It's a paradox: society can't survive without newspapers, but newspapers can't survive 21st century economics. Is there a solution?

Let me step back into my M&A shoes for a second, and humbly suggest: the New York Times should acquire Twitter, instead of just professing love for it. Why?

Not just because the New York "Twimes" sounds kind of cool — but because of the economics of news. News is about what's timely. There's nothing more timely than Twitter. Twitter would provide the NYT with four key resources and capabilities.

1. Viral distribution
Twitter is fast becoming a viral distribution platform for not just the NYT's news — but everyone's content. Record labels have spent a decade fighting an unwinnable war against viral distribution — file-sharing — and have destroyed their ability to create value in the process. Newspapers are making the same mistake — and acquiring Twitter would turn the tables. It's the 21st century's paperboy.

2. Context
Distribution, by itself, is so industrial era. As we've discussed, next gen channels are really circuits. The tremendous amounts of context floating around on Twitter could help the NYT rebuild detailed information about people, products, services, and news.

3. Relational capital
Use that info to target people and saturation bomb them with ads? That's so lame. A better idea is to use the knowledge on Twitter as a way to let companies build real, meaningful relationships with people — relationships that are opt-in, multi-threaded, and always-on, like Comcast is starting to do.

4. Business model experimentation
Where's the business model? Everywhere. Here's one: charge companies for the right to talk back to people on Twitter enriched by NYT content. Here's another: charge other content providers for the right to distribute via Twitter. Here's yet another: charge advertisers for the right to discuss products and services with people via Twitter. The point is that the NYT could experiment with literally hundreds — like I say: business models happen.

Yes, there are tremendous issues of culture and competencies. No, I don't want to see another awesome startup get lobotomized by a corporate machine. And my guess is that Ev, Biz, and the Twitter crew aren't too stressed about an exit. Yet, the strategic fit between Twitter and the NYT is hard to ignore. And, conversely, if Google snaps up Twitter instead, it likely really will be the end of newspapers as we know them.

Let me step out of those tired old M&A shoes — after all, the NYT probably lacks the cash for such a play. The real point of the post is this: in the bigger picture, it is these four resources and capabilities that will save newspapers. Acquiring Twitter is one way to build them — but it's far from the only way.