Dan Gillmor wrote an interesting article recently on the “11 things I’d do if I ran a news organization.” And I have to say the man knows what he’s talking about. Why do I say that? Because I agree with him. Below are some of my favorite ideas of his, along with some brilliant commentary:

1.“We would not run anniversary stories and commentary except in the rarest of circumstances. They are a refuge for lazy and unimaginative journalists.”

Yep. Also, unless there is some big story or cultural shift behind it, can we cut out any stories simply about the fact that a new film or TV show is coming out? I don’t need 500 words on how Ben Affleck is branching out with his new film. If I wanted to read a press release I would. (Oh snap!)

2.” We would invite our audience to participate in the journalism process, in a variety of ways that included crowdsourcing, audience blogging, wikis and many other techniques.”

While some newspapers are beginning to do this already, it is unbelievable how many have not. Check out this video to see what the Cleveland Plain Dealer thinks of bloggers (hint…it’s not positive).

4. “We would create a service to notify online readers, should they choose to sign up for it, of errors we’ve learned about in our journalism.”

This is a good idea, but also a very annoying one. I can’t imagine how clogged my email would get with every correction emailed to me separately (which you would need, only timely corrections are useful). Actually I can imagine it. I can also imagine me canceling this service.

7. “We would replace certain Orwellian and PR-speakish words and expressions with more neutral, precise language.”

Yes please. Also, phrases like “Barack Obama, who was elected President of the United States…” need to be said the day it happened, not for months after. If you don’t know that, you’re probably just wearing the newspaper as a hat anyway.

10. “A core mission of our work would be to help people in the community become informed users of media, not passive consumers — to understand why and how they can do this.”

Bingo, bango, bongo. Getting consumers active and involved is the key. Sigh…if only the newspaper industry would take these suggestions seriously.