Here's a reality that undoubtedly falls in the "things that keep Publishers up at night" category...very soon - in the next few years at the most - newspapers are going to have to place some very big bets on their strategic direction!

Some, or all of these, will be contemplated:

• Digital. Everyone believes digital will be more or ALL of the future. When do we place that bet and how digital do we go? Once those decisions are made, it will (won't it?!) drive the communications strategy to each of the stakeholders impacted by such a leap - employees, readers (users, viewers, audience...), advertisers and investors or family. How significantly will such a "bet" impact earnings and distributions? Believe me it will.

Some context...it astounds us how frequently we are working with clients and there's an incomplete understanding of strategic vision, corporate or internal resources or even regular internal communication channels. This is not just clients having multiple properties, but even applies to some single property newspapers.

Talk to each other, folks. Even if the news is unpleasant. Leaders lead...will you?

The fear of the unknown (or believed to be known!) is far worse than most realities. Especially if unpleasant news is immediately followed by a game plan for making it a bit more pleasant. When in doubt, err on the side of too much (sorry corporate counsel!) communication.

• Niches. If the "riches are in the niches" and the only way we begin to serve the multiplatform audiences we all know we must, how are they prioritized, how quickly do we need to execute against each niche and what is the underlying financial model (since it might not mirror that of the core product) supporting those sought after riches? Is there a strategy for dealing with and learning from what some would call failure? Or, better yet, benchmarks established to make sure there are multiple failures, therefore increasing the likelihood of success?

We're finally talking audience with some consistency. This is good. Belden clients are routinely conducting research that quantifies the "footprint" of that organization (BugleMediaCorp, not just a broadsheet newspaper any longer) regardless of how many products and platforms exist.

• Databases. Our industry is at every point along the spectrum in delivering audiences. From this is our distribution, take it or leave it all the way to we'll deliver as much or as little as you want, Mr. Advertiser. Well, guess what? We're all going to have to play the "Whatever the Advertisers Want Game." The only way we successfully go there is by building robust databases (which are not a gazillion dollars) scale easily, are easier - correction, intuitive - to operate, connect with the corresponding databases of advertising clients and reward users (Lower subscription costs? Discounted offers from advertisers?) for sharing information about themselves and maybe even as they learn more about our advertising and editorial content.

Those who effectively figure this out hold those proverbial "keys to the kingdom"!! Understanding audiences at the household level and offering relevant content - both advertising and editorial - attacks every nickel of revenue in the catalog, Yellow Pages and Direct Mail businesses...does any of that appeal?

• Care for the Core. While "betting" on the above, we must remain committed to those loyal Baby Boomers and older whose dedication to newspaper reading continues to provide the underpinnings of our future success and has brought us this far. In many ways, we're going to have to be as segmented and disjointed as the audiences we serve, while all the while prioritizing them and extracting synergies where possible.

The incremental deletion of stock listings or television books or a splash of additional color are not going to do much to stimulate new audiences. Even a genuinely significant commitment to promotion will not show dramatic distribution gains. Taint gonna happen. So, let's recognize how valuable our most loyal audiences are and not create much more tension as we alter our pages in search of new or more frequent customers.

• Diversification. Not just by attempting to penetrate multiple audiences, but with our willingness to place multiple "Big Bets" since we are sure to find that some fail.

Many will recall Koz or the Cue Cat. Koz was the original community platform from what, '95 or '96? Doesn't it strike you as similar to efforts like YourHub?

And, while many would call the Cue Cat effort to link advertisers to customers through a tethered scanning device attached to one's computer a complete failure, there's no question it was a conceptual bulls-eye. We link to those advertisers via a simple click on a web site everyday and many of the largest advertisers are sending out targeted digital pre-prints already.

If you agree and recognize the need for those "Big Bets" let me exhort you to even higher heights. Set those goals exceedingly high. One client has a Vision Statement I absolutely love - I've paraphrased, but it goes something like this:

One of our products or services in every household in the entire region, every day!

The entire region in this case would be something like 5 million adults!

The web and properly deployed database technology, combined with the human resources newspapers currently have means such a vision is achievable and not just a dream. So, let's get on with it!

Have a great summer!