The publishing industry has changed dramatically over the past few years and will continue to do so moving forward. As a result, traditional journalists are being forced to re-invent the industry. At SXSW, WebProNews spoke with Joran Oppelt and Stephen Hammill of Creative Loafing about what they are doing to save their alt-weekly newspapers.

As an experiment, Creative Loafing redesigned its Tampa alt-weekly website and brought in a new contributor model with community journalists. They recruited people that didn’t have a lot of professional training but people that were passionate.

The recruits covered local events and news and would sent their content to the professional writers. These professionals would then edit the content and put it on the site. In the end, Creative Loafing’s new strategy worked.

In order to be successful, Creative Loafing had to evolve with the changing times. Hammill says that content producers have to realize that the economic model that formerly provided revenue to newspapers, magazines, and alt-weeklies is not coming back. As a result, he advises content producers to find new sources of revenue by utilizing partnerships, sponsorships, and social media.

Oppelt adds his advice for content producers saying, “You cannot withstand change – you have to change.” He also says that publishers should re-evaluate their business model and staff.

What are you doing to adapt to this new era of publishing?