It looks like the Tucson Citizen survived its target shut down date March 21. Its owner says it is still talking to two possible buyers. While it is a shame to see respected newspapers in this country going out of business, it is less a shame to see strongly biased newspapers do the same.

Whether a newspaper is biased or biased in the right direction is a matter of perception. But I liked the analysis of acclaimed science writer Steven Johnson who told a group of technical-types at the South by Southwest Interactive Festival the other day that the newspaper business is not dying, it is evolving. The process may be painful, especially for the people who are involved in publication of a hard copy periodically. But the business of distributing the news will go on.

The Internet is forcing changes in many businesses. The newspaper business is one conspicuous example. The newspaper business model must change. Printing on paper and distributing, then trashing it is no longer viable. The Internet can provide the commodity, the news, faster, and in multimedia presentations. People won’t accept yesterday’s news anymore. Not only do they  demand today’s news today — they want it right now.

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But there is a niche for some of what newspapers now do editorially. Johnson added, “If only there were some institution that had a reputation of integrity and a staff of trained journalists …” it could get people to subscribe for a price. Newspapers would have to quit giving away their news free. The quality newspapers bring to the Internet that would be something people would pay for is credibility.

Private websites and blogs originating anywhere in the world have lots of interesting facts but it is difficult to determine what credibility to accord them. Some have established reputations even as newspapers have. But the vast majority of free, amateur to semi-professional Internet sources, when you exclude known professionals like the newspapers, are of questionable reliability.

The professional staffs newspapers have in place are their greatest resource and one that Internet users could be convinced to pay for if they demanded payment to see their information.

The news cycle is no longer a day. It is constant and has to compete with other distribution outlets, such as the 24-hour cable news channels.

There is a whole new world of news delivery developing and it will spare many trees. There is just no way delivery of paper news media can compete with delivery of electrons. So “papers” must migrate to instantaneous electronic delivery.

That is a fact the U.S. Postal Service is learning to its chagrin. Each year, e-mail cannibalizes its first class mail service. Think about it. It already seems strange. You have a message to send to someone. With the postal method, you print the message on a little piece of paper, put it in a paper envelope. Put postage on it. Take it to a mailbox. Then the Postal Service carries it to its destination. The recipient opens the envelope, extracts the paper with the message on it, reads it, then throws most, if not all, of the paper away.

The cost for all of that? Probably more than a dollar, including postage. Time to completion: few days. Compare that to an e-mail, where the cost is zero and the time completion is a few seconds. And the e-mail sends only the message, not the paper.

That’s what newspapers have to do, too. Send the information not the paper. Their edge is their professional credibility.

There are those people who chortle at the thought of certain newspapers’ demise because they were offended by a political slant. But newspapers will rise or fall, as always, on their ability to meet consumer demand and implement changes consumers require. Many may have hoped they could continue to shape consumer demand to what they had to offer, but the market doesn’t work that way.

Newspapers can survive if they adapt to the latest technology. Those that don’t will probably perish.

Contact Lionel Waxman at territorial@waxmanmedia.com or visit his website: www.waxmanmedia.com. Lionel Waxman’s Flashpoint commentaries are published in The Daily Territorial.