"Prioritize change. Keep the principles, change the practices. Get younger. Readers first. Web now. Rebuild from scratch." These are part of the six rules that newspaper guru Tim Porter lays down for editors-in-chief looking to adapt their product to the modern reader in an article entitled "What newsroom leaders need to start - and stop - doing now," on his blog, First Draft.

Here are Porter's main points:

What Newspaper Leaders Must Start Doing Today

• Start pointing ahead
• Start talking More
• Start listening even more
• Start being less impatient
• Start being more persistent
• Start crying wolf - and meaning it (make sure that your newsroom knows that change is mandatory)

What Newspaper Leaders Must Stop Doing Today

• Stop the bullplop about time - "Lack of time? Sorry, that's a proxy for lack of will"

• Stop using the First Amendment as an anchor - "It is the principles of journalism that are important, not the form in which they are practiced."
• Stop singing the pay your dues blues - The average age of a newsroom employee is 41; newsrooms need more young people.
• Stop thinking that listening to readers dumbs down the paper - the paper is published for readers, thus it must be presented the way that they desire
• Stop pretending that the "newspaper" is about paper - move newsroom operations online
• Stop using old blueprints for new resources - "Change produces anxiety, but it is the role of leadership to guide employees through uncertainty and toward success."

Source: Tim Porter's First Draft