Former Rocky Mountain News Editor & Publisher John Temple on solving the technological challenge newspapers face:

Newspapers remain a form of craft industry in a digital world where global platforms dominate. There’s not a different Facebook or Google for every city.

Why should the structure of a news/community site be different in every city? Why not a universal platform, open source, that gives journalists the tools to do their work in a digital world?

Then a training academy to give journalists and programmers the opportunity to work together, learn new skills and develop new applications for the platform. Does every news organization really have to figure out how to do election results or charts online and in print, for example? I don’t think so.

He suggests that Google might help by extending its Blogger personal publishing tool into a professional journalism platform:

I use Google’s blogger software. It’s probably the simplest around. The task for local news organizations is far more complicated. It’s time for Google to step up and work with journalists to develop something similar, and then let the best content flourish.

Newspapers need a new structure. The country needs vital local news organizations. Google works best when content is organized in a way that users can easily find what they’re looking for, wherever they are. Those common interests could be the basis for Google to help create a future content world without ever becoming a “content provider.”

This may not ultimately be the right solution, but it’s nice to see someone offering a reasonable starting point.