“Over the seventy plus years of my life, I grew used to mornings where a newspaper was always a part of the picture. My hometown was large enough to have a morning paper and along with the local Sunday edition, came the Sunday New York Times. And as I grew older, a newspaper and a cup of coffee started the day. . .the NYTimes, the Chicago Tribune, the Baltimore Sun, the San Francisco Chronicle and others.

“But now I come here in the early morning hours, where I can go to a number of websites around the world, and with my coffee, I can get the news from a great variety of viewpoints and do it in the space of a cup of coffee.

“I predict that within ten years, most will do the same. And the TV news will go the same way that newspapers are going. There was a time when I’d watch a local evening news, followed by the national network news, but I don’t do that anymore because I’m tired of watching snippets of news surrounded by stupid commercials.

“Yes, I’m ‘older’ and supposed to cling to the things of my younger days, but I’m also excited by change and very willing to accept the aspects that are positive. We are in the midst of a period of change that where many so called ‘institutions’ vanishing. Some are being replaced, but some, regardless of how people cling to them, will not be around in a few years. Moore’s Law will see to that. Or the adage that goes something like: ‘those that don’t adapt and learn to live with change, are doomed to go the way of the dinosaur’.

“And I’ll be reading about it here in the early morning hours, with my coffee in front of my computer.”

— jim mitchell, new hampshire

The above appeared in response to a New York Times article today about the looming inevitability of a major American city not having a daily local, metropolitan newspaper.

I’m a generation younger than Mr. Mitchell but I agree with his comments. The emotions of the debate surrounding the failing newspaper industry go quickly to the dire predictions that journalistic integrity and professionalism along with the metaphorical sunshine on our public business will disappear.

Like Alex Ross, a MacArthur fellow who is the distinguished music critic of The New Yorker and who writes The Rest Is Noise blog, I believe the newspaper industry is extremely insecure about its identity. In an interview with the British newspaper Guardian last summer, Ross said:

“Across the board there seems to be this idea that newspapers should be much more service orientated, concentrating on entertainment offering lists, service items and celebrity stories. I doubt the internet as such is a factor in that decison except in so far as the newspapers want to merge with the internet and imitate what they perceive to be a threat.”

Likewise, Gina Chen in her blog Save The Media correctly criticized the newspaper as an “invincible teenager” which has consistently failed to shift its thinking, especially in getting a handle on the Web:

“When the Web seemed a force to be reckoned with, newspapers threw up Web sites that looked just like the newspapers — but online. At first some charged for content, but most abandoned that.

“But they didn’t study the Web or understand its power of interaction. They didn’t invent ways to reach readers online or figure out how readers were using the Web. They didn’t charge their smartest employees with coming up with ways to make money on the Internet. They shrugged it off because though circulation declines had been going on for years, they were still making money the old-fashioned way, in print.

“And they expected readers to do what they had always done; read what newspapers told tell them to read in the way newspapers tell them to read it. Many didn’t even update their sites, so you’d go online and find old news.”

The downsizing of newspapers has been going on for years in virtually every market. The examples come quick to mind. Reporters and editors who specialized in particular beats — science, religion, education, arts criticism, literary — are gone in many markets. Despite having reader’s advocates, editorial ombudsmen, or reader’s representatives, many newspapers have failed to demonstrate that they truly listen to their readers. Justin Davidson, a Pulitzer Prize winner and the former classical music critic for Newsday wrote last year in an online commentary for Musical America’s web: “The disabilities of the old business model are so profound that trying to remedy them by tweaking (or ravaging) the content is like spitting into a volcano: pointless and self-destructive.”

Newspapers will die but journalism won’t. Editors and journalists weren’t the only hide-bound traditionalists who refused to adopt and adapt. The business side of newspapers is just as guilty from the publishers and CEOs to the advertising and circulation directors who failed in astounding fashion to gauge the impact of the Web and to become an early adopter of technology.

Meanwhile, journalists are suggesting and trying out new models. Davidson, for example, believes that a new business operating platform for worthwhile arts criticism is possible: ““Museums, orchestras and performing organizations in each community could come together to set up an independent, hyper local, online-only arts bulletin staffed by a formerly ink-stained wretch. The consortium could provide seed money, mailing lists, advertising and – most important – a guarantee of editorial independence.”

In Seattle and San Francisco, new wiki models are the focus of experimentation. The San Francisco Post-Chronicle wiki was launched Feb. 25 after news broke about the possibility of San Francisco Chronicle’s imminent demise. It was founded by Dwell editor Sarah Rich and Wired.com staffer Alexis Madrigal, and has nearly 100 members. Contributions are brainstorming ideas for a distribution model, a coverage plan and a business model.

Likewise, in Seattle — where the Post-Intelligencer probably will go online-only this month and has reduced its news staff from 150 to 20 — journalist Chuck Taylor has launched the Seattle Post-Post-Intelligencer wiki. There, about 40 members are brainstorming ideas for content strategy, a business model and technology platform.

It’s simple. Newspapers also need a healthy dose of disruptive innovation.