Yesterday, the American Press Institute hosted a “summit” at which 50 of the nation’s top newspaper executives essentially locked themselves in a room for a day in order to hash out the future of newspapers.
Naturally, no reporters—or OMG!—bloggers, were allowed to be present at the event.
But, of course, a report detailing the fruits of all this summitting will be issued later, promised API. (Ah, yes, love those fabulously productive reports.)
So while we, the lowly unwashed, wait to get news from the metaphorical mountain top, Mark Potts at Recovering Journalist, asks the age old question:
“How many newspaper CEOs does it take to screw in a lightbulb….?
……or to change the business?
Some of his possible answers:
* 50–One to hold the lightbulb and the other 49 to turn the socket.
* 50–But not this 50.
* 50–One to hold the lightbulb and 49 to bitch that readers and advertisers just don’t understand why fire was a better source of light.
* 50–One to take notes (on paper, of course), and 49 to rearrange the deck chairs.
* 100–OK, who invited the circulation guy who inflates the numbers?
* 50–Five who might actually understand what’s going on and 45 to rush the bar the second the meeting is over.
* 44–The other six lost their jobs in the week before the meeting.
* 50–10 who are looking for jobs on craigslist and 40 who still aren’t sure what craigslist is.
*50–10 who think blogs are evil, 10 who haven’t figured out how to turn on their Blackberries, 10 who didn’t show up because their assistant forgot to print out the e-mail containing the invitation, 10 who still think the API is a relevant organization and 10 who think the Internets are a series of tubes.
* None–Why do we need change? Did you see how many copies of the Obama paper we sold?
PS: There is one brave live soul named Chuck Peters (the CEO of The Gazette Company in Cedar Rapids, Iowa) who is live blogging the event. It’s worth scrolling through to watch as he tries to get other participants to join the liveblog via Twitter. Most appear to be recoiling at the thought.
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(Pre-scribbling illustration above, by Farmtoons.)
50 – 50 to tell the public why the bulb needs changing, the same 50 to work hard for the change, and the same 50 again to write about how bad the old bulb was.