The Pareto Principle, sometimes also called “the law of the vital few,” is named after Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist of the 19th Century. What, you may ask, does a man who died nearly a hundred years ago have to say to the newspaper business of today? Pareto discovered, studying the economy of Italy at the time, that 20% of the population produced 80% of the gross national product.

The newspaper business is in freefall. An ailing international economy, rocketing paper and fuel costs, dwindling ad revenue – all these factors have combined to create a perfect storm that seems likely to swamp the once-mighty industry. In 2007, US newspapers reported their worst sales decline in history as print revenues fell 9.4% to $42.2 billion – and that’s the good news.