I grabbed a coffee with Matt Thompson last week to catch up.

Since then – something he said about the challenges of financing news organizations kept rolling through my head. I’m paraphrasing: ‘pick the website of a major news organization – look at the headlines and stories – which ones will you pay for?’

That’s the problem.

He expands on the idea in this transcript from his talk at the Twin Cities Media Alliance.

“…of course people pay four bucks for a cup of coffee. They can’t imagine getting through a day without it. The product is that valuable to them. When [news organizations are] producing something so consistently valuable our communities can’t imagine going a day without it, I suspect we’ll be able to feed ourselves.” – Matt Thompson