Print Will Live In A Digital Age

That does not mean people are not thinking about what The Inquirer might look like in 2029.

Marimow envisions a news organization operating on multiple platforms, evolving to meet the changing format and delivery demands of readers while staying true to its mission - excellent journalism.

"We've got to be the maestro of multimedia," he said.

Others envision a radically different offering, a mostly online publication that gathers all sorts of Philadelphia-area information.

"Think the template of Facebook, with a mingling of the public with the intensely personal, and an aggregation of news," said Rich Hanley, director of the graduate journalism program at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn. "We will always want to know who died, who is doing what with whom, and how the government is spending our money. Human nature doesn't change, but the way it is recorded and reported will."

Harper, of Temple, said he thought the future Inquirer would include news filed by amateur journalists from across the city, in places such as Logan, Olney, or West Philadelphia, all reporting on their particular corner of the world.

"You have people writing, you have people taking photographs, commenting, taking videos," said Harper, a former foreign correspondent for Newsweek and ABC News. "We have to reinvent ourselves. And I think that's a good thing."

Contact staff writer Jeff Gammage at 215-854-2415 or jgammage@phillynews.com.

Staff writer St. John Barned-Smith contributed to this story.