I found an interesting blog post by Jeff Jarvis from Aug. of 2005 this morning called “Who wants to own content?” (If you’re not familiar with Jeff, he writes a blog called Buzz Machine which focuses on media and news)

In this model, newspapers have a problem: They want to control information and the means of sharing rather than enabling that sharing.

…

It’s hard for someone raised on the value of owning content and owning distribution to let go of exclusivity and instead value openness and participation.

EDITED:
I found a great comment at the end of the article by “DAR” that said:

You make it sound as if all they (old media) need to do is adapt to change and they will survive, and that they’re fools not to see that. But I think that’s not true at all – adapting won’t solve their problem. Their existing business model is ending and even the new business models won’t replace it. And THAT is what they’re scared of.

I work for a newspaper organization now – and this is very hard to grasp, because the model has been so much like this for so long. We’re working on innovating our business model and it is hard enough getting people to grasp the fact of separating content and production – I wonder what they will think of this? I wonder what they will say when I tell them it came out two years ago? :0