By: Jeff Jarvis

Bobbie,
I’d say the real question is: What is the core product? Need it be a paper that covers all ends of news? Isn’t business news — especially badly or litely done — becoming more of a commodity? I know the analogies to US papers are faulty to the core, but to go with what I know: Biz sections in US papers suck as a rule and they would probably be better done by the wire service, which supplies most of the content anyway. And for local papers here, local news is the core product. Now for the Express, I know it’s different. But if we take the product off paper and put it online, I would still say this raises the necessary question: What is that core product? Need business be part of it or should that be a link to a better product elsewhere? What is the essential Express? That’s what fascinates me about this. I realize that it’s not such an abstract exercise to the journalists made redundant. But it’s an exercise we have no choice but to go through. Results may differ.