrote it.

The play was called “Milk.” And the theme was pretty much as you describe.

Milk comes in exactly one flavor: milk-flavored. Until somebody gets smart about market segmentation and discovers a market for chocolate milk. Or strawberry milk. Or milk delivered as … ice cream.

The marketing problem we face isn't really about milk or ice cream or the Internet or print. It's about understanding people and their needs and their wants and their interests.

And newspapers suck at that. There's no product-development process. No marketing department (neither ad sales nor promotion constitute marketing). No R&D. This has been long recognized, and long bemoaned.

So what are we doing about it these days? Cutting.