The American media scene is in utter chaos.  There’s no way to quantify the uncertainty that is taking place in newsrooms across the country.  People are scared and that includes folks right here in our own back yard.

This week, the Dallas Morning News implemented more layoffs.  The DMNcuts blog posts positions and of individuals that were terminated, though they don’t go so far as to name names.  They also link to a Scibd document that lists the ages of those let go.

In 2009 I had the opportunity to attend the Sensemaking Program at the Poynter Institute of Media studies.  There were about 30 folks who gathered from traditional media, online media and no media to discuss the future of journalism.

Before then I’d never give much thought to the profession of journalism or the values of the profession.   Back then I still read the newspaper everyday and was a subscriber. But I was ready for the old media walls to come tumbling down and welcome the new era of citizen journalists and new media.

While I’m still and advocate for the open web and all the wonderful things that have resulted from the internet’s contribution to media, none of that dismisses the fact that the role played by working journalists is vitally important.  It’s important to a healthy democracy and important to healthy communities.  Newspaper reporters still provide the bulk of the content that radio folks comment on throughout the day.

I understand those who find delight in the pain of our local daily though I disagree with their sentiment. And honestly, I’ve run across my fair share of journos who needed to be taken down a few pegs.  But the work that goes on at places like the Dallas Observer, the Dallas Weekly, D Magazine and the like make our city better. Too often we mix up personalities with the mission.

By no means am I discounting the contributions of organizations like ours.  Whether it’s West Seattle Blog, Voice of San Diego or Q City Metro; hyperlocal sites, blogs,  aggregators and content curators have exponentially increased the information options for citizens.  The appetite for news has never been stronger and it’s almost insatiable.  It the physical piece of paper that has lost it’s place in American society, not the content itself.

However the business model on which most newspapers are built is broken.  It’s a model that is similar to most American business which are all top heavy.  What makes it more difficult is the role newspapers play (or should play) in local communities is in the interest of the public, just like water works, the police department or the sanitation department.

Those businesses would have a tough time making a return to investors too.  Something will eventually have to give on the top end, that’s just a fact.

I think the DMN deserves credit for efforts to reinvent their organization.  The business/news integration strategy implemented a couple of years ago make some folks uncomfortable, but it’s a reality.  I know because I live it everyday.

Their focus on investigations is logical, though I don’t always agree with their execution.  Local politicians have been turned off by local coverage and rightly so. And I still don’t get the whole Parkland thing.

By and large DMN gets it right on the news side more than they get it wrong because of writers like Gromer Jeffers, Scott Goldstein and Tawnell Hobbs as well as editors like Sharon Grigsby.  I hope The News can tinker with their model until they reach something sustainable for the long term, but we’re not there yet.

As the industry works towards a solution it will be important that diversity is valued and the interests of underserved populations are fairly represented.  It will continue to be painful for all of us, but our communities are better for the effort.

The Dallas-Fort Worth Tribune is reportedly headed our way. They are advertising for reporters at the Texas Workforce Commission web site and boast that they, ”will be competing for market share with both the Dallas Morning news and The Fort Worth Star-Telegram with a full news staff comparable to the aforementioned newspapers. Highly competitive salary.”

Pay starts at $900 a week (sadly, more than I was making when I left my newspaper job) and they prefer 10 years of  experience. Right now the web site dfwtribune.com goes to a beta site for the Gouverneur Times named for one of the country’s Founding Fathers Gouverneur Morris, a New York born American statesman with a pegleg, who promoted the idea of a single union and who was called the ‘penmen of the constitution’. He allegedly lost the leg in a carriage accident but some evidence suggest his leg was crushed after he jumped from a window trying to escape a woman’s jealous husband. (Sorry. The history buff in me couldn’t help but look him up.)

If you’re a desperate journo you may want to pay attention to the news quality here. Take a look at the opinion columnists who include: Chuck Norris, Michelle Malkin, and Oliver North among others. The Dallas Observer points out that the New York-based owner, “Scott Reddick, spoke at a Nationwide Tea Party Coalition get-together in Irving in January on the subject of “Launching Your Own Online Local Conservative Newssite.”

Hmm. I don’t know if competition is the right word. It looks like a conservative online rag going for a conservative audience in Texas. There’s a market share for more conservativeness? Here? Go figure. But hey, you can make a whole $900 a week. That’ll keep those big city metro reporters on their toes.

Chick Talk Dallas is the hatchling of Joanna Cattanach, a former Dallas Morning Newsstaff writer/news assistant. A graduate of Baylor University, she currently works as a freelance writer and writing instructor in the Dallas area where she and her husband call home.

• When a member of The Dallas Morning News Editorial Board approached me two years ago regarding the paper’s just-launched “Bridging Dallas’ North-South Gap” project, I didn’t quite know what to make of the plan – or the fact that the team was seeking my opinion.

• But after a couple of meetings with “Gap” team members, I was willing to give this effort a chance. Since 2007, the editorial board has met with scores of southern Dallas leaders, business owners, residents and other stakeholders in an effort to understand the many unique challenges faced by this most misunderstood portion of our city.

• I thought some of the high fives and chest bumps in the Sept. 20 Points section were a bit much, but one thing is clear: Over the last two years, the newspaper has been clear in its goal of identifying problems and diligent in efforts to solve them.

• But that doesn’t mean that we stop trying to fix what’s wrong. Local voices that have appeared on Viewpoints, like Victor Medina and Gerald Britt, must continue to push for change and hold public officials accountable. Community advocates such as Anna Hill in Dolphin Heights and Rawlins Gilliland in the Piedmont neighborhood should continue their efforts to ensure that their neighborhoods are not left out of the public discourse.

• The commitment of the mayor and the rest of the council to southern Dallas will be judged by how much industry and how many jobs they are able to bring to the area. The newspaper’s “Bridging the Gap” team needs to stay in the mix and use the great resources at its disposal to make sure that economic parity remains a goal.