Near-crisis for newspapers calls for urgent action, execs told

Some 50 newspaper industry top executives gathered at a private strategy session on Nov. 13 outside Washington, D.C., were told it’s time for urgent action as their companies enter a financial “near crisis.” Two consultants told the executives they should spend the majority of their time on strategic initiatives for re-invention, rather than on current operations, according to a summary of the American Press Institute meeting.

• The summit statement and report
• The convening purpose

NEWS AND COMMENTARY ON THE API SUMMIT:

• From Editor & Publisher’s Jennifer Saba
• Chuck Peter’s blog and live-Twitter of the API summit
• Advice to publishers from Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute fellow Jane Ellen Stevens
• Former daily publisher Martin Langeveld: “Busted Flat in Reston”
• And from Poynter columnist Steve Outing: “Do Newspapers have Six More Months?”
• What Vickie Williams of Northwestern had to say

And lots more discussion:
http://blogs.reuters.com/mediafile/2008/11/14/newspapers-not-out-of-the-wood-yet/
http://blogs.reuters.com/mediafile/2008/11/07/when-the-going-gets-tough-newspapers-clam-up/
Advice for newspaper industry « Diablogue on Nov 16, 2008
Jeff Jarvis: New News, Nov. 18, 2008; and One Model Nov. 13, 2008
Mark Potts: Rearranging the Deck Chairs?  Nov. 13, 2008
Jaskon Kristufek: Calling on the API to go one more step
Dave Winer: On the collapsing news industry (Scripting News) on Nov 17, 2008
Fascinating Blog Battle on Fate of Newspapers « journajunkie on Nov 17, 2008
BACKGROUND: 2007 McKinsey study on what consumers want in news