Another week, another Talking Tech podcast. We've gone high-tech, migrating from an Olympus digital recorder (which mysteriously locked up and remains so until someone from Olympus returns my e-mail) to Apple's GarageBand (sweet!). Anway, where was I? Oh yeah, Talking Tech. This week, Kevin and I take a look at Apple's stellar fourth-quarter results, including the fact more than 39 million iPods were sold in fiscal 2006. We also explore the "new and improved" Internet Explorer 7, and take a skeptical look at the virtual world/Second Life phenomena. If you have suggestions, comments, etc., you can e-mail us.

The lead story in yesterday's Globe & Mail was about a senior management shake-up at the Toronto Star, mostly prompted by a sharp decline in the company's stock price and the controlling shareholders' unhappiness with the newspaper's editorial direction. It makes for a good story but it's just another sign of the newspaper industry's struggles as the Internet changes how people consume information and how advertisers are reacting. This process has seen many newspapers slash costs by laying off reporters, close bureaus, and rely more on wire services for out-of-town sports coverage. So, let's look at what the newspaper industry needs to do to survive using the traditional five "W"s: who, what, where, why and when.

Why do newspapers need to change?: Frankly, they have no choice. Circulation is declining as more people, particularly 15-to-25-year-olds, use the Web to get the news. Many newspapers in North America and Europe are also being hurt by free dailies such as Metro that appeal to commuters with a low-cost mix of wire stories and colour graphics and photographs.

What must newspapers do?: Experiment, innovate, focus on and engage the community. Clearly, newspapers need to embrace the Web, but it's not just a matter of migrating stories from paper to the digital world. They need to encourage interaction with readers by soliciting comments about stories, providing links to external resources, launching blogs, podcasts and video blogs, and driving traffic between the newspaper and the Web site. There also needs to be more focus on the local community given national and international news is a commodity available in a wide variety of places. Fast Company, for example, has an excellent profile on the Naples Daily News, which has become the poster-child for local coverage with a Web site that offers news, including a daily video blogcast, and tools such as the ability to compare house prices, and receive text alerts about the weather. (Hat tip to Jeff Jarvis)

Where is the newspaper industry going?: As a starting point, let's assume a growing number of consumers get the news fairly quickly from the Web, all-news radio and 24-hour TV stations such as CNN and NewsWorld. I'm talking about the major news such as accidents, natural disasters, political issues, business earnings, sports scores, etc. It means by the time a newspaper hits the front door in the morning, you're probably aware of a good chunk of the news inside. So what does this mean? Well, newspapers - and this sounds strange - need to abandon the "news" because it's become a commodity. Instead of telling people what happened (which they already know), they need to explain why it happened and what it means. It's about perspective and context, which is difficult to find in a 300-word story on the Web. Among newspapers, the Washington Post, New York Times and Wall St. Journal lead the pack, which is why they also tend to be cited so frequently in the blogosphere. There is one exception to the "news" argument: newspapers need to provide strong local news coverage given they have the resources to provide coverage not widely available on the Web.

Who's going to write the news?: There are two schools of thoughts: one, hire young, aggressive reporters for peanuts, and leverage their enthusiasm until they start to demand more money. Then, you let them go and hire a new crop of cheap talent. Rob Curley, who heads up the Naples Daily News online operations, has used this approach to provide extensive coverage with a skeleton staff. This low-cost approach will likely be embraced by more newspapers as a way to control costs. The question is whether there is room within this landscape for experienced, high price talent, and, if so, how many do you need? The other side of the coin is using some young talent to run around town to do the "grunt stuff" while having a small, but talented, group of senior reporters to write columns, news features and analysis pieces. Either way, the end result is you will end up with lower-cost and likely smaller newsrooms.

When do newspapers have to change?: Easy answer: now. Anyone who got caught with their pants down by the Web's emergence as a news resource needs to adopt an aggressive, risk-taking approach. This will mean mistakes will be made, experiments will blow up, and pet projects will fail. It means newspapers have to stop being afraid of the Web cannibalizing the print product; they have stop thinking about the Web as a separate entity; and they need to stop thinking the sky is falling. As REM frontman Michael Stipe sings: "It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine". Well, the Web means it is the end of the print world as the newspaper industry knows it but that's okay. For newspapers that embrace change, experiment and dramatically change how they operate, they'll likely survive and thrive - much like radio survived TV, and movie theatres survived the VCR and DVD.

(Note: I spent 18 years as a newspaper reporter, including nine covering the Internet, so my view of the world is very Web-biased.)