By Ron Royhab
Editor
The Blade (Toledo, Ohio)
 
Make no mistake about it: Our industry is here to stay because this country cannot exist without an independent press that is alive and well.
 
We should not be so concerned with the eventual method of distributing the news -- whether it is ink and paper or electronic or both -- but we must be concerned with the quality of what we do. The quality will sell, regardless of the method of distribution.
 
The future demands that we must grow our presence on the Web and invest sufficient resources that will allow us to continue to be the leader in print and electronic journalism in our communities.  We can't allow someone else to take that franchise from us.
 
We must accomplish all this with the same standards, responsibilities and ethics, that we follow in producing the daily and Sunday newspapers.  
 
In the short run, I want to take my newspaper and toledoblade.com to the next level that would include more investigative journalism (no one can do it better than newspapers), more thorough reporting, better writing, more staff training and more community outreach.
 
And all of us need to listen more to the bright young people we have on staff. They can help us figure out the future of news because they are the future.
 
As an industry, we must tear down walls that may still exist between the print staff and Web staff.  We must look at the combination as one entity that serves readers with the simple objective of providing them with quality news and information.
 
We must accept and embrace the changes that affect our industry, just as our predecessors were forced to do decades ago when the age of radio and later television appeared on the scene.  They did it and we can do it, too.

There can be no compromise, no turning back, but only looking forward to serve our readers.