It would be interesting to compare my thoughts with their perspectives. What I saw was a group of newsroom leaders who know there are serious problems with maintaining the status quo and are motivated to make big changes. Many are planning new niche products and shifting more people into webs, and/or have all print reporters focus on all media forms equally. But to do it, they often have to eliminate staff since they can’t hire. Newsrooms in chains are more hampered than the independents, with a few exceptions.

My takeaway is that while it may be too late for some, the economy and problems with the old model are creating a sense of urgency (and for some, outright panic). So the economy could be a blessing in disguise.

I also see a large subset that are mostly thinking abou moving chairs around and not addressing fundamental problems with the model that need to change. And everyone lamented that no revenue people were in attendance.

In my opinion, the newsrooms with too much organizational ennui are not going to make it. But I see some with positive, possibility-oriented leaders whose energy is infectious with their staff. Those places are doing well and will only get better.

I’ll blog about this in more detail on Idea Lab next week.

This being said, I do not think that we have anything to worry about. If nothing else we will end up with papers stripped down to the bear bones, a small amount of high quality information. And lets face it, the current paper is so chock full mediocere writting and reporting, that that might not be such a bad thing.

That debt will be a burden for years to come, unfortunately. So even when the economy does improve, any bounceback in revenues will probably just get eaten up by execs wanting to pay down as much debt at possible.

I doubt it will happen, but let’s be clear of the total cause.

Also, would you could a newspaper shutting down print and going all online as a newspaper going out of business?

Are newspapers in some sort of death throes. Absolutely. But will newspapers die in the next five years. No. Not even in the next 10.

But a lot of what is happening right now. A lot of the job losses right now are because of cyclical economics, not secular changes.

Newspapers will start hiring again in about a year to 18 months (of course, hiring never gets the headlines layoffs due, so hardly anybody will notice).

Newspapers still generate a lot of cash (for all the hammering Gannett is taking, they still reported $233 million in cash flow). They still have huge market penetration compared to competitors. They generally still the best advertising buy in their markets.

Will newspapers ever generate 35 percent profit margins again? No. Post recession, 15 percent? Maybe.