Highlight from the original MyDigimedia Blog, published February 8, 2007:

According to the Center for the Digital Future at USC: Non-Internet users watch an average of 9.1 more hours of television per week than Internet users. I can tell you that I'm not included in that group. I watch as much television as I can during the week - but I watch via TiVo or downloads onto my computer.

The Center just released its 2007 Digital Future Project Report, which focuses on how we use and interact with technology. Among the key findings:

• 43% of Internet users who are members of online communities say that they “feel as strongly” about their virtual community as they do about their real-world communities.
• Almost two-thirds of online community members who participate in social causes through the Internet (64.9%)
  say they are involved in causes that were new to them when they began participating on the Internet.
• The number of Internet users in America who keep a blog has more than doubled in three
  years (now 7.4% of users, up from 3.2% in 2003).

Here's how this information can help inform those in the newspaper business. If more folks are going online for social reasons - if they're seeking both information and a subject-focused community to discuss and disseminate that information, wouldn't it make sense for newspaper companies to revisit the zone edition model from the late 1980s and 1990s and possibly reapply it to a new online model today?

To wit: the Daily Bugle newspaper in Metropolis might consider changing the structure of its site to a porthole system with different channels. There might be a high school sports channel, where the Bugle's sports reporters and photogs would contribute content just as they would in the newspaper. But there would be an area for parent contributions. Maybe that section would share content with Metropolis' high school newspapers and carry student commentary. Citizens at games would edit and upload their own video (parents, boyfriends, girlfriends and grandparents are doing it anyways - why not capitalize on content that's already available??). On the discussion boards, there'd be gossip about coaches and alternative commentary about what happened at last night's game.

And there'd be plenty to monetize in this model, too. Advertising would come from very targeted vendors - sports retailers, college athletic programs and new movie releases. Game and season stats would be available up until a certain point, and then they'd be available via a database for a minimal fee, either subscription or pay-per-use. It'd be one part news, one part library, and one part must-visit digital social scene for all high school sports fans in Metropolis.

Think of the most successful sites and blogs on the web. Their focus is very specific and targeted. Getting married? Who hasn't heard of theknot.com? Want to know about new tech? Technorati. Celebrity doings? PerezHilton.com.

They're popular because of their content, yes...but because they've effectively captured their market. And in an age of information overload, where thousands of groups are competing for just a fraction of your attention, the ones that succeed capitalize on your personal relationship to a subject matter.

So to newspapers, I ask this: Just how emotionally tied to (fill in your city here) are your readers? Might you capture more of their attention if you started specializing content? You already have an easy place to start: high school sports. Then, move to public schools. Local politics. Hyper-local real estate. The daily commute.

Innovate online products that will compel users to visit and stay on your site...not because you're the local newspaper, but because they feel a social connection to your brand, your reporters and to others who contribute to the site via blogs, discussion forums or multimedia. That's how you'll win back your dwindling audience.

Hell, it'd be a start.