Nozzl Media, Inc.

Newspapers have much to learn from technology companies — but not necessarily about technology itself.

Tech companies can teach newspapers all about attitude, optimism and accomplishing the impossible.

I spent more than 30 years in the newspaper industry as a reporter, editor and general manager. Much of that time, I covered technology, beginning with the dot-com craze, lasting through Y2K and the dot-com crash and continuing right up to the time I took a buyout and left the world of paper and ink.

I know from experience that newspapers are a world of skeptics — and rightly so. Reporters deal with politicians, spinmeisters, rogues and hucksters. When someone claims to be able to do the impossible, we close our notebooks, cross our arms and say, “Prove it.” Moreover, we’re observers by profession, not doers. We watch with tremendous interest as others innovate, but it would seldom occur to us to do it ourselves.

Tech companies, in contrast, are a world of optimists. Every day, they accomplish the impossible: They build products and services that would have been regarded 400 years ago — or even last week — as black magic, punishable by burning at the stake. In contrast, the folks who invented newspapers 400 years ago would instantly recognize newspapers today — both a comforting and unnerving thought.

Newspapers really have no choice: They must import technologists, not only for their skills, but also for their worldview. The New York Times is doing just that, with its 13-member research-and-development staff. (See “‘New York Times’ R&D Team Seeks Next Big Thing”) in the Oct. 8 edition of Editor & Publisher. Every major metro newspaper should have a staff futurist, R&D chief or mad scientist.

It’s imperative that newspapers break old habits of thought and embrace the new habit of optimism — not blind optimism, but the optimism that comes from accomplishing the impossible day after day. Any software developer can tell his or her newspaper colleagues that what separates the possible from the impossible isn’t black magic. It’s simply the right resources, the right priorities and and buy-in from management. The rest is details.