If saving the newspaper industry isn't reason enough to get creative, how about $5 million?

In case you need further proof that innovation matters, here it is: The venerable Knight Foundation is offering a total of $5 million for community news experiments that help lead us into the future.

The Web site asks, "Who will do in the 21st century what our founders, the Knight brothers, did with their newspapers in the last century?"

Newspapers have historically defined the communities in which they exist. They shape how people think about community and "how we understand what's happening on our block or around the world."

The $5 million-dollar-question is: Who will perform this function now that digital media has changed the way we send and receive information?

The News Challenge contest seeks ideas for using "new media" combined with the best news values to bind and build communities.

Anybody in the world can enter as long as they have an innovative idea that uses the digital world to connect people in the real world. That, according to the foundation, is the only rule.

The contest is open to companies, individuals and nonprofits. You don't need to be a U.S. citizen to apply. It's open to everyone around the world.

The deadline for submitting a letter of inquiry (brief summary of proposal) is Dec. 31, 2006.

Enter at www.newschallenge.org.

I wonder if Iowa City's Press-Citizen's initiative, MyP-C, has anything to do with this.

http://mypc.press-citizen.com/