Let this sink in for a minute:

The New York Times Company, the parent of The New York Times, posted a $335,000 loss in the first quarter — one of the worst periods the company and the newspaper industry have seen — falling far short of both analysts’ expectations and its $23.9 million profit in the quarter a year earlier.

If you needed any more proof that the newspaper industry was doing historically bad this should be it. We’re not talking about the NY Times Co. having poor profits by industry standards (the 15-20% range). We’re talking about the company having one of its worst quarters ever.

The NY Times Co. is a diversified company, but it is their newspaper business that is faltering:

The poor showing stemmed from The Times Company’s core news media group, which includes The Times, The Boston Globe and The International Herald Tribune, as well as several regional newspapers.

Conversely, Internet properties like About.com are showing strong growth within the company. About.com had an operating profit of $12.6 million, up 9.5% from a year ago.

Anyone who denies the newspaper industry is in a historic (not cyclical) funk is blind. This industry needs radical change if it is even to survive.

I’m convinced that most journalists don’t really understand blogs or the power blogs have.

So, it’s time for all journalists to start understanding blogs. Yes, it would be great if all journalists experimented with blogging and blogging software, but that is overkill in some ways and just unreasonable given the reality on the ground (we’ll start with baby steps). We can start with journalists reading and posting on blogs, and then maybe one day we can ask all journalists to get their own blog (blogging is a great way to learn about the Web, new media and social media).

For now, I think it’s reasonable to ask every journalist to pick a few blogs to read and start posting on them. I got this idea from journalism professor Mindy McAdams, who is asking her students to pick a few blogs and post on them. McAdams came up with the idea because she wanted students to start reading blogs (I assume many students did not on their own):

One of the things we try to get journalism students to do is, um, read other people’s blogs. And not only their friends’ blogs!

Here are my suggestions:

1. Pick a few blogs and start reading them - Romenesko does not count. Your friends and colleagues do not count. The Guardian has a list of the world’s most powerful blogs. Or you can check out Technorati’s 100 most popular blogs by amount of fans or authority ranking. Both are great places to start if you don’t know of any blogs. It also makes sense to read blogs about topics you care about.
2. Read before you post - The first time you read a blog is not the best time to post. Read several posts. Read the blog for several days. Then you’ll have an informed opinion about the blogger(s), what the blog is about and, importantly, what the community is like.
3. Post something worthwhile - Don’t just post to post. If you post on a blog, it should be a meaningful comment that helps further discourse. That is the power of blogs. It’s a communal event.

Most journalists do not understand the social aspect of the Web, but blogs are a great crash course in that. All news organizations should encourage their employees to read and participate in blogs.