By Bob Zaltsberg
Editor
The Herald Times (Bloomington, Ind.)

News in the future will be more of a shared responsibility.

It will be more about readers and users than ever before. It will be what citizens and individuals say it is with their words, photos and videos.

It also will continue to be what journalists create: strong, independent, important stories about people and issues, delivered in a variety of ways.

Regarding citizen-driven news: News organizations must embrace the observations, opinions and -- yes -- reporting of readers/citizens on a number of topics that interest them. The "news" we've said isn't news because it didn't have a mass audience must find its way into our reports if we are going to stay relevant to our readers.

Let the parents write about their kids' youth league teams, music competitions and academic achievements. Let citizens debate the issues in robust online forums. Publish photos, videos, cartoons, poetry and other forms of expression offered by readers.

At the same time, let our editors expand the time and energy spent explaining our values and standards, and turn our journalists loose on finding new ways to tell the stories of our communities.

Let our journalists innovate and create; let them explore and investigate; let them make sense of complexity. Let us offer work that is informed, relevant and credible.

Continue to build the experiences with our news operations that will keep readers looking to us: make them smarter, give them something to talk about, look out for their interests, touch and inspire them, and all the rest. Tell them good stories.