News-Record.com

I've written a lot about what we're trying to do at the News & Record, and I've linked to many of the bold new thinkers from whom we've stolen ideas. Let me add another -- Tim Porter -- who describes a marriage of innovation and fundamental journalism with an eloquence and clarity that I envy. It's our destination.

"Can American newspapers find the vision -- and courage -- to break stride from current habits and take the initiative to lead this debate? If so, it will be a difficult transition. By nature, newspapers, and all traditional news organizations, are followers. Something happens, they report it -- a reactionary role that carries over to the risk-adverse reflexes newspapers exercise when presented with challenges. To morph from a position in which newspapers no longer simply observe their communities but actively participate in them requires a shift of mindset from detachment to involvement.

"If interactivity was the keyword of Internet growth of the '90s, then involvement is the media driver of today. Blogging, photo galleries, citizen journalism, political organizing -- all are Internet-enabled involvement at work and at play. As I wrote the other day, newspapers do not have to discard the principles of journalism to take advantage of these shifts, they merely need to reinvent how those principles are put into practice. Newspapers can begin by applying this Chinese proverb to how they approach the people they want to reach: 'Tell me and I forget. Show me and I remember. Involve me and I understand.'"