Only in Chicago: yesterday 400 people gathered in a ballroom at the Allegro Hotel in the Loop to talk about the future of journalism in Chicago. It was called the "Chicago Journalism Town Hall," but it could have been called the "Chicago Internet News Town Hall," because at the end of the day, the message was clear: news is going to be delivered online, people are going to get it online, and it's time for everyone involved to get with the times.

John Callaway, host of WTTW's Friday Night, set the tone: "Assume for the purposes of this conversation that newspapers are dead."

There were plenty of interesting panelists -- including representatives of traditional journalism, like Callaway and Carol Marin (of the Sun-Times and NBC5 TV), online journalists like Geoff Dougherty of the ChiTown Daily News, Ben Goldberger of The Huffington Post, and Andrew Huff of Gapers Block, as well as numerous journalism experts. What I found more interesting, however, was the number of people participating from the audience who are actively working right now to bridge the gap between the old model of news delivery and the new. Some examples:

• the audience member who went from being a member of the Tribune's advertising sales staff to being an independent blogger.


• the CEO of Dawdle, who reminded everyone that it's all about advertising, and pointed to some of his favorite places to advertise, which are online and profitable and right here in Chicago: Ars Technica and Pitchfork.


• Brad Flora, of the Windy Citizen who talked about how his "Digg for Chicago" site has now attracted the attention of other cities . . . .


• panelist Eric Zorn of the Chicago Tribune, who has been working assiduously to integrate the print and online (blog, Facebook, etc.) versions of his journalism . . . . During the event he was monitoring Twitter feeds and helped identify audience members who had interesting things to say.

There is no doubt that Chicago is already a powerhouse in online news.  The way the transition to fully online news delivery (and other publishing) plays out in the months and years ahead will be one of the most exciting facets of the business scene in Chicago.

A final word: Hats off to town hall moderator (and sponsor) Ken Davis. Ken and his wife put this event together as private citizens, and did a great job of guiding the conversation.

Joe Scarry is head project manager for Chicago Joomla web developer and web design firm Arc Technology Group.