Executives would grumble. After all, good reporting costs money. The infrastructure that supports the production and distribution of news, be it print, radio or television, is extremely expensive – It’ll be impossible to compete when everyone is a reporter and can instantly broadcast or publish around the world. Plus, there’s only so much ad money to go around – if advertisers flock to the little guy, that’s fewer ad dollars for the big companies! Not to mention the loss of revenue that comes in from the “for sale” and “want” ads!

The time traveler, if he were savvy, would agree, but with a few caveats. While it’s true that things will change a great deal in the next quarter-decade, he’d say, you’re missing the big picture. Wouldn’t you want your content distributed instantly and inexpensively, all over the world? (I can travel to Europe and still read live updates of baseball games at the Web page of my hometown newspaper.) Despite the new influx of opinion leaders and “new” media personalities, don’t people still need and crave local news? (All news is local news, after all.) Won’t new means of content distribution provide new ways to deliver advertising? (There’s a reason Google wants in on the mobile phone market, and it’s not to sell handsets.)

Finally, don’t you realize that quality reporting will always cost time and money, something usually out of the reach of everyone but news organizations that can afford it? (People can only have an opinion about the news if there’s news to opine on.)

After leaving executives with those thoughts, when the time traveler returned to the present day, would anything have changed? Could the big media companies have figured out how to leverage all of these opportunities, or would we continue to hear stories about major media outlets, from those with national reach to those in major local markets laying off personalities because of the rise of the Internet and social media?

I wonder sometimes.

To make matters worse, at every press conference he seems to be on the defense from the get-go, a bad situation to be in when you may shoulder responsibility for loss of life. The Chicago Tribune has a round-up of how he has handled his role as company spokesman during this crisis, but if anything is clear it’s that he is woefully unqualified to serve in the position. I can’t help but think how much better this situation would have been handled had an experienced PR firm been hired to write statements and liaise with media.

Online readership of newspaper sites continues to grow. The NAA pointed to recently released data from Nielsen//NetRatings showing a 5.3 percent increase in the number of people who visited newspaper Web sites in the first quarter of 2007.

While most of the top 20 newspaper circulations fell, it is interesting to see which ones made notable gains. The tabloid-style New York Post jumped a whopping 7.1 percent (as the paper proudly proclaims on its site), and top national papers USA Today and the Wall Street Journal have also seen slight gains.

When I was growing up my Dad had an evening ritual of getting home from work, kicking off his shoes, and diving into the Detroit Free Press. On the contrary, when I get home, I kick off my shoes and fire up my laptop to check my RSS feeds and regular news sites. Same ritual, different medium.

I’m very interested to see how newspapers make the transition to a world that gets the majority of its news online. By incorporating social news-like features, USA Today has had perhaps the most interesting online makeover, and the structure of the newspaper really lends itself well to an online environment in the first place. Will other papers follow suit?

The best part of the Aqua Teen Hunger Force “bomb” scare? All of the media outlets photoshopping out, blurring out or outright removing the Mooninite’s crude middle finger. Fortunately the Mooninite threat has been quelled, as arrests have been made.

These little LED objects were placed in ten cities around the United States. Why was Boston the only one to go on high alert?

UPDATE: The men responsible for planting the devices in Boston gave the most bizarre press conference I’ve ever seen. A must-see.

UPDATE 2: The Turner CEO apologizes.

Fortunately for them, if celebrities appear to make an honest apology and attempt to amend their ways, they’re usually forgiven. In some cases, the newfound notoriety following a celebrity scandal can actually help their career and increase their marquee value.

The guide to committing, weathering and overcoming scandals for celebrities is as follows:

1. An actor, musician or pro athlete does something stupid. They make a racist comment, get caught with a prostitute, get caught with drugs, drive drunk, flee from an accident, or a combination of the above. DISCLAIMER: Serious offenses will never be forgiven by the public and are instant career killers, even if the offending party doesn’t end up in jail. See: OJ Simpson. Michael Richards may also end up in this boat, and what he did wasn’t even illegal – Just terribly, terribly offensive.

2. The celeb must formulate a strategy for a day or two as their mugshot and/or incriminating photos show up everywhere on the Web. The mugshot will inevitably be the absolute most unflattering photo ever taken of them, and the public will be shocked at how bad they look. This is actually a good thing, as you’ll learn later. See: Nick Nolte.

3a. For less serious or non-criminal offenses, a celebrity can appear on a late night talk show to explain the situation. Hugh Grant handled his prostitution bust magnificently on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and came out smelling like a rose.

Due to their comedic nature, however, late night shows aren’t the perfect venue for every celebrity seeking to make amends. The Michael Richards apology on the Late Show with David Letterman, for example, was painful to watch as Richards awkwardly attempted to explain himself and apologize. When the live studio audience uttered nervous laughter they were chastised by guest Jerry Seinfeld, which didn’t help.

3b. For more serious offenses, the celebrity must hold a press conference and issue a heartfelt apology. This is where they can tell the world what happened in their own words, take responsibility, apologize, assure it will never happen again and outline steps they are taking to ensure it will never happen again.

For many celebrities, this step involves announcing they are entering a drug or alcohol rehabilitation program, which is useful for two reasons: First, it allows them to lay low and stay out of the spotlight for a while. Second, even though they’ve already taken responsibility for their actions, this allows them to shift at least some of the blame to a substance abuse problem, which means their actions weren’t entirely their fault.

4. The celebrity in question must then make amends. Mel Gibson met with Jewish leaders after his offensive comments, and Michael Richards appeared on Jesse Jackson’s radio show. It also doesn’t hurt to donate money to a related cause. Money talks, and a charitable donation shows you’re serious about correcting whatever problems caused the scandal in the first place.

5. This is the point where the celeb lies low, at least for a few weeks. In the world of tabloids and celebrity news, new scandals arise constantly, so whatever people are talking about today will be ancient history by the time the celebrity re-emerges.

6. Now the celebrity needs to get a makeover, wear something classy and make their triumphant return… On a late-night talk show! There they can keep things positive, talk about all of the changes they’ve made since the scandal broke, and look to the future. People will compare the new, improved celeb to the abomination they saw in the mugshot and think, "Wow, something must have really been wrong with him! Glad he’s back!"

As much as the public likes to see the high and mighty fall from grace, it’s an even better story when a celebrity is rocked by scandal, handles it gracefully, and returns more successfully than ever before. As vicious as the blogs and tabloids can be, let’s face it – Nothing’s better than a good comeback story.