Where is the Newspaper Survival Coalition?

The 150 year paper of record for Denver, the Rocky Mountain News, officially went under this week. For some reason, this one hits me as historically significant. I envision the nascent days of the paper, marking the birth of civilization via the printed word in a virgin mountain state.

CNN details the demise, and it's worth checking out the final edition online (thick with irony, I know) and its retrospective section. The dominoes are falling, as CNN notes:

Newspapers across the country are under pressure as readership declines, along with advertising revenue, while more and more Americans get their information online.

This week, the San Francisco Chronicle announced it was in danger of being sold or closed if it doesn't stop bleeding millions. Officials from the Hearst Corp., owners of the Chronicle, said the paper lost $50 million in 2008 and is on pace to lose more this year.

The roster of failing newspapers is getting pretty long at this point, and it makes me wonder why these are being presented as isolated cases of failure. Sure, the reasons (bad economy Internet) are always the same, but where is the Survival Coalition? Where is the Band of Ink Brothers working to adapt the medium and the business model?

It's clear that fighting the tide alone simply does not work. In the same way I want to see think tanks working on the economy, climate change, and education, I want to see newspapers get together, figure it out and stay relevant.

This is a sidestep from the pure cynicism I've held for the past couple of years, an attitude rooted in the acknowledgment that the online world is far superior to the traditional newspaper model. I stand by that, but while before today I took some satisfaction in the slow dissolution of an antiquated industry, consider this my change of heart.

Do I have a solution? Of course not. But with a wild swing that demonstrates my clear emotional instability...I'm pulling for these guys.

Catching up on lost time: an irrelevant rant

Well, that was a long break, eh? I apologize for the radio silence - the truth is that:

a) I was called to Gaza to settle the ongoing conflict with a week-long tournament of rock paper scissors (note: rock always, always wins over there. Always.);

b) I was paralyzed by the economic free fall, locked in my bathroom in a catatonic state; or

c) I actually have no excuse, and have committed the cardinal sin of blogging: not doing it.

While you contemplate the options, I'll recap the happenings of the post-less month that was.

We got a new President, a billionaire swindle, bank CEOs rotating into "apologies for money" Senate hearings in place of automaking CEOs, a Superbowl between two teams that nobody cared about until the fourth quarter (which reminded us that sports are better than the real world), a new bailout package to bail out the old bailout package, and the official word that Alex Rodriguez took steroids (which reminded us that sports are no different than the real world).

Meanwhile, life went on. This was more of a surprise than an outside observer may imagine, as the general sentiment as of my last post was that we were careening towards business Armageddon. Yes, there is big trouble in manufacturing and some consumer sectors, and no, I'm not implying that we are worry free. What we are is a living, breathing market correction in motion.

However harrowing this might be, it's also fascinating from a marketing perspective, an economic perspective, a environmental perspective, and yes, even a financial perspective. When Obama ran for office, when he was elected, and when he was inaugurated we marveled that history was being made. For some, it meant that change had gripped the country and centuries of building in the wrong direction were being broken down.

Not to sound sickenly upbeat, but I'd like to approach the country's current adjustment period (ahem, catastrophic economic implosion) in the same way. For decades we built the country on money for the sake of the money; greed at the top generated greed at the bottom, which led to over-exploitation of the masses and over-leveraging of the con-artists that were bleeding them dry.

Terrible that it came to that, but we're human after all. Greed is not good, Mr. Gekko, but it's unavoidable.

A wholesale shift away from the system that wronged us is a positive thing. Instead of relying on speed-of-light, too-good-to-be-true financial engineering, we can reinvent on a platform of education, clean energy and entrepreneurship. It will be painful, it will be long, it will be heartbreaking, but in the end, it will be...better.

Phew. Got that off my chest. Back to media and marketing next time, I promise.