If it's Tuesday, this must be Poughkeepsie (You're not in Kansas anymore when the road kill is possum)

Jul 28, 2009 02:17PM by Lisa Speth

Traveling through this great nation is nothing less than an exciting adventure. From sea to shining sea, the United States is a brilliant array of wide-open skies, wide-open spaces and wide-open opinions.

From the laid-back approach of the West, and the fast-paced style in the East, America provides us with choices rich and diverse enough to satisfy any appetite. Sky-scraping structures, small-town football games, a corner market and beachfront huts give each area a unique sense of culture and history.

For all this country's vast diversity, however, sometimes it all looks the same. A recent road-trip has allowed me to experience the grandeur of the East. But two weeks on the road-city to city, town to town, and face-to-face with nameless Wal-mart associates and gas station attendants can make the locations run together.

Sometimes the only difference from one place to the next is the road kill.

In my home state of Utah, the morning driver can expect a range of overnight roadside animal fatalities. Deer, skunk, cat, and raccoon are famous for not quite making the party on the other side of the road. Less nocturnal gallivanting creatures- dogs, cows (yes, it happens), and pygmy goats are also candidates for a tar-based final resting spot. On trips I have made to Florida I noticed the turtle and occasional snake had bitten the dust. When in Texas, it was the armadillo.

Fact is, there is always a light going out somewhere to the sound of screeching tires.

Exploring the beautiful states of New York, Michigan and Pennsylvania has shown me an ageless, yet aged, view of the nation. Seeing first-hand where huge iconic companies were born, flourished, died, and left an undignified vacant warehouse was astounding. Not that the information is new to me- it's that the magnitude was now up close and personal.

Would the lost civilizations of the corporate world have survived if they had embraced changes as we expect our news organizations to do today? Now, just where is the heartbeat of America?

Over the years, America's news industry has enjoyed growing pains and lived through reductions in force. Rather than be left roadside, it has changed from hand-written notes to instant global distribution of critical details. But one thing hasn't changed. The world craves news.

If you're in the news industry, terms like "adaptation" and "transformation" are on your mind and in your meetings. Publishers know their sustainable pulse relies on a new multidimensional audience-centric business model, and the ability to embrace innovative ideas and put them to work.

Understanding the news as a living, breathing entity is vital to the success of any news vehicle. Knowing to target readers as individuals with varied interests and activities-rather than mere occupants in Zip codes where the majority households like pizza but don't buy many disposable razors-can make the difference between success and obsolescence. Your audience wants you to help them choose the content that interests them, the products you present to them, and the way you deliver both to them.

Life as we knew it doesn't exist anymore. No longer can we sit in the evenings on the front porch swing and read the newspaper for all of our news. The world is too fast and too small-and now it is our responsibility to create new nostalgia for future generations.

Drive-let's face it. We'd rather be behind the wheel than under the tires.