I would say that the different experiences I’ve had in various newsrooms have shaped how I think a lot, as well as the blogs and journals I read online. You have to experience a lot of different environments to really get a perspective of your industry, especially one as complex as journalism is. Redesigning cm-life.com was a huge experience for me because it forced me to ask questions: What would optimize my readers’ viewing experience? What do they want to see? What areas of online journalism are critical for us to take advantage of?

My biggest concern, however, lies in what influences others’ thinking. Traditional newsrooms still operating under a prehistoric model (and as we know, there are still plenty of them) can influence journalists to have a prehistoric mindset on their industry: That print still dominates and will dominate, for example, and that there’s no sense in having a reporter gain experience with a video camera.

Furthermore, if those newsrooms still bring in young college journalists as interns, how will that affect their thinking? Will they grow as skeptical of the Web? Will they continue to write stories for print rather than online? That’s the type of thing that worries me, at least in this stage, because young journalists are so important in guiding the industry forward.

But maybe that’s because of where I come from. Most of Michigan’s big newspapers are far behind 2010 in how they operate. Some are barely beginning to use Twitter, and their accounts are nothing more than RSS feeds.

Let me know what you come up with, Greg, at BCNI this weekend. I’d love to hear what others have to say on it.