To me, unqualified could mean someone who was hired immediately after graduation to a metro, even though it wasn’t long ago that metros wouldn’t do this. Unqualified means someone who’s hired simply because that person can be paid a low salary, yet that person is not worldly enough to realize it.

Unqualified can be someone who’s never led a desk shift yet is trying to find the “flaws in the system.” Unqualified is definitely someone whose sole point of reference is the after-the-fact critique of “how something looks.” Simply saying the next day: “That page didn’t wow me” is a fast sign of someone who is not qualified to be in a newsroom — ever.

Define unqualified. Not good writers? Not good researchers? Waste time surfing somethingawful online? Don’t understand beats? Everyone has to start somewhere.

Shaking up the status quo might not be the answer. It might fail. But at least they are trying. Who else can say as much?

And what if they succeed?

So the Spokane effort is likely to fail. Once again, we shall see that simply “shaking up the status quo” is not a solution in itself. Today’s failed and failing newspaper execs are not capable of realizing this concept.