local newspapers

Reading about product competition inspired me to think about newspaper businesses in South Korea. The United States has only few national newspapers while it has numerous local newspapers. It was my impression that Americans liked to get news from local newspapers as much as national newspapers. However, South Korea has completely different issues. It has many national newspapers and these national newspapers are what most people get the news from. On the other hand, people seem to care much less about local newspapers. I know that many local newspapers are dying because they simply could not compete with national newspapers. The amount of content and quality of the local newspapers are almost incomparable to national newspapers unlike the United States.

I wonder, can there be ways for these local papers to become competitive in the local area at least? Focusing on local issues do not seem to have the strongest asset in Korea unlike the local papers in the United States. Since South Korea is such a small country, the national newspapers cover a wide variety of local news in great details.

I guess what I really want to ask here is “how can these local newspapers differentiate their products from national newspapers other than merely focusing on local news? Is there a way to save these local newspapers from disappering?”