The New Way for newspapers comes with a few “new rules,” as Bill Maher likes to call them. Only these are serious.

1. If newspapers are going to survive, first some newspapers will have to die. And it’s every man for himself.

2. The printed newspaper, like any product, can – and must – evolve.

3. Everything the pundits said was going to happen is happening now.

4. The New Way requires new leadership styles.

Those are the rules. Consider them working assumptions as this blog progresses.

I’ve kept a lot of memos and ideas under wraps here at the Herald-Tribune, where I work as content manager for national-award-winning HeraldTribune.com. But the problems our industry faces are urgent and the time has come to share my ideas for solutions.

This blog is for anyone invested in the newspaper industry. That’s publishers, editors, writers, advertising account reps, news clerks, carriers, Web site managers and, of course, stock holders. Even if only a few of my ideas are revolutionary, your company can’t afford to ignore them.

Now is the time to do everything newspapers have dreamt up during the last decade. Now. Or never.