Now, it would not be fair to call this article Lex Tribune, if it wasn’t for the fact that it’s not their first lap around the crazy barn, as Matthew quickly pointed out.

Motivated by their 2008 bankruptcy, I understand that the The Tribune Co is very afraid of the future. They should be.

And as I said earlier, we all are. But this behaviour does only tell you just that: you are afraid, clueless and have lost track of what is your core product: journalism. It tells everyone including your readers and ad buyers that you have business ADHD, and cannot be relied on to focus on developing your core product: journalism.

And I quote: “The tablet project is getting deep technical resources and attention from Tribune’s highest ranks, said five of the people familiar with its development. Meanwhile, the company has recently restructured its media services and publishing facilities, laid off editorial staff and is continuing to plead its case in bankruptcy court.” (Mark Milian, CNN)

No one but the news industry can on a consistant daily basis produce the same width of both short news bits and in-depth, investigative journalism that most often is without hidden agendas (Hello hey, Fox News!). It’s what we do best.

However, we are not best at building computers, programming complex distribution and financial systems, social CRM solutions and content management systems, building computers, fetching cats from trees, baking delicious pastry or connecting the dots between guns and violence (Sorry Fox, couldn’t resist this opportunity either).

Journalism, journalism, journalism.

And further more, if you take one step back and analyse the situation, what is our industry’s main problem? We have more or less the same overall costs as before, but our incomes is decreasing. Breaking down those costs, you find two dominating oldies but goodies: salaries, and paper plus distribution.

Go Kate!

Do we really want to take that chance and add the insane costs of hardware (and software) development to our already broken down finances? (“Meanwhile, the company /../ is continuing to plead its case in bankruptcy court“)

Do we really want to add the marketing costs that comes with trying to compete with Apple for the tablet market… even if we get help from Samsung?

Do you really think that you’re that big, Tribune?

Really?

Or should we, I don’t know, maybe look at the overhead costs and try to adopt our organisations to become more streamlined?

We could also start by realizing that people will chose which hardware platforms they want first, based on who wins the tablet marketing wars, and that maybe we should put more thought into how we deliver an optimal reading experience to as many as possible of those platforms?

Maybe we could really put some of that hard thought into how we can use YouTube, Flickr, WordPress and other free tools to actually increase both engagement, influence and ‘readership’?

Maybe we could take a lesson or two from CNN iReport and Paul Lewis of The Guardian about citizen journalism and how it could help us build relations with the next generation of readers?

And maybe, just maybe, we could try to at least acknowledge that there are actually areas like customer experience management, where there are experts who work with some of the main issues we have?

To name a few maybes and dunnos. I won’t even go into learning from other B2C (and even B2B) industries, that’s just crazy talk.

And until we get that far, at least try to do look at role models in your own industry.

Journalism, journalism, journalism. It’s what we do best.

But hey, I’m just bantering now. I must be, because I’m… me. There are actually people in the business that know better. Enter Craig Newman of the Sun-Times Media, which happens to be located in Chicago… isn’t that where The Tribune is also from? Hell yes.