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Aggregators such a Google are often accused of making life more than a little difficult for newspapers - yet the company has spoken out once again, offering advice for newspapers struggling against the ubiquity of online news:

In an article by Mercedes Bunz from The Guardian's Digital Content Blog, Google stated that the "key" to newspaper's survival online is "engagement". The statement, issued by Google's Hal Varian, places emphasis on the importance of offering readers interactive experiences but provided little information on specific steps publications should take to go about doing this.

Egyptian billionaire Samih Sawiris has denied that he is in talks with Russian businessman Alexander Lebedev over the purchase of the Independent newspapers, The Guardian has reported.

Editor of the Lebedev-owned newspaper the Evening Standard, Geordie Greig, has also denied that Sawiris was a part of the talks.

The Guardian yesterday reported that the two businessmen were in discussions about forming a partnership to purchase the Independent and the Independent on Sunday. Lebedev is in exclusive non-binding talks over the purchase of the two papers, with a deadline of 15 February, although that is likely to be extended to mid-March. 

It's been a rough week for Google. After last week's standoff with China and a proposed Google tax in France, Germany's newspaper and magazine publisher associations, the VDZ and BDZV, have now taken aim at the search-engine giant through an official complaint with the country's Federal Cartel Office.

While the exact text of the complaint has yet to be released, the publishers' complaint reportedly concerns the search-engine's use of excerpts or "snippets" from online news articles which appear in the search results for Google News. The two publisher associations had previously objected to Google profiting from their copyrighted online content without being compensated from the company's ad revenues. Publishers also claim the current copyright regulations are too lax and fail to protect writers from plagiarism. In November, a BDZV official demanded more transparency from Google in the way they rank their news results.

The economic crisis is eroding the independence of Spanish journalists, reports Periodismo Digital, with some 57.5 per cent of directors in national media positions claiming they have less freedom now than in previous years.

Results from a survey carried out by the Press Association of Madrid (APM) as part of its Annual Report 2009 found that directors in Spanish print, radio and television media believed that they now have to play more favourably to the interests of advertisers and institutions as a direct consequence of the financial strain the industry is currently experiencing following the recession.

It has been a rough couple of years for the newspaper industry with the recession taking its toll on the financial stability of many organisations. In the past year alone at least ten publications have filed for bankruptcy and many have been forced to close their doors. With newspapers treading fast to try to keep their heads above water many have cut back funding for more costly types of news. One of the first things to go has been investigative journalism, considered by many publications to be a luxury. The time and investment of multiple resources in a single issue is something that many publications simply can no longer afford.

These cuts have raised alarm bells. The potential loss of 'the fourth estate' and 'government watchdog' have united many in the cause to protect the practice of journalism, even if the business and profitability of it is doomed to fail.

One method suggested to preserve this type of journalism is to run as a non-profit organisation. Seeking the status under the claim that journalism is a 'public good' publications are free from commerical pressures and the disappointment of dwindling circulation figures, relying only on donations from those who feel the cause worthy enough.

It is at this point that the Texas Tribune enters the scene. The online-only news site launched early last week as a non-profit venture in an attempt to fill a gap in quality local journalism in Texas. The Editors Weblog spoke with editor-in-chief, Evan Smith to look at Tribune's website and non-profit ambitions in closer detail.


The inspiration:
The big name in non-profit news is ProPublica. Led by former Wall Street Journal managing editor Paul Steiger, the organisation began publishing in June 2008 and has consistently drawn in large sums of donations, with key sponsor the Sandler Foundation contributing annually. ProPublica, which will write an article then offer it to a newspaper to publish, has carried out some impressive investigative feats to date, most notably its collaboration with the New York Times, published in August. The 13,000 word article which cost an estimated $400,000 to produce examined the events that took place at the Memorial Medical Centre following Hurricane Katrina. The piece highlighted the importance of such investigative journalism and made the need to save it even more apparent.
 
The Texas Tribune aims to achieve something similar on a smaller and more political scale, offering Texans a news source designed to compliment local newspapers that already exist: "We've made a point of not presenting this as a binary choice: A or B. We believe it's additive: A and B. Read your local paper and read us. In fact read as much stuff as there is out there" says Smith.

"We're simply presenting ourselves as one in a series of things that you need to read and listen to and view and access if you want to be a thoughtful and engaged Texan." 

In his first posting on the website Smith talked about what the Tribune was attempting to achieve: "What we mean to do on an ongoing basis is right there in our stated mission: to promote civic engagement and discourse on public policy, politics, government, and other matters of statewide concern."

In ProPublica fashion, the Tribune has said that all the information published on its website is up for grabs for other media organisations as part of a content-sharing plan designed to aide other reporters who might not have the time to look into an issue in depth.  Matt Stiles, one of the Tribune's staff reporters writers told Poynter Online in an interview: "Ultimately, we'd like to tell every paper in the state, 'If you like this data set, just take it'."

"I hope reporters will come see the information, download it, remix it and be creative with it."

The build up:
In July this year Smith announced he was leaving his position as editor-in-chief of established Texas Monthly magazine to take up the post as CEO and editor of the Tribune. A few months later, the Tribune added Elise Hu, Emily Ramshaw and Matt Stiles to its list of experienced journalists.

In an interview with Poynter in September, Ramshaw talked of her decision to join the project: "I feel, and still feel, that the newspaper business is in serious crisis. I'm not content to cling to a deck chair and go down with a sinking ship."

Ramshaw worked for The Dallas Morning News for six years, the last three of which she was state investigative reporter.  "We're trying to prepare for the next incarnation of journalism. If this venture is going to work, it's going to work because serious, talented journalists were brave enough to take the risk," she said.

The Tribune has built up a selection of notable reporters willing to do this and Chairman and co-founder John Thorton had been quoted as saying: "We didn't hire journalists out of work. We hired reporters who their editors were pissed off that they lost them."

Smith and Thornton worked hard on securing donations, with Thornton himself donating $1 million to the Tribune. In early October the founders confirmed they had received a further $750, 000 in grants from the Houston Endowment and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. The Tribune is now only slighty short of the $4 million target it needs to continue running for two years, with a current total of $3.7 million.

The sum is considerable for a start up website, as paidContent's Staci Kramer has noted: "Unlike some of the new crop of local and regional news startups, the Tribune is launching with enough money for a well-paid staff of 16, including 11 reporters," referring to salaries of $315K for the editor in chief, and up to $90K for seasoned reporters.

As for promotion of the site itself, Smith told the Editors Weblog just how useful social networking sites have been. Regular updates for the public on the status of the site via Facebook, Twitter and the site's own newsletter built up a sense of curiosity over what exactly they had in store for last Tuesday's launch.
 
"We've been very aggressive on Facebook and Twitter both to promote the content and also to connect with our community of followers" said Smith. "We've also used both to aggressively push for funding. We've generated quite a lot of memberships in the Tribune which are much like memberships in public radio by pushing over Facebook and over Twitter messages that relate to our fundraising campaign, and they've been very successful," he says, citing the 1400 founding members who have given between $50 and $5000 to the Tribune out of their own pockets.

What does the site look like?
The website debuted with top stories on the mistreatment of disabled children in public schools, the Democratic lean of El Paso in an otherwise Republican state, and the results of a poll carried out by the Tribune and the University of Texas.

The site itself is divided into ten pages, the organisation of which differ from your average news website. Offering 11 databases under a section titled 'Library' for further reading, the databases contain information ranging from federal campaign donations, gubernatorial appointees and lawmaker spending. In addition to this there is a complete electoral directory of every Texan senator and governor- the site essentially offers a single space for complete personal and political data on the '242 occupants of the state's highest offices'.

It is clear that a lot of time has gone into collaborating this research, and according to the Nieman Journalism Lab, the Waco Tribune-Herald has already taken advantage of the new resource and published some Tribune content. 

Aside from the databases, the site boasts eight of its own blogs and links to some 25 others; has a 'topics' section where stories can be found based on theme; a calender, where information about local events can be found or submitted; and a 'Tweetwire', a Twitter feed from all Texan politicians on the website's front page.

Compared to the recent launch of another local non-profit news website, Oakland Local, the Tribune's website is much more sophisticated. The Texan team have embraced the capacities of the internet and technology to their full, utilizing social media, widgets, videos, blogs and mobile applications- something Smith believes to be key to the way in which the use of media is changing.

"In consumption of media people are paying more attention to online media today then ever before," say Smith. "I look at my almost 13 year old daughter and how she consumes media and it's not at all in print it's almost entirely online and I think that's the trend line."

Smith suggests that publishers need to adapt to measure up to this changed method of consuming news: "You cannot simply go out and record the news, present that to people and believe that that's going to be enough. You need to give them the tools to better understand their world, to better know their state, to better know the people they elected, to better hold them accountable and that often is all not simply conventional reporting but the amassing and presenting of data that allows people to access the world in which they live from a more detailed level."

Why will the Tribune succeed where others have failed?
Whilst successful local non-profit news publications do exists, the Voice of San Diego and the MinnPost to name a few- there are also notable failures such as the Rocky Mountain Independent and InDenver Times, two online start-ups founded by Steve Foster earlier this year. How will the Tribune ensure that it doesn't suffer the same fate?

Smith says that the Tribune essentially has a better business plan, arguing that the RMI and InDenver Times failed because they were run by journalists, not business people and "didn't really have a plan for how to make the model sustainable."

Part of the reason the Tribune is choosing to remain online-only is because "the cost of printing a print publication for postage and paper and print facilities is so expensive that you reduce your overhead dramatically and therefore make it much more likely that your business model will sustain."

Of course the Tribune's has also managed to raise a healthy budget, further insulating itself against some of the problems faced by other publications. "Money is, as in all things, the mother's milk of your operation," Smith says, continuing on to mention that the having the financial capacity to buy the latest technology and hire top journalists will "go a very long way to allowing us to do our best work."

Smith's views bear resemblance to industry commentator Alan Mutter, who recently critized many online non-profit publications for not being business-minded enough. Mutter accuses these publications of "a suicidally stubborn determination on the part of the organizers to be in the business they want to be in, instead of attending to the business they need to attend to," and he argued early last month that, "A business, especially a start-up, requires far more than passion for the work. It requires close attention to the nuts and bolts of raising money, making sales and controlling expenses."

How will the Tribune navigate ethical issues?
A nagging question over the non-profit model is how publications will be able to resist influence from major donors. Smith argues that the seperation between donors and the editorial team is no different to the situation between advertisers and editorial: "I edited a magazine for nine years in which we had big advertisers who also happened to often be the subject of stories and the transactional economy that supports the operations of a for profit publication has no relationship what-so-ever to the journalism inside, or it shouldn't anyway, not at a good magazine and not at a good newspaper."

"Just because someone advertises doesn't mean you go easy on them or you go hard on their competitors."

Nevetherless, the non-profit news model is still in early stages and very dependent on the income from donors. Even for-profit news publications have not been immune to advertsing clients flexing their muscles in tough financial times, with a Detroit paper recently being accused of reporting on private health care following a request from client Humana (who subsequently purchased an ad next to the story).

What would Smith do if he was approached by a donor to cover a particular story? 

"Donors don't expect that were going to write about their issues or about their enemy's issues in a negative way, they're not looking for us to take sides- they're supporting the principle that hovers above all this activity: that journalism in the public interest has value."

"Any donor who is unhappy with the coverage we provide because of such an expectation is welcome to his or her money back," he says, adding: "I'd rather lose my funding then lose my integrity."

So are non-profits the next incarnation of journalism?
The wider debate on whether or not non-profits are the future of journalism has been raging for a while. Online magazine, Slate's Jack Shafer has weighed in for the negative: "In the current arrangement, we're substituting one flawed business model for another. For-profit newspapers lose money accidentally. Nonprofit news operations lose money deliberately."

Thornton, the Tribune's chairman, hit back at the remarks: "I call it the Stockholm Syndrome. They are sympathizing with their advertiser-captors."

So who is right? Is the non-profit model the future of journalism?

Yes and no. It is unlikely to become a general solution for newspapers simply because of the huge sums of money involved, but for nieche reporting and more time/fund consuming journalism such as investigative reporting, it could definiatley be a viable option.

The idea compares favourably at least to the suggestion of government bailouts. As Thorton wrote of the "obvious fox-in-the-henhouse issues that arise--to mix animal metaphors--from government watchdogs funded out of government coffers."

As the first serious, state-focused news site with a decent enough amount of money behind it and what seems to be the right attitude toward embracing the capacities of the digital age and the changing face of journalism- whether or not the Texas Tribune succeeds will be key to the way in which the non-profit model is viewed.

As Tribune reporter Christe Hu suggests: "Journalism is at a crossroads right now. We're seeing not just survival of the fittest but a 'mutation of the species.' "

"I think the non-profit model has just as good a shot as anything else."

American journalist and professor at the City University of New York, Jeff Jarvis, has voiced his opinions on the future of journalism at the 'Is World Journalism in Crisis?' event at Coventry University on Wednesday. Supporting progress and development within the industry, Jarvis implored journalists to "support the means for entrepreneurial journalism," as opposed to trying to protect old models, warning that in doing so, journalists risk "hurting new sprouts that grow".

Good news for advertisers and their clients - the ad market is showing strong signs of recovery and growing business confidence, MediaGuardian reports of the quarterly Bellwether survey of UK companies.

Almost half of the companies surveyed (47%) reported improved financials in the third quarter, although 28% noted a decrease in advertising budget. This, however, must be compared to the 38% of companies who decreased ad spending in the second quarter. 15% reported a marketing budget increase.

This was the eight consecutive quarter in which Bellwether has found more UK companies reporting marketing budget reductions than increases. However, it is the smallest percentage of companies cutting spending in a year.

So despite recent disheartening analyses, News Corp CEO Murdoch was right; the advertising market is recovering, or at least stopping its decline. This is true mostly for the internet, the place to be in the UK advertising world these days, as it is the only sector that saw more companies (4.5% more) increase ad spending in the third quarter than in traditional sectors.

Democratic state Rep. Marlin Schneider, a 39-year Wisconsin state lawmaker, has announced a plan to make any building associated with a news publication exempt from property taxes, the Chicago Tribune is reporting.

The plan was announced by Schneider on Tuesday, following the appearance of John Sturm, of the Newspaper Association of America, at a Congress hearing into the 'Furture of Newspapers,' earlier this month. Whilst Sturm rejected the idea of a government bailout, he did suggest that some 'targeted tax breaks' could be helpful.

Late last week, Mediaite hosted its first 'Mediaite Office Hours' session in order to answer to the hostility it was met with during the first week of the site's launch. Senior Editor Glynnis MacNicol and TV Editor Steve Krakauer hosted the one-hour segment. Having only been meant to appear sporadically and unannounced, editor-at-large Rachel Sklar ended up spending most of the hour with the hosts. The motivation of Office Hours is to make Mediaite staffers available to converse with those critics who disapprove of the celebrity journalism obsessed website and tackle criticism head-on.

During the first Office Hours sitting, MacNicol explained that despite all the negative publicity that ensued in the week of the website's launch, not a single critic had emailed to complain to the site. She reported with some satisfaction that the critics have fallen silent since they have complained about everything there is to complain about.

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has condemned the Guardian's suggestion that other G8 leaders are dissatisfied with the way that his country has organised its hosting of today's summit, calling the article by diplomatic editor Julian Borger "a colossal blunder by a small paper."

Speaking at a press conference, Berlusconi dismissed the Guardian report, saying that "My (G-8) colleagues know the newspapers well and know how to judge them," reported the Wall Street Journal. The original Guardian article quotes unnamed officials criticising the Italians, and says that "The behind-the-scenes grumbling has gone as far as suggestions that Italy could be pushed out of the G8 or any successor group."

The Washington Post has decided to cancel its plans to host private, off-the-record dinner parties for political lobbyists at the home of its publisher after criticism from the newsroom at the suggestion that their services were effectively been sold. Publisher Katharine Weymouth was to host dinners that would give paying lobbyists and business leaders access to officials from the Obama administration and Congress, as well as Post journalists.

Politico first reported the story yesterday after obtaining a flier promoting the events that had been given to a healthcare lobbyist. The flier was entitled "Underwriting Opportunity: An evening with the right people can alter the debate" and advertised events with a maximum of 20 guests to discuss major White House policy initiatives, which participating firms could co-sponsor for $25,000 per event, with up to two sponsors per session. There was also an offer for 11 for the price of 10. The theme of the first July dinner was to be health care reform, and WaPo guaranteed the attendance of Obama administration officials and members of Congress as well as reporters.

The Dutch government and the Temporary Commission on the Future of the Press are struggling to reach a consensus as to the most effective manner of improving the health of the nation's press. Media Minister Ronald Plasterk reacted unfavourably to the suggestion made by the commission that his ministry should impose an Internet tax, the proceeds of which going to the newspaper industry.

The Commission, which was set up by the Minister, is concerned that 'old medias' are ill equipped to deal with the challenges raised by the increasing prevalence of new technologies, particularly webblogs.To enable traditional forms of media to ride with the modernisation of information, they apparently need greater financial support.

Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger and Labour MP Tom Watson go head-to-head on Twitter, as Watson and the Daily Mail accuse the centre-left paper of going too far. Last week, the newspaper went ahead with a front-page editorial urging the British PM Gordon Brown to resign.

Daily Mail obsessed with idea of Guardian 'putsch' (in collusion with BBC?). A question of media ethics, apparently. http://tiny.cc/7Wp3M"

And so went the tweet that started it all, with Rusbridger linking to the Daily Mail article, in which Stephen Glover asks "Was it [the Guardian] trying to orchestrate events so as to secure the resignation which it had called for in its editorial?"

According to the New York Observer, the New York Times is considering two different proposals for charging for content. Executive editor Bill Keller told staff about the ideas that the paper is looking at.

One is a "meter system" which would allow the reader to surf the site without charge until reading a predetermined limit - words or pageviews - after which a metre will start running and the reader is charged for the rest of their movement on the site. It is not clear whether readers would be allowed a certain limit per day, or how else this would be measured. Keller apparently warned staff at the meeting that this pay model would be "tricky" as a fine balance would have to be found: if the limit of free content was too small, readers could be discouraged and traffic would fall, while as if it was too high, there would be little improvement in revenue.

At the first full day of the INMA conference, the ever controversial Jeff Jarvis insisted that "we have to redefine utterly what a newspaper is". He made a distinction between what he described as the old "content economy" contrasted with what he calls the new "link economy". "Content gains value as it gains links," he insisted, "if you're not linkable you don't exist." Continuing with his old/new divide, Jarvis said that news is no longer about people buying a product, but about giving people information and listening to their thoughts on it - he promoted the idea of newspapers fostering better relationships with their readers.

Like Jarvis, Agustin Edwards, editor and managing director of Las Ultimas Noticias (LUN), in Santiago, Chile, emphasises the need for a solid relationship between a newspaper and its readers. However, he moves in entirely the opposite direction to Jarvis in his bid to secure a "purer" reader base: LUN is replicated daily in pdf on the publication's site, a process which makes it invisible to Google. This means the search engine can not use LUN's articles - but nor can it direct traffic to them.

Yesterday, the Australian reported that following a period of sustained economic growth peaking at the end of 2008, India's newspapers are beginning to show signs of economic retreat, with advertising revenue falling by unprecedented amounts.

With economic retardation sweeping the world, emerging markets are also beginning to suffer as foreign investment dries up but printing costs continue rising. "Newspaper sizes are coming down, staff are being retrenched, marginal titles closed and expansion plans put on hold," reports the Australian.

Francois Nel, founding director of the Journalism Leaders Programme at the University of Central Lancashire, has spoken to Journalism.co.uk about how to help the newspaper industry. Nel believes that tax breaks for newspapers to fund training could provide a more long term form of investment for the industry, to counter balance newsroom cuts and help avoid a direct bailout from the government.

Nel explains that when newspapers are required to make financial cutbacks, training is "the very first thing" that suffers. He believes that "cost savings help in the short-term", but are not viable in the long term - "you don't grow through cuts, you grow through knowledge development and doing new things". Nel makes the suggestion that if newspapers were to be given corporate tax relief for one percent of payroll per annum, it would provide a longer-term solution.

Chief media correspondent of the Financial Times, Ben Fenton, today published an article in which he argues that newspaper groups with a large number of free newspapers are struggling more compared to companies dealing in just paid-for titles.

Sly Bailey, CEO of the Trinity Mirror group agrees: "Free newspapers are in the frontline trenches of this war, simply because they only have advertising revenues."

In an interview with the Media Guardian, Alexander Lebedev has revealed that he doesn't intend to interfere in the editorial line of the Evening Standard, explaining, "It is not polite for a Russian to interfere in British politics".  Nor does he seem to have any strong desire to profit financially from the takeover - after buying the publication for a token £1; he is preparing to invest £30 million into it over the next three years.  

He does, however make the suggestion that the Standard could be distributed in Moscow.  Lebedev has problems with the current restrictions on the press in Russia and Novoya Gazeta, the newspaper which he part owns, is one of the last remaining anti-government publications in the country.  Further extending his hand in the media industry, Lebedev has bought up two FM radio licences, one of which will become an English speaking radio station in Moscow.  Although not intending to change or affect the Standard's editorial line, Lebedev seems to intend to use his new acquisition to extend his influence in his home country.

The problems of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer are widely known - but its future isn't.  With the paper edition to go out of business if a buyer isn't found by March, speculation has been mounting over whether the publication will move online-only.  At one point there was even the suggestion that it would be announced as one of the publications on new e-reader Plastic Logic, although this proved not to be the case.  The latest in the ongoing saga is an email leaked by a Seattle P-I writer, which contains an invitation to PI employees to meet with owner Hearst's vice President for digital media Ken Riddick to dicuss their "ideas" for the publication.  

If the P-I were to move online-only, there would have to be changes in the newsroom, blogger and journalist Gina Chen believes.  She says that whilst she is "a huge proponent of journalists getting out of the office and going to the scene of the crash, the crime or the trial... A typical day in an online-first newsroom should be different than in a traditional newsroom. If it's not, your newsroom isn't online first enough".  The key is time management according to Chen, and a full integration with the online culture - instant news and social networks for example.  She says that its imperative to check your social media sites regularly and interact with readers, and also to blog about news as it happens even if the full article doesn't follow until later.

Media commentator Roy Greenslade has claimed that sub-editors are now a layer in the publishing industry which can be "eliminated".  In a debate on out-sourcing at the Publishing Expo at London Olympia yesterday, Greenslade voiced his opinion that some forms of sub-editing could indeed be outsourced.

Greenslade distinguished between the indispensable "creative people who put together our popular, mass-market papers, such as The Sun" and "subs working on serious quality newspapers [to templates] and that can be sent elsewhere".  "I produce copy that goes straight on screen - why can't anyone else do that? You can eliminate a whole structure... commercially, we have to do it," he says.

So forget online-only, not-for-profit, paid online content, subscriptions, free dailies and all those other ideas currently being flung at the ailing printed press.  Bill Shein has had enough of them and the result is a whole new - and frankly a whole lot more fun - list of suggestions to put newspapers back on track.  

That age-old problem of inky fingers after flicking through the morning news, he asks? Easily solved with flavoured ink,  a suggestion similar to Jon Stewart's narcotic newsprint.  Or why not take it a step further with entirely edible pages.  A martini flavoured Bond review, or a football game report that tastes of hot-dog.  To make sure readers buy the following day's edition is easy: just don't tell them what happens at the end of a story.  'Who Shot JR?' style mysteries.

With these suggestions newspapers would taste better and contain cliff-hanging content, so how to make them look better is the next step.  The answer is simple apparently; front page nudity. Print half of all daily editions with 'Page One Girls', and the other half with 'Page One Guys'.  Then turn paperboys into full-scale concierges who deliver direct to your bed and also provide breakfast.  Finally, add mind-reading Web 2.0 products to find out what online readers want and complete consolidation of publications - so that there would be no option but to read.  Follow these simple steps and the perfect newspaper is born, Shein concludes.

Source: Editor & Publisher

In an apparent about-turn, the Chicago Tribune's latest edition contains a proposed new set of changes to the paper's layout - just three months after its big re-design came into effect.  The paper issued a list of the alterations it intends to make, each of which was printed next to a reader comment or suggestion under the headline 'You spoke, we listened'.

That the world of traditional media is in crisis, nobody doubts. However the question raised by Michael Hirschorn of the Atlantic, is just how long the industry can continue in its current situation.  He takes the example of the struggling New York Times and hypothesizes about the end coming sooner than anyone expects - May in fact.  Whilst the NYT going out of business within months looks highly unlikely, its current financial status leaves this seemingly far-fetched theory every so slightly more plausible. 

Must-read. AJR's Senior Editor Carl Sessions Stepp has noted that while news remains as valuable as ever, journalism is certainly changing as daily newspaper circulation has declined every year since 1987.

Is it time for newspapers to panic? It could be, had Stepp not come up with an expansive list of very good editorial and business ideas for newspapers.

Instead of cutting everything, from staff to newspaper sections, Stepp argues that newspapers should be creating a product that is high quality and indispensable. Journalists need to embrace arriving technologies and make their articles more exciting. But how?

Here's a list of Stepp's ideas, more or less in his words, that could help newspapers recapture "domination of the overall information market":

-  A four section daily paper with journalists and readers sharing and discussing news together.
Section 1: a "dynamic, definitive guide" to local news featuring digests, analysis, listings, links, columns and audience contributions; excerpts and synopses of top content appearing elsewhere; and an annotated guide to the top material concerning international, national, regional and local news, sports, business and arts.

Section 2, the most important local, national, and foreign news, fully updated and differentiated from earlier Web copy.

Section 3, an in-depth package that changes everyday, which would present serious, investigative, quality journalism, not available anywhere else.

Section 4, all the expected features from crosswords to comics, plus new ones including reader creations.

- An online information superstructure built around a double home page, with an easy toggle back and forth: one screen for an orderly display of news and other content, the other a portal-type screen offering a master index of anything useful and appropriate for your audience, with more choices, more services and a nontraditional license to experiment.

- A new, more conversational tone, both online and in print, including staff and outside blogs, behind-the-scenes essays from staff members and a higher proportion of analysis and explanation.

- Archives and galleries with a more user-friendly format like Google or Yahoo! that cluster content by precinct, neighborhood or topics. Searches that index advertising or searches programmed to answer questions such as where a movie is playing or when the school board will meet.

- Expanded interactive guides to movies, shows, concerts, galleries and other arts, with amazon.com-like reader reviews and interaction.

- Real-time online traffic and weather blogs.

- Contests every day for the funniest, weirdest, most helpful or most outrageous local images, audio and video.

- Tournaments, online and in-print, pitting local individuals and teams against one another in solving puzzles, predicting sports or election outcomes..

- Online book clubs and discussion groups on local sports, religion, relationships and more.

- Original uploaded programming, in which readers Web-cam their neighborhood news, read political commentary, offer Leno-like stand-up comedy bits on the news and debate key local issues.

- A complaint forum, directed toward local government or business, in which editors or audience choose which questions have merit and pose them to local authorities.

- A local records center, providing agendas and minutes of every significant meeting in your area; text or links to as many public records as feasible; and your homemade community databases such as local sports stats, crime maps, home values or restaurant menus.

- Greater capitalization on the treasures of your archive; readers can develop and download scrapbooks featuring every article, photo or other mention of themselves and their families in your library; or publication and sale of special in-depth or feature reports drawing on your archives and research capabilities.

- A help-needed feature, a sort of super-classifieds, that lets readers pose questions, seek products, evaluate services and possibly engage in transactions from which you share the profits.

- Moderated forums and advice segments for personal finance, health, travel and other subjects.

- New products and revenue sources: frequent-visitor points, premium services (such as customized news delivery, conferences featuring star journalists, first crack at ads and coupons, local discounts), neighborhood magazines, daily auctions (lunch with the editor!), grants from nonprofits, vastly upgraded searching services and search-related ads, customized magazine and book-length reports on key topics.

- Staging regular creativity meetings throughout the news organization and in the community.

- Hosting an ongoing online suggestion box with prizes.

- Spend real money by giving $100,000 to three or four of your smartest people and challenge them to design something breathtaking.

Read Stepp's article for more of his ideas.

Source: AJR