Although I’d like to think that the traditional inky newsprint will never die, other times I’m pretty sure I’ll see it become obsolete in my lifetime (I’m 24). Maybe if, like you said in your post, the industry can scale down and start focusing less on selling ads, at least in print. Stick to what they do best – provide the facts and a fairly unbiased view of the news, and keep some quality columnists in there too, perhaps, and it might all be okay.

All the conversations about how the news media is changing reminds of me of the Knight News Challenge (http://newschallenge.org) with your readers – it’s a contest for sites/ideas that involve digital technology, local and hyper-local journalism, and are limited to a specific geographic region. It’s open to anyone anywhere in the world – you and your readers might find it interesting. Of course, you can see the above link for more infomation.

By the way, I just discovered your blog a few days ago – it is fascinating.