Newspaper & Technology has just published an interview with NewsGator's President & CEO, J.B. Holston.  The interview covers a range of topics related to the (online) newspaper industry.  Here are a couple of the key points he makes, as I see it.

On how newspapers can maintain or even add to their online readership base:

"Newspapers will maintain and grow readership as long as they are true to their sustainable competitive brand advantages — in particular, presenting curated content that is timely and relevant to a local audience. More sources highly curated; richer media; broadest possible syndication and distribution; and ease with that which are available to readers are all vital. Finally, local, local, local; newspapers are the trusted brands for collecting, curating, and disseminating the news that matters to and from my locale. Make it as easy as possible for me to get and interact with that, and I’m yours."

On related content:

"The most significant recent trend has been around related content. What related content products allow publishers to do is to associate and promote content that is related on their  site. Audiences will be encouraged to discover additional content through implied intention — meaning if the end user is reading an article about Hillary Clinton, they will be shown additional articles about Hillary Clinton, whether they live in the politics section or the entertainment section of the paper. Our experience has shown that showing related articles drive significantly higher interaction rates."

Needless to say, the entire interview is quite elucidating and explains a lot of the reasoning behind what we're doing here at Newsgatorwidgets.  You can read the entire Q & A here.