Warren Watson teaches journalism at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind. In his 35-year career, he worked for newspapers large and small, including the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times, where he was assistant sports editor and graphics editor/art director from 1984-88. His is a past co-chair of The American Editor Committee. Reach him via e-mail at wwatson@bsu.edu.

JOHN YEMMA FIRMLY BELIEVES THAT his Christian Science Monitor is doing the right thing in becoming the first major newspaper to abandon a daily print format.

"Print today is seen as a luxury," he told National Public Radio in mid-January about the Monitor's decision to publish daily only on the Web. "It also has a lousy carbon footprint."

So, the 56-year-old editor takes an optimistic look at the cloudy future of daily newspapers - at least in the case of his own newspaper, which just turned 100.

Last summer, Yemma rejoined the Monitor after 20 years at The Boston Globe, where he was deputy managing editor for multimedia.

Yemma is a 1974 graduate of the University of Texas and has been recognized repeatedly by others in journalism. In 1999, Yemma and Globe reporter Daniel Golden teamed up to win a Headliner's Award for their examination of Harvard University. Yemma was editor of the 1999 Polk Award-winning Globe series on abuse of mental patients by researchers. In 1994 he was a Reuters fellow at Oxford University. In 2008, he was a Sulzberger fellow at Columbia University.

Q: You rejoined the Monitor after 20 years with The Boston Globe. In what ways had journalism changed during that period?

A: Twenty years ago, the Monitor knew that its future was not in print. It was deep into broadcasting and was experimenting with a fax edition and a pre-Internet news product. The technology wasn't really there, however, so the experiments floundered. But at least the Monitor saw the writing on the wall. At the Globe and every other regional daily 20 years ago, there were also forward-thinking editors and publishers who knew that print would not be forever. But the sheer financial strength of the daily regional newspaper - with its virtual monopoly on print advertising in its community - lulled many people into thinking that those conditions would prevail into the indefinite future. Obviously, the great disruption caused by the Internet has changed all that. For journalism itself, whether at the Monitor, the Globe, or elsewhere, we've continually had to do our jobs with fewer resources and more creativity. We've also had to learn how to use this new medium - the Internet.

Q: At what point did you realize that the future of journalism lay in its use of multimedia storytelling?

A: In the 1980s, I worked for a time with several producers who had been with ABC News on projects for the Monitor's documentary TV unit. What impressed me was that they understood the power of the moving image and helped me understand that a word journalist such as me had to see the unique value of the video medium. Flashing forward to about 2004: It was clear to me (and, of course, not just me but many other journalists who had had these insights well before I did) that the Internet, like TV, was more than just a paperless newspaper. It is a medium that is all about interactivity. It encompasses text (print), video (TV), audio (radio), searchable databases, has very low barriers to entry, and is a many-to-many network unlike the one-to-many model of newspapers and broadcasting. Storytelling in this medium has to recognize the habits and preferences of Internet users: fast and simple access, links to related content, enabling of comments and feedback, engaging a social network that can help multiply the eyes, ears, and intelligence brought to bear on a subject (i.e., crowd-sourcing) - and presentations appropriate to the story.

Q: As the newspaper gets ready for a purely online future, how will you hold onto the traditional print subscriber? Will there be a print version of any kind?

A: All newspapers are in transition. Only a few will choose a purely online future right now. Print still has a role, though a more limited one. Print is a wonderful medium. A newspaper or magazine is an aesthetic experience - the touch of the paper, the smell of the ink, the serendipity of articles assembled in a spread. But it is expensive to produce, difficult to distribute and has a bad carbon footprint. Increasingly, print has to be seen as a luxury item, and a healthy diet does not consist of luxury items every day. At the Monitor, we are launching a print weekly as we discontinue our print daily. We think that on weekends people have more time to read in a more leisurely way. Internet usage is lower on weekends than on weekdays (though undoubtedly this will change in the years to come).

Q: You've spoken in interviews about the importance of a newspaper "reaching people where they are." Can you elaborate?

A: The fragmentation of audiences brought on by the Internet is a reality. There is no going back to the good old days of a family newspaper on most front lawns every morning. There is no going back to the days of subscribers who pay for and loyally read a newspaper. Readers of news on the Internet skim quickly, don't expect to pay for content and may or may not be loyal to a site. We therefore have to present our journalism in a way that understands those habits and that tries to build loyalty. Energetic, honest, involving journalism is the best way to reach people where they are,

Q: What do you think the Monitor will look like in 2020?

A: I'm not sure I can think that far ahead. I do know this: Somewhere over the horizon is another big disruptor not unlike the Internet. It will change everything - how news is delivered, consumed, interacted with. I think the smart phone is doing that right now. Twenty years from now, who can say? The main thing is that the Monitor's mission has to be protected so that it can continue, because journalism is crucial to democracy, society, and culture. That means that every news organization has to be flexible, always looking at user preferences and always developing business models that are forward-oriented. Change is the constant. So in 2020, I think the Monitor will have journalists still carrying out the Monitor mission. They may be doing it with lasers or holograms or nanotechnology. They may be doing it with pixels or even occasionally with print.

Q: What advice would you give to editors contemplating a reduction in their print products?

A: Communicate to the point of excess with your customers, your staff, your advertisers, and other media. Let everyone know what you are doing and why. Be open and honest about the challenges you are faced with and why you are making certain moves. What doesn't wash is to tell subscribers or staffers that you'll have a better product as a result of downsizing staff or reducing frequency of publication. Let them know how things will look and that what you value most will be preserved.

Q: How do you reorganize a newsroom so that it is focused almost primarily on online publication? What kind of changes have to occur?

A: We are working on a number of levels to get us to our new Web-first-plus-weekly-print world. Our last day of daily print is March 27. Our first day of weekly print is April 12. And of course our Web site, CSMonitor.com, is already a going concern (has been for 10 years or more). To get to our new place, we are reorganizing our newsroom into three work units. Think of it is a planet with two moons. The moons are each production operations with 8-10 people dedicated to them. One consists of producers who are responsible for the Web site. They primarily manage the home page, time the posts to make sure they go live at the right time (for news reasons, traffic reasons and aggregation reasons). The other moon is in charge of the print weekly. They do fit-and-finish editing, headlines, display text, short items, and ensure tone and continuity. The big planet is where our assignment desks operate (National, International, Features, Photo, Design). The assignment editors - with lots of consultation and guidance from top editors, weekly editors, and Web editors - work with reporters and photographers to determine whether news is a short, immediate item for the Web; a longer, more analytical item for the Web or for weekly print; or a substantial piece for weekly print (a cover story, for instance) that will take some time to develop and get published in print first and then migrate to the Web. The assignment desk is almost like a wire service that we manage.

Q: How can a newspaper best reflect the variety and complexity of life in this new century?

A: Stay flexible, stay curious, don't take anything for granted. Realize that there is a lot of danger and hurt in the world but there is also incredible beauty and humanity - all of that, not just the bad news, needs to be captured by a newspaper or news site. *