It’s from Steve Outing and is in Editor & Publisher: Some Words of Advice for Small Newspapers. Example:
1. Copy and build from the industry leaders
Some of the most innovative new-media work in the newspaper industry in the last decade has come from small or medium-small newspapers. To get ideas, you don’t have to look too far or too hard. Look at what newspaper Web sites by the Bakersfield Californian, Lawrence Journal-World, Bonita Daily News and Spokane Spokesman-Review, for instance, have done in recent years. Keep close tabs on their Web sites, because they often introduce new features that are worth emulating. (True, those aren’t all “small” papers, but some of the things those papers do online could be accomplished by smaller publishers.)
It’s a terrific list, and will be ignored by most newspaper folks who are too preoccupied with putting out fiscal fires. Too bad.
(Disclosure: I’m an investor in Steve’s new company.)