Many newspapers appear to be like a boat in the ocean without a compass, under a heavy cloud cover, taking on water, and the weather is getting worst. The impacts of the problems are not clear and effective solutions are elusive.

Knowledge, which is based on years of experience, can work against us. We can react to the situations as we have in the past only to realize we still have not solved the problem. We expected the results we have seen before, but this is not the case today.

The stock fund caveat "prior performance is not an indicator of future performance" is so true in turbulent times.

Many are surprised they get caught in the box by trying to apply yesterday's answers to a situation that is without precedent, and the fact they must continue to adjust the organization and products time after time.

The L word has forever changed many newspapers and caused the demise of several. Leverage is indeed the new nasty word. It is trying to sink the country, no, make that the world, and is doing irrevocable harm to publishing.

Warren Buffet, in his annual report, stated: "A number of these (LBO) acquirees…are now in mortal danger because of the debt piled on them by their private equity buyers."

This is one of the industries problems. Add the worldwide meltdown and changing customer habits and we have a perfect storm.

The changes that have taken place are reshaping the industry and the way business is conducted in almost unimaginable ways. Who would have thought that competing newspapers with overlapping circulation would be delivering each other's products? Who would have thought that a metropolitan newspaper would have home delivery less than seven days? They clearly are not playing by the old rules.

Of course, the old rules for cutting expenses have been utilized, such as web width reduction. However, many of the presses are at the minimum page width their folder can handle, so the option of reducing the page size in the future will not be available. Even if it was available, who really wants a newspaper the width of toilet paper?

There are a lot of very innovative and clever responses to the bottom line problem. Take the West Palm Bach Post. Who would have imagined they would be printed by their competition in Ft. Lauderdale? Not only does this meet the criteria for thinking out of the box, it meets the three criteria we feel are essential for survival of many newspapers. It was Bold, it was Quick and when the decision was made, it was well Communicated.

When I first began working in this industry a boss of mine gave me some great advice when I was trying to reduce costs. He said, "When a building is going over budget, do not look at the cost of the roofing nails." His point was that if you waited until you have few options to cut cost, it would too little, too late.

Move quickly when a problem is detected and be bold in the response. This advice has served me well.

Cost cutting needs to be bold and big enough so the pain is not dragged out over an extended period of time. So many organizations inside and outside the industry have made multiple layoffs to the point that three rounds is not unusual. The disruption to the organization is huge, not to mention the stress on the staff, which can be devastating.

What are the new rules? With the exception of honesty and integrity of our product, I am hard pressed to list any other rules. Why does a newspaper need to wait until midnight to run? Will circulation go down so much without a 5:30 AM delivery? These two questions and everything between them are open for challenge.

Reinventing rather than tweaking is needed for effective positioning an organization for the future.

There may be some industries that use their capital equipment less hours in a day than the typical newspapers. However, if there are, there are not many. Newspapers are now embracing the need to utilize their equipment more and view it as a revenue generator and part of their survival plan.

Gone are the days when publishers did not want to take on commercial work because the profit was less than the newspaper generated and the revenue would dilute their profit margin and bonuses.

The rule that newspapers had to have a press to control their destiny has changed for many. Others need to be challenged. What rules are newspapers following when they will not allow ads on Page One, but will allow post-it note ads?

What rule are we following when ads cannot be on the editorial or op-edit? Do they notice that when their editorials are read on the internet that they are sounded by ads? Restricting ads from certain pages, as many newspapers do, is not a rule the internet embraces.

A production executive summed up what her efforts were in tough times. She said, "We are not in cost cutting mode, we are in survival mode and everything is on the table."

It is difficult to think outside of the box on every issue, but the alternative is to be buried in it. Or as my former boss used to say, "if you are stuck in a rut you will get run over."

All the rules have changed and newspapers can use this time to truly reinvent themselves quickly and in a bold manner. It will be painful that is for sure, but absolutely necessary.