With its daily newspapers sliding in terms of ads and circulation, MediaNews Group is focusing its attention on niche publications — focused on topics such as autos, real estate, restaurants and golf — which can be highly profitable. The trade publication Newspapers & Technology quotes Peter Vandevanter, MNG vice president of targeted products, as saying the company wants to become the “iPod of newspapers,” offering targeted daily products to readers with all of the content they want and nothing they don’t.

“MNG is so keen on the idea of targeted newspapers that the publisher coined the term ‘individuated newspapers’ to describe the concept and distinguish it as going beyond targeted products currently available.”