print vs. online newspaper

After reading the textbook and classmates’ posts, I’ve come to realize that newspaper business is having one of the most severe transitional times of its history. Due to the fast development of various technologies including internet and mobile access to the news, newspaper businesses are probably busier than ever to analyze consumer behavior and the market to produce the most revenue at the lowest production cost possible.

However, as some of us have already mentioned, it is extremely hard to figure out the equilibrium point or the most efficient production cost when value of every variable costs are changing so fast. Since it is so hard to predict the future of print newspaper and online newspaper, would it be better to focus short run rather than long run for the production cost?

Also, it may be too early to tell, but I think there is a possibility that print newspaper could disappear in future if it keeps diminishing just like it has for the last 10 years. I remember reading an article that says newspapers in general are making more money from advertisements on online than ads on print newspaper. (I am talking about same newspaper, say, NYT online ads vs. NYT print ads). I could be wrong about this since I don’t remember the specifics about the article. But, let's assume for now that my memory serves me right. This could suggest that online newspapers are becoming more valuable for reaching maximum revenue, considering that about 70~80% of newspaper income is coming from advertisements, not subscribers.

This means online newspaper has lower production cost and higher income from advertisements than print newspaper. If this was true, would it be wise for newspaper businesses to focus more on online newspaper? Or should they keep trying to bring the popularity of print newspaper back to way it used to be about 20 years ago?