Steve Outing is one of the journalist veterans in new media. Now he offers 11 points to ponder for newspaper excutives in a crisis. It is indeed recommended reading for anyone working in the media.

His crisis advice is published in Outing’s column in Editor & Publisher as well as on his own blog.

Read the whole article yourself. Here I will just give you the 11 points of advice:

1. Issue an edict: Digital is first!
2. Consolidate print and online editing functions
3. Print edition: Don’t bother chasing young people
4. Print edition: Focus on the core demographic
5. Guide older print loyalists to a life online
   
6. Reduce the number of print editions
7. Online: Broaden definition of news to include micro-personal
8. Hire a social VP
9. Experiment, fail, experiment more
10. Leverage your remaining staffers, and augment them
    
11. Consider retirement

These are bold proposals and would stir a lot of noise if implemented in most newspaper companies. Yet there is no doubt that Outing is right in many of his observations. Nothing less than a radical overhaul is necessary in many newspaper companies.

Even the American Press Institute admits that the newspaper industry, at least in the USA, is in a full-blown crisis.

As Steve Outing concludes: The clock is ticking!