I left my job in New York for two reasons: 1). Love and 2). Because I believe there is a future for “traditional media.” Because I wanted to be part of the solution, to help nurture innovation in our industry. But I find myself getting frustrated by the speed at which we move (or more accurately, don’t move). Everyday I read about daring new ideas, websites that have launched, brave men and women who are testing capricious waters… I know it’s hard to think outside the box, but it could be so rewarding.

Perhaps we should start with the most important question, “how do we make money?”

This of course, is not a rhetorical question. We need to answer it. Our future depends on it.

I completely agree that databases, data aggregation, mash-ups and all the like are valuable to the user, and would probably draw a decent amount of traffic… but you wouldn’t suggest supporting that with banner ads, would you? Or *gulp* up sells for business directory listings. This is where we, in the newspaper industry are stuck. We don’t need more ways to serve content, we need better ways to make money.

Newspapers are not going to survive on pay-per-click advertising alone. It’s just not enough. What we really need is to re-think the whole business model and advertising strategy.

But at the same time, keep in mind that we have to continue running the core business and churning out the daily newspaper. So it’s like managing a start-up while at the same time continuing to run an established business. You have different cultures, different schedules, different strategies and different business models and in many ways, they’re actually competing against each other.

It’s scary for many of us to think about the future.

Especially for those of us who are desperately clinging to the model of media as it existed before the Internet and the World Wide Web. I remember the good ‘ole days of print newspapers – the smell of the ink, the warm, “hot off the press” feel of the broadsheet in my hands. I remember cutting and pasting (with scissors and rubber cement). I remember selling classified ads and inserts.

But I also know that clinging to a dying medium is not going to do me, or anyone else any good.

It’s time to let go… to loosen our grip and let a cool breeze gently carry us away…

Perhaps it isn’t so awful to let go of our definition of news, of newspapers, of radio, of broadcast television, of advertising, branding and marketing. Perhaps it isn’t so hard to see news and information as just bits and bytes. Data that can be shaped and re-shaped, packaged and delivered, responded to and re-delivered over and over again, seamlessly, painlessly…

I believe it’s possible to save the function but change the form.

There must be others who believe too.

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