First Draft by Tim Porter

Black Tuesday

I'm jammed at this IJJ-Nieman conference and haven't had the time to post on the all the newspaper layoff news -- S.F. Chronicle, N.Y. Times, Philadelhia Inquirer -- but Steve Yelvington has and says just what I would:

"Every newspaper journalist in America should consider this a wake-up call. You can't continue to put out yesterday's newspaper in today's world. You can't continue to go through the motions of journalism without the heart. You can't pretend that the Internet is somebody else's problem. Change, or die.

"If you want resources, come up with a plan. Create a product that demands to be read. Figure out how to earn your way back into a daily relationship with at least two-thirds of the adult population. You're going to have to talk with, and listen to, real people, and create newspapers and journalism for them instead of for other journalists and prize committees."