I thought there were several great ideas over what Keef was trying to say. I'd have to single out Chagnethechange for the most observant post, though ;-)

My suggestion is that they actually print a publication that people want to buy. I got the LA Times for years. The reason I quit was not because I could get it online, but becuase the paper slowly and steadily got rid of everything that made it great and unique.

There will never be a time when there is no ESPN magazine.

http://www.salon.com/wires/ap/us/2009/05/20/D98A2NPG0_us_prostitution_craigslist/index.html

To save the newspaper industry, newspapers must find a way to make another couple of ugly Craigslist incidents occur--not necessarily murder.

Who shot J.R.?

TBC?

I think Keef means for us to fill in the blank of what's on that paper. We do have a gangster offering a shady proposal after mentioning the Craigslist murder that's been in the news, but as to what follows from that, no one knows.

If you were handed a piece of blank paper and asked to write down *the* idea that would save newspapers, what would you write?

It's all speculation as to what he meant.

And while Keef's entertaining, he's not what I would call deep or multi-layered.

So I am hoping this is really a "to be continued" and he explains himself next week.

... on Craigslist.

Bumping off Craigslist wouldn't necessarily save newspapers in the end, but it would slow the demise.

If newspapers had the money and clout of companies like Disney, they could simply order Congress to make new laws protecting their business model. But alas, they don't.

Congress, I'm sure, would be quite content to allow newspapers to fold into history (no pun intended).

Now that Craigslist is out of the sex biz.... Free hookup ads and they can charge whatever they want for the paper. Ya think sex sells in this country? I wonder.

Keef's unseen bum is suggesting that Craigslist take over the newspapers, i.e. the newspapers stop printing 'news' and start printing all the erotic stuff that Craigslist has been forced to drop.

If that's not it, I don't know what the hell he is trying to say.

I mean, everyone knows that the newspaper industry wants Craigslist dead, and thus any bad news even remotely connected to it will be played up from now on.

So is the cartoon saying that the best suggestion for saving the industry is a pathetic one everybody already knows? Or is it suggesting no one's thought about this? Or what?

This is the first time I've read a Keith Knight strip that I could call "confusing."

Maybe I don't get the joke, it wouldn't be the first time. But if the suggestion is that doing away with Craigslist would save the newspaper industry, it's hard to see how. Newspapers have bigger problems than just competition with their classified pages.