In business, a Chinese wall is an information barrier that separates one part of the company from another. In newspapers, there's a Chinese wall between the journalism part (the newsroom) and the business part (advertising), and usually also the opinion part (the editorial page). Outsiders generally don't understand this, but left hand really doesn't know what the right hand is up to, and what's more, often don't want to know.

"Digital First!" is a great battle cry, and thank you, John Paton, for giving it to us all. It is pure leadership, a flag planted forward declaring that newspapers now see print as the past and digital as the present and future.

I suspect everybody in journalism has their own crazy lady story. I was reminded of mine last night when browsing pages in Roger Ebert's memoir, "Life Itself." Ebert was born and raised in Urbana, Ill., where I lived in the 1970s. While our paths never crossed -- he was already working in Chicago at the time -- I was struck by this reference:

For a Society of News Design panel at last weekend's conference in St. Louis, I made a list of 10 discussion points to get things going. Here they are:

[Update: Michael Romaner has more details and a (we think) complete list of everyone who worked for MDW over the years.]

I just filed my last expense accounts, tying off my final paperwork at Morris DigitalWorks, where I've spent the last decade.

I was on a "next five years" future panel in the mobile/tablet track at last weekend's Society of News Design conference in St. Louis. Here's an expansion of what I had to say:

I have nothing to add to what I said last year.