I actually think newspapers should implement wholesale changes. But those don’t include firing everyone older than (name an age) and bringing in wholly unqualified young journos and treating them as the next saviors. That approach is simply asinine, yet that’s what many people seem to want.

The best business model is probably one that’s too late to implement. But clearly AP is not interested in being part of a solution, so that organization needs to be excluded as soon as possible.

Also, newspaper designers keep claiming they are the solution, but no redesign has ever led to a sustained circulation boost. So they need to be excluded as much as possible. Pseudoeditors of presentation? Gone.

Then there needs to be an announcement: Yes, the Internet is the future. But it’s not the present. If you want to be part of the current business model while planning for the future, come on in. But if you want to cling to “pie-in-the-sky” dreams and “the way it SHOULD be” rather than “the way it is,” then you need to find some other work.

Next, there needs to be a blunt message delivered to newsrooms: Stop clinging to the way things “used to be.” From this day forward, the B.S. of “We’ve always blamed the desk” or “We don’t get paid enough to act professionally” will stop. People in businesses act in a business-like manner. Yes, the work should be fun, but that doesn’t include slacking off. The fun will come along with the accomplishments. People with Watergate-era agendas need to move along; not every story is a probe into what the next Deep Throat has to say.

I also think that j-schools are about 20 years in the past. I graduated college in 2000, and when I took a copy editing and design class, we learned how to use a pica meter and a photo wheel. If we ever survive a nuclear holocaust, I can help put out a paper.

Don’t lose all hope for today’s graduating journalists. For instance, my paper has a very enthusiastic intern. Like all interns, he has room to grow and lessons to learn. But he has a passion for journalism, in whatever form that may be.

Keep in mind, today’s grads through those in their early 30s were likely not around the last time newspapers had as many cuts. Were there ever as many, or across as broad a scale, even in the worst of times in the 80s and 90s?

I also do not believe that “old school” journos have nothing to contribute. Everyone has a dog in this fight. But think about it. What are the old school journos doing? I am sure they are doing something, but unless they publicize it everyone will assume they are doing nothing.

Personally I am dying to know what business model will bring papers out of this slump. That’s the million dollar question right there.

But at least we’re seeing how unqualified today’s young journalists are. Newspapers have lowered their standards and thrown open their doors to these people, and they aren’t bringing much to the table.

Between this intern’s post, some of the ignorant responses, and more ignorance from a young Poynterbot (http://www.wenalway.com/forum/index.php?topic=108.msg4779#new), we’re learning that the journalism professors are dropping the ball, and the graduates aren’t nearly as smart as the clueless newspaper hiring execs claim they are.