Full-scale convergence of print, broadcast and new media. It requires a wholesale remake of the journalist’s skills to report the news in all media. Digitization will revolutionize concepts of time in newsrooms. There will be no deadlines, in the conventional manufacturing model, because papers will “publish” in “real time.” This will lend far more immediacy to content.

Printed newspapers will become daily menus to the full report that’s now online. Depth and context are provided in both places, but each will have different emphasis and sources.

No longer will newspapers be the mass medium they are today, but there will be strong advertiser and consumer demand for mass customization vehicles. Some readers will compose their own daily “newspaper” electronically that matches their interests and needs. Newspapers will find ways to meet the need for mass customization in printed, electronic and other products and services.

Thomas A. Silvestri, Director of News Synergy and Newsbank Editor, Media General Publishing Division

Decline and fall of classified advertising.

Decline and fall of financial agate.

More reliance on and an increase in local news that (hopefully) means something to the reader and that they can’t get elsewhere.

David B. Gray, Executive Director, Society for News Design

Increased interactivity of the newspapers with readership because of Internet and other forms of distribution.

More consumer-oriented content.

More local coverage and community involvement.

Kathryn M. Downing, Publisher, President and CEO, Los Angeles Times

More acknowledgment of political stance. The point-counterpoint approach can be far more powerful than dispassion, and readers are increasingly sensitive to hidden agendas.

Widespread recognition that news is what I’m interested in that I haven’t heard about before, not just what happened yesterday. The best papers have already moved in this direction.

Andrew Barnes, Editor, President and CEO, St. Petersburg Times

Newspapers will have less and less breaking news and more and more background, interpretation and directory-type content. This will mean smaller staffs and require more experienced journalists in many jobs.

Newspapers will be smaller, so less content will be delivered.

John W. Madigan, Chairman, President and CEO, Tribune Co.

Shorter and fluffier; more style, less substance; Spanish in every edition.

Jerry W. Friedheim, Former ANPA President and Newseum Executive Director, Founding Publisher, Presstime, now retired

Most of us employ, by far, the largest news-gathering operations in our local communities. We must maximize our local-news coverage to drive readership. That’s a lot more difficult and expensive than running wire stories on Page One, but it’s got to happen.

[Topics on] the “Senior Page” will move from the features section to Page One. Aging Baby Boomers will turn to newspapers for everything from financial advice to coupons for Depends.

Brian Stallcop, Editor, The Sun, Bremerton, Wash.

An increased interest in the “upscale” markets, which historically pushes content and coverage away from people who are not white and middle-class, may create a class of niche newspapers whose missions will veer markedly away from the traditional role of the mainstream press.

Keith Woods, Faculty Member, Ethics & Values, The Poynter Institute

(I hope) content will become more passionate and courageous, campaigning on behalf of readers and communities. Newspapers should adopt a more pronounced civic-leadership position, and there should be greater diversity and strength of local opinion throughout the newspaper and fewer syndicated columns.

(I hope) newspapers will explain and entertain, as well as inform and educate. There must be more analysis and interpretation, and greater utility. Journalists must work harder to make readers’ lives easier.

(I hope) content will be more targeted and less random. It’s relatively simple to assess what the “hot buttons” are in any community and guarantee consistent, quality coverage of key topics and issues on a daily basis. Conventional beats will change, becoming less institution-fixated and more glued to cultural, spiritual and behavioral norms.

Why all of the above? Because it’s perfectly possible the Internet will become the source of record. Unless newspapers can move their mind-set toward creating an emotional, provocative and interactive relationship with readers, they face gradual extinction.

Terence J. Quinn, Senior Vice President, Reader & Product Development, Thomson Newspapers