The former AOL Vice Chairman and current owner of the NHL's Washington Capitals offers a ten-point plan for newspapers to re-invent themselves.  Although most of his recipes for success have been covered here and elsewhere, his emphasis on new skill sets, syndication and local ad networks are worth noting.

For example, on networks, he writes:

Embrace and extend your reach locally by building a great digital sales force and then network and ingest local unique visitors, page views and engagement from third parties. Do locally what Advertising.com has done nationally, superset the region by creating a network of affiliates and build up massive scale of local sites. Promote them in your print-based property.

On new skill sets:

What is needed is a team of people that know how to work and create blog rolls and how to get the content up high into the algorithms so that when a consumer searches the newspaper's content it comes up high in the rankings. Knowing statistically what content gets the best click through across all media is a key deliverable. Newspapers need math majors running big swaths of the organization.

It is also interesting to note how digital pioneers like Ted Leonsis still care – and take the time to blog -- about the future of the newspaper franchise.

Read Ted's full blog post here.