In the midst of a year that has seen a truly existential crisis for print journalism, it's instructive to ask ourselves just what kind of paper product newspapers are selling these days. The photo above is what landed on my front stoop last Sunday. Inside the advertising bag was a free sample of what's reputed to be some of the most absorbent pulp money can buy ... plus the San Francisco Chronicle.

Bit by bit, the Public Press project is getting noticed.

I just got off the air from an hourlong interview with Jonathan Rowe, host of the talk show "America Offline" on KWMR, the community radio station in West Marin County.

Though the Public Press team is looking to construct a local news organization that’s innovative in its business model, production, design, financing, management, technology and distribution, the raison detre of this exercise is to cover stories that traditionally have been ignored in the press. This is the fun part: pushing the boundaries of what professional journalists have considered “news.”

What topics are left by the wayside? They include stories that lack a special appeal to so-called quality readers -- the wealthy elite sought by high-end advertisers. (Your suggestions are more than welcome; please leave some ideas in the “comments” section at the bottom of this post.) Some initial thoughts on what would be important for the rest of us to read more of:

Even as vital Bay Area journalistic institutions seemed to crumble before their eyes, a panel of media reformers at the journalism school at the University of California, Berkeley, sounded almost optimistic Wednesday night.

This is our first foray into a new electronic platform for a global discussion about kick-starting a noncommercial press. We are about 70 years behind broadcasting, but it's never too late.