The most important hour of the year for local newspaper folks

Where is local news going? What are the dead ends and distractions tempting newspapers to their demise? What does the future hold?

Richard Gingras, head of Google news products, dispenses a million dollars worth of advice in this one hour talk (here is Matt Stempeck's live blogged synopsis; but watch the whole thing if you are in the industry, you lazy toad), it is a must for anyone who works at a newspaper, from ad people to editors; from reporters to publishers.

One sage nugget:

Richard argues strongly for evergreen story pages. It is not the brand, not the site, but the story itself that is the lifeblood online. Publishers should not think about editions, or even ephemeral streams of articles, but rather living story pages. Story pages are the most valuable real estate.

If I were running a local newspaper, I would make the ideas espoused in this talk a blueprint; if fireworks aren't going off in your brain after listening, rinse and repeat until you get it; or email me and I'll try to help; or retire.