So, as Philly Newspapers Inc LLC (PNL) careens through the long road of bankruptcy court, the talk has restarted that the way forward is closing the Daily News. Great.

As I say at every forum I am asked to speak at, when the question about 'new media' comes up: We are 100 percent dependent on a vibrant local media. Period.

At heart, YPP is basically a volunteer operation that I keep going because 1)I enjoy it and 2)I think it serves some sort of unquantifiable need and 3) once in a while we do a little good. There is no way that we will ever, ever, ever be able to survive without good local reporting. And, while the Inquirer has a solid City Hall Bureau, without the Daily News, we instantly lose a huge chunk of focus on our City. There is no way that something like YPP will replace it. None.

I know there are problems with the way newspapers operate, and with how certain stories are run, and with the constant focus on crime above almost everything. But, if we lose the Daily News, and we no longer have Bob Warner, Dave Davies, Catherine Lucey, Chris Brennan, and company writing about the City, things we should know about will simply go unreported. Instead, life will be spent trying to decipher a bunch of press releases. And it will matter a whole lot less that City Council may be violating the Sunshine Act, because there is a good chance no one will be around in the first place to report on it.

If the Daily News dies, so do we. Not right away, maybe not even for a while. But there is just no way that we can function in the long run, and have content every day, without the Daily News existing.

The Media Mobilizing Project got big time coverage today in The New York Times. Todd Wolfson and the MMP crew really are getting new media tools in the hands of new and hard-pressed communities.

I met Todd through my work at PUP, and I have to confess that I was pretty skeptical about what his organization was trying to do when he first told me about it. You could even say I was skeptical to the point of being discouraging.

I can be accused of many things, though, but not of failing to acknowledge it when I'm demonstrably wrong. The fact that MMP really is getting normal people to use these tools has been well (and prominently) documented today. Click read more for the details!