mydigimedia by Amy L. Webb

My post earlier about the Sun's business page going kaput caused some of you to send very lengthy, somewhat acerbic emails to me. If nobody cares about the news, it's because reporters have forgotten how to write compelling stories; This whole Rob Curley hyperlocal journalism stuff is bullshit and proves that people don't care about their communities; Newspaper staffs were too big anyways - it's about time they were cut down to size!

Ouch! There's even more discussion over on BuzzMachine, where Jeff Jarvis says that it's okay to get rid of "commodity news and crappy sections" so that reporters can "concentrate their precious and dwindling resources on what matters, which I still believe is local reporting." (For the record, I don't disagree.)

But what I refuse to let go of is the notion that cutbacks in staff and production is ultimately the best near-term business strategy for newspapers. Because it's not. Cutting back is not how my very successful non-media journalism friends would approach our industry's problem, and that's not how I would plan for the future of my news organization. I believe very strongly that if newsroom culture changed for just a month, to allow free-flowing brainstorming and fast-track implementation of new strategies, we might just find a workable business model that doesn't necessarily involve scrapping entire sections of the newspaper or laying off a quarter of your staff.

It's 4th of July weekend. In the spirit of unshackling the newspaper industry from the tyranny of outdated business models, I've decided to hold a contest. I'm proposing a 30-Day Newsroom Innovation Challenge. I'm willing to offer my consulting services to help a beleaguered newsroom through the process of innovation. I will meet with your newspaper's publishers, editors, web-site and print-side staff and even your local readers. I'll facilitate brainstorming sessions and devise a set of strategies that you can implement right away to help monetize your content and motivate what's left of your staff. At the end of our 30 days together, we should hopefully have short-term and long-term plans for publishing your content and for stabilizing your resources.

And I'll do it for FREE. Start to finish, beginning to end, for a month. Hell, I'm not even going to charge you for materials! My goal here is to show newspapers that there is another way to financial solvency, because I'm damn tired of hearing about my talented friends losing their jobs each and every week.

What's the catch? I'm only going to work with one news organization, and it has to be based in the United States. Before I start, I'm going to want you to promise to check your old thinking and old workflow at the door and be willing to start fresh. And I'll probably blog about our progress every now and again, so if your newspaper is against that sort of thing you're out of the running.

This is a contest. If you're interested, send me an email answering the following questions. Heck, you don't even have to write everything out. If you want to get creative and post a video somewhere for me to watch, that'll work too. I'm going to make a decision by July 18th and announce that morning. That gives you two weeks.

1. Your name, full contact info and news organization

2. Why do you need my help? What are the biggest problems facing your newspaper?

3. If I work with you, can you guarantee that for 30 days, decisionmakers will be willing to try new ideas? (It won't be anything radical in the short term, like scrapping production of the paper in favor of a brand new million-dollar website. But if I suggest holding a meeting with 20-somethings to get their thoughts on your product, we've got to at least give it a shot.)

4. This one's important - did you clear this through your boss (and his or her boss)? Are they willing to take 30 days to strategize new business, content and production models for the future?

5. What do you hope to gain working together?

Conditions: Sorry college newspapers, this time I'm only going to work with the pros. You have to be at a newspaper in production - we're not going to resurrect the dead or help launch a new product. You also can't be currently negotiating a consulting project with my company.

Send your entry to info [at] webbmediagroup [dot] com (and not my personal email address).