Ten experts on the future of the print newspaper

Presstime, the Newspaper Association of America’s flagship publication, gathered ten experts from inside and outside the newspaper business to discuss their ideas for reinventing the print newspaper.

Participants include former editors and media executives, newspaper designers, bloggers and a representative from a j-school.

Examples of comments made by these newspaper experts:

“Old-style thinking can frustrate redesign. The lack of vision is the other major obstacle. Editors need a vision of how to differentiate their product from the Web but also make it as exciting and new as digital media.”
 -Charlotte H. Hall, senior vice president and editor, Orlando Sentinel, and president, American Society of Newspaper Editors

“Print products cannot get caught up in ‘commodity’ information. Everything a print source does must ‘add value.’ Even weather and sports must be presented in ways that distinguish the information from commodity sources.”
-Tim J. McGuire, Frank Russell Chair, Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Arizona State University in Phoenix, and former editor and senior vice president, Star Tribune in Minneapolis

“The traditional, one-size-fits-all newspaper should be a concise, reasonably comprehensive and extremely well-organized guide to the community. It should leverage the strengths of print: deep reporting, thoughtful analysis, fine writing and elegant visuals. It should avoid the weaknesses of print by de-emphasizing warmed-over coverage of stale, widely reported news.”
-Alan D. Mutter, blogger, Reflections of a Newsosaur and managing partner, Tapit Partners, an information technology consulting firm