The newspaper of the future...

..., according to the NY Times, is a small midwestern paper blurring the lines between their multiple media (print, tv and online) and staying true to their quality local content focus. If the accompanying graph is right, and most news consumers are turning away from newspapers for national news, then small regional papers could be in for a renaissance. TV can't profitably focus on small markets the way online and print news can, and interactive electronic formats allow custom tailoring like never before.

There's an unrelenting force from the internet reforming the way news works, and while the large national papers have seen that for some time, it is only now with increasing broadband penetration outside the major metropolises that smaller local papers are dealing with it as well. The 12% increase in unique visitors to newspaper websites would be fantastic news if it didn't correspond with a fall in the physical sales of the paper, but people aren't necessarily decreasing their consumption of news, especially local news. It's up to smart editors, journalists, owners and conumers to make that transition smooth.

The Lawrence editor seems to be on: a straight shooter, with no illusions or false glamour about the media business:

"I don't think of us as being in the newspaper business," said Mr. Simons, the editor and publisher of The Journal-World and the chairman of the World Company, the newspaper's parent. "Information is our business and we're trying to provide information, in one form or another, however the consumer wants it and wherever the consumer wants it, in the most complete and useful way possible." [...] Mr. Simons and his associates describe their overall goals as a shared belief in quality, a deep attachment to Lawrence as a community and a constant reinvention of their business's relationship with readers, viewers and advertisers.

The echos of 'mutli-tasking' for journalists can be heard this side of the pond as well:

Mr. Simons told his editors and reporters that they were going to do more than merely work shoulder to shoulder; they were going to share reporting assignments, tasks and scoops - whether they liked it or not. Many did not like it at all, and some World reporters say they sometimes still feel taken advantage of - when they are asked to squeeze multiple print, television and online duties into the course of a single day. Print reporters and their editors have, at times, been reluctant to share scoops or ideas with their television counterparts, and vice versa. But many reporters also said that, over time, they have adapted.

And even that problematic concept of free work experience. There's even a word for it in Lawrence KA... "internology".

About a third of the 18 employees in the online operation are interns, and their presence allows Mr. Curley to have data, video, photos and other material collected and uploaded at little cost, a process he grinningly refers to as "internology."

Whatever would Markham think?