We have more in our control than we may think. If we innovate, lead, embrace the possible and don't give in to the negativity, there remains a place in our society for the work we do today.

Yes, we must embrace the new technology, the blogosphere and citizen journalism; yes, we must understand that news is less in control of those of us who grew up in the era of "gatekeepers"; and, yes, we must continue to embrace and articulate the traditional values that have so well defined journalism for so long. Even in the freewheeling age of the Internet, there will be room for truth-telling, for honest accounting of the issues that confound our society, and for explanation and context. That's what differentiates us. As someone said, we can still help people make sense of what is going on out there.

For those of us with the opportunity to lead, we must be change agents, helping our colleagues, our newsrooms and our companies see what is happening. We must help articulate that broader vision for what news will be in an era where everyone can (at least on some level) be a journalist. We must help our companies cope with the disruption of our traditional economic models by creating new outreach to readers and supporting potential new revenue streams with different kinds of content, be it on the Web and or in print. Finally, we must continue to support our core product -- news on paper -- for it isn't going away soon.

To paraphrase Carville: It's the leadership, stupid.