Before the esteemed journos at Fort Dunlop have collective coronaries, I also believe that the proliferation of largely uninformed personal comment (and I'm fully aware that this blog probably falls into that category) will mean that good, rigorous, well-researched pieces will continue to have an audience because they stand up well against the plethora of thoughts from wannabe writers.

Lionel Barber, the Editor of the Financial Times, has said publicly that he thinks we'll see pay-per-view journalism this year. Although many have mocked his views, he may have something there. Economic theory has taught us that by restricting product - whether it be luxury handbags, specialist advice or intelligent informed commentary - that price tends to rise in inverse proportion to its lack of availability. So why not journalistic product?

Well, one of the issues is that there's a generation coming up that simply aren't used to paying for content, whether it be music, comment or news. I'm sceptical about whether freemium business models will work - let's keep a weather eye on Spotify's premium service to see.

To my mind, those who predict the demise of the newspaper industry are only partially right. Yes, newspapers as a delivery medium may die, but many commentators confuse delivery mechanism with content. However, we need local and regional journalism even more than ever. Local politicians of all hues need to be held to account. Arts organisations need critiques of their work to attract existing and new audiences. Sporting teams need unbiased analysis of their results. Perhaps even more importantly, Birmingham needs this flagship title as matter of civic pride.

Our national and regional newspapers are brands; people choose brands which they trust because they align to the individuals' current or aspirational lifestyles, such as political views, interests and hobbies, football teams, etc. It's perfectly possible that in the near future I could create my own bespoke online newspaper - aligned to what I'm interested and believe in - grabbing news and editorial comment from one paper, investigative journalism from another, entertainment news and gossip from a third. I know that I can do that now through RSS feeds but I can't see it in a user-friendly format, nicely designed with the feel of a personalised brand. (Think of the joy of being able to filter out the Sunday supplements which currently go straight into the recycling.) The closest I've seen is The Huffington Post but I don't think that there's a UK version; if you know of one, do let me know.

If we're honest, we're all responsible for the situation in which Marc and colleagues find themselves: we haven't bought enough copies of the paper, nor advertised nearly enough. The business model no longer stacks up because it isn't for a newspaper; it's for an advertising opportunity with some news included to pull us in on a regular basis. That's not a comment on The Post writers, for whom I have great respect, but a statement of fact - and that's why it's not working.

Is the weekly printed option combined with a website, which has been suggested by Marc, really an option? I'd love to think so, but in reality it's a sticking plaster aiming to staunch a deep wound. I want to be wrong about that last sentence but my gut tells me differently.

I hate people who are only able to catalogue problems and don't offer possible solutions, so here's an alternative idea: we no longer try to make profits in this loss-making business. Instead the Post is sold, becomes a community interest company and those of us which care about quality local journalism buy shares. We have a small core staff and buy in local content; we publish ONLY online. It's syndication turned on its head, made more relevant and local. No more 'exclusive' interviews with the star of the latest Hollywood blockbuster who's never even heard of Birmingham, and lots more of sourcing trending topics through Twitter, The Stirrer, Help Me Investigate, and other digital tools that haven't been unveiled or even invented yet.

Utopian? Perhaps. But radical times call for radical solutions.