A few days ago, it was announced that the Orange County Register will be outsourcing some of their editing to India. This, of course, is one of the dumbest things a newspaper has done in a while. (Outsource editing of the English language to a non-English speaking mass of people?) But beyond that, it is an example of how truly the newspaper industry just doesn’t understand new media. The Orange County Register, of all papers, should be best poised to make good in this new economy, but as we can see, this is not what is happening.

What do I mean by this? Well, first off, the Register is in Orange County, which is small but very wealthy. This demographic should be easy to market to with new media. When everyone and their mom (quite literally, in some parts of the county) has an iPhone, a BMW, and a very fast computer, the possibilities are endless on how to integrate new media with your product. Not to mention the fact that given the size and very specific (homogenous?) demographic of the area, the paper could almost be considered a niche product in a niche market, and thus open to a whole new world of targeted advertising and such, if they would only glance at the road ahead.

The Orange County Register is not the only newspaper afflicted with the pain of shrinking sales and the lack of foresight to do anything about it. But given the circulation and demographic, if any newspaper should be able to solve this problem with relative ease, it should be the Register. If they can’t figure it out, what chance do any of the larger papers have?