Newspaper publishers may be eager to colonize the digital landscape, but they can’t do it without offering consumers online content that is simple, manageable and digestible—and that ranks near the top of Google searches, too.

This was the message delivered by Ink & Beyond 2009 headliner Mitch Joel in his opening lecture, Six Pixels of Separation: How Newspapers Connect in a Digital World.

A noted blogger, podcaster, ...

In his inaugural address at the presidents’ luncheon on May 22, new CCNA president Mike Williscraft recalled his earliest association with newspapers when, as a small boy, he would devour the columns of his hometown paper, the Clinton News-Record.

"I spent many a Wednesday evening with the paper spread out on the floor, scouring through the sports write-ups for my name," Williscraft remembered.

Later, as a 13-year-old ...

It used to be that there was little to distinguish European and North American newspaper production.

But today, with massive change sweeping through the industry, the two markets have begun to evolve apart. The layout of front-page news and the design of the newsroom, for example, have emerged in recent years as key differences in North American and European news production.

We know this thanks to Betrand Pecquerie, director ...

Besuited and freshly barbered, Graeme Smith lounges on a leather sofa in a swanky hotel bar in Montreal, sipping 16-year-old scotch. It’s a far cry from being "bombed, shot at and RPG’ed" as the Globe and Mail’s man in Afghanistan from 2006 until his return to Toronto just a few months ago. Smith talks to The Publisher about life at the front lines.

P: How does a 25-year-old wind up as the ...

Here's the part I don't get.

I keep hearing newspaper executives and journalists complain that news aggregators like Google News or Digg.com, or Newser.com are "stealing" our content and making money off of it, feasting on our failing flesh, robbing us of revenue and choking off the lifeblood of our newsrooms.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So why don't we just do it better? If it's profitable, if there's a real demand from readers ...