Today I was having breakfast, and got thinking about newspapers. Apparently, 25, 30 years ago there was a newsstand/bookstore in town - long since gone now. In this particular (small) town, I suspect a newsstand/bookstore would meet with a hard time - not enough foot traffic in the area, and it's inconvenient to get out of your car to get a paper.

It's also dangerous to drive while you're reading a paper - and while many people read the paper over breakfast, Leave It To Beaver style, I suspect there are many who don't have the time during the mornings.

So, how do we solve this problem of reading the paper while traveling... oh wait, I know: what about a podcast for the paper?

The sweet-spot for podcasts are 30-40 minutes, or so it seems. That's enough time to follow the stories on the front page, with some time left over. A small paper might have a slightly longer podcast, but be able to get through the whole paper.

If a paper did a podcast "in-house", they could even put in 3 or 4 sponsorships per podcast ("This podcast sponsored by the following area business(es)"). That would be great, amazing, wonderful, and possibly groundbreaking. Plus, if not pay for the podcast, it might help offset the cost (or provide the paper with an additional type of advertising venue.)

There is the thought of doing one independently, but we get into sticky moral/legal ground here. Unlike software (or movies), you don't sign/read a licensing agreement (agreeing not to do certain things, and Don't Steal), although I guess you don't sign an agreement when you listen to music on the radio either (sticky legal ground, I know). Music and newspaper could be seen to be similar, as it is people's creative content. Yet, many places (restaurants, coffee-shops, and the like) have newspapers their patrons read, provided for free - a seemingly time-honored practice. Newspapers have also been posting stories on the web, in a mostly free format, for many years now.

I can see the Newspaper Industry Association Of America (or whatever they're called) wanting to force everybody to buy a copy of the paper, and stifle this non-capitalistic practice of "sharing" newspapers in public establishments. Thoughts?

I'd be very interested in hearing people's thoughts on the legality of paper reading, both at a restaurant where you pick up the provided paper and start reading, and the idea of reading it to a larger group of people (a "public performance").

Anyway, given the relatively unhampered distribution of the newspaper industry's creative content, doesn't it set precedent for someone, say, doing a podcast of the front page stories from the New York Times? Or USA Today? Or the local paper? Of course, an unofficial podcast would have to be an early morning affair - start the podcast at 5 or 6, to distribute it by 7, so people can listen to it on their commute, to be at work at 98.

I guess it wouldn't have to be today's newspaper - yesterday's would be fine. Or perhaps you pick a paper with a weekly distribution - less of a rush there

Newspapers and podcasts may be an interesting mix... I would probably follow my local paper if I could just get it, automatically, in my RSS reader...

Thoughts?