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As the best-selling author and social commentator Matthew Crawford has observed, change is not inevitable. It represents a conscious decision, usually by those in authority, to disrupt the operative paradigm in favor of a new, and hopefully, better one. While that change may be valuable, as Nobel Prize-winning economist Robert Schiller has noted, it may not be preferable. Most things now in existence represent the evolution of process and practice over decades or even centuries. Buttons and folio books both date to the last decades of the Roman Empire. Conventional construction techniques date to the middle of the 19th century, and journalism, itself, represents the opportunistic pairing of technology and circumstance over four centuries.

That newsrooms may be resistant to change may be an obstacle to opportunity, but it may equally represent a recognition that for all the benefits suggested by new ways of meeting the demands of a changing audience, the transformation being promoted may not represent a compelling reason to break from traditional practice. As Dr. Schantin notes, getting staff to accept change requires takng,