I agree that the prominent newspapers have failed to distribute their brands as broadly as they could have. For the New York Times specifically, I don't think it is too late yet.

Quoted: When you think about your business, realize that it is a combination of assets and constraints. The Times understood both, but suddenly, the constraints changed. Now, it's possible for a single individual with a Typepad account to reach more people than almost any newspaper in the country can. Loosen one constraint and the game changes. That leaves you with the assets, for a while anyway.

Well, she did an amazing job with http://nytimes.com.

Quoted: We're excited about it from a technology perspective, but media industry analyst and RWW Jobwire guest editor Sam Whitmore discusses the move in terms of what it means for the Times as a business as well over in the Jobwire Featured Hire of the Day (sponsored by VisualCV).

Quoted: RHETORIC: “[Obama] was cautious — even on the Iraq war, which he had opposed as a Senate candidate, he voted against the withdrawal of troops. He proposed a drawdown only after he was running for president and polls showed voters favoring it.” [New York Times, 3/9/08]
REALITY: Obama Began Calling For A Phased Withdrawal From Iraq In November 2005

Quoted: News Corp chief Rupert Murdoch on Tuesday sketched out early plans for Dow Jones & Co Inc, saying he leaned toward making the online Wall Street Journal free but had not yet made a decision.

Yay. I will try to click on more ads when I'm reading the New York Times.

Quoted: The move comes two years to the day after The New York Times began the subscription program, TimesSelect.
...
The Times’s site has about 13 million unique visitors each month, according to Nielsen/NetRatings, far more than any other newspaper site.

Was curious about traffic to The New York Times website.

Quoted: "The New York Times site (which has some articles behind the TimesSelect pay wall) attracted a unique audience of 12,960,000 users in February, who combined for 455,527,000 page views."

In comparison (from http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/is_digg_really_more_popular_than_facebook.php ), Digg has 1/2 the page views but 2x the number of visitors.

Didn't know about this section of the New York Times. Looks very informative.

Quoted: DealBook is a financial news service reporting on mergers, acquisitions, venture capital and hedge funds and is produced by The New York Times.

Interesting point on online newspapers and charging for content. The net effect of the NYT making Tom Friedman's content available only to Times Select subscribers is that fewer people will read his opinion.

Quoted: I beg the Times to take down the wall for all of their columnists for the next month so that their columnists can take place in the critical debate our country is having about the direction it wants to go in.

Quoted: Times Reader is an upcoming new application from The New York Times and Microsoft, which lets users read the NY Times electronically using advanced screen ...