Metro daily newspapers like the Minneapolis Star-Tribune (Strib) might consider taking a day off from the news and try printing some cash. Avista Capital Partners, a private equity company that owns the Strib, recently wrote down its investment in the paper by 75 percent. Now, the Strib is looking to trim its budget by $20 million. Ouch.

As a journalist and someone who cares about the future of the profession I’m conflicted about the news. I mean that in both senses of the word. Part of me mourns as deteriorating financial conditions continue to strip newspapers of hard-working staff.

The other part wonders if we need to ask a hard question. Are big newspapers worth saving?

Asking that question does not mean we shouldn’t care about journalists working at those papers. Most of them are doing their job and doing it as best they can with limited resources. There’s nothing wrong with saving the journalists. It’s the sinking institutions I’m worried about.

So, why are big media gurgling and why am I sounding the horn to abandon ship? Newspapers (and television and radio, for that matter) no longer have a monopoly on information. They can no longer simply push out information and expect to be useful or sustainable. In many cases, out-of-whack profit margins are falling and circulation/viewership is in a nosedive. It’s time for a rebirth and new expectations.

Journalists provide a great public service and while the news business can certainly be profitable, I would like to see more non-profit ventures or at least journalism-centric businesses focused on financial sustainability. Journalists should worry about serving their community, not corporate overlords and their inflated valuations.

So, what can we do? I’ll tell you what I’d do.

(I’ll speak of the situation in the Twin Cities because it’s what I know best. I grew up in Minnesota and was a six-year resident of Minneapolis. I also had the chance to work at two mainstream media outlets while I was there. It’s a place I care about a lot.)

First and foremost, enable social networking. Place still matters, as do shared interests. People with similar interests can use social networking to communicate and form loose relationships with others in their community. It helps establish trust and can make it easier to meet in person and forge “real-world” friendships.

I joined the Twin Cities Flickr group in its infancy, attending the first meetup at a bar a little over two years ago. A few of us shared a few beers and took a photo or two, thinking it fun to see our photos of each other up on the site the next day. Now, the group has 1370 members, with many showing up for frequently-held photowalks.

A local news site should support and sponsor these interest groups or at the very least aggregate them (Meetup, Flickr, etc.).

A local news organization should also:

• Allow comments (video and text) on all of its stories
• Host online forums/bulliten boards for local issues
• Make it easy for members to post story ideas or contribute first-hand accounts
• Make it easy for people and organizations to post events
• Organize events so they are easy to browse/search and feature the best submissions
• Not refer to itself as a newspaper
• Adopt a web-first mentality
• Aggregate sites and resources that are valuable to your users, including the competition
• Do technology training and outreach within the community (especially with high school and college students)
• Hold regular public meetings to encourage participation and feedback
• Provide multimedia reporting
• Encourage user feedback on content
• Encourage user feedback on usability, design and usefulness
• Promote, encourage and reward active users

No media in the Twin Cities are realizing the full potential of the web and mobile communications. There is a lot of great multimedia work and good breaking news coverage, but few have made a very good effort to engage the community.

There are a few exceptions, including MNSpeak and Jason DeRusha. We need these people and efforts a hundred times over.

“But wait!” you say. “This is all fine and dandy, but how do you actually make money?”

Text and image display advertising is certainly still a substantial piece of the revenue pie, but we need to be more creative and more specific:

• Get companies to sponsor social or interest-based groups that would actually find their products or services relevant and useful
• Create places/spaces/opportunities where companies can have meaningful conversations with customers
• Do some fundraising (events/drives/5ks) and offer badges or other ways for people to promote their donation
• Seek grants
• Sell clever t-shirts (it works for bands, right?)

Lastly, profits should be invested to ensure stability during tough times.

If someone did these things really well, I am confident they would be able to make a comfortable living. They might not get rich, but they’d be able to provide a useful service for years to come.

It’s time for a mutiny of sorts. Facebook and Wikipedia are not abbirations. They are evidence that people thrive on conversations and sharing knowledge and experiences.

We need a few brave journalists who understand the need to engage their community. We need a few brave entrepreneurs, dedicated to creating a sustainable business model. We need these people now.

In my next post, I will talk about what my ideal staff would look like for a meto news start-up.