This is the fourth in a series of guest blog posts on the future of news by former staff of the Rocky Mountain News, marking the six-month anniversary since the 150-year-old paper published its final edition. Join us this Thursday at 5 p.m. ET/ 3 p.m. MT to chat live with these writers.

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Well, six months after the close of the Rocky, I'm still running around with a camera (sometimes a still one, sometimes video) trying to make what is in front of me into a story.

I freelanced quite a bit before joining the paper, so (for better and worse) it hasn't been a shocking change. Although one noticeable difference is the different pace at which the "outside world" operates. What happened in minutes or hours at the newspaper happens in hours or days now. I don't think that's a bad thing, but it has been an adjustment.

I've been involved with a few projects and ventures since the closure. Some have worked out better than others, and others are yet to be determined. One exciting project is a Web site that Lesley Kennedy, the Rocky's deputy features editor, and I launched in June.

Denveralamode.com reports on local designers, fashion, style and trends. At the paper, I shot a lot of sports and news and, occasionally, some fashion and always enjoyed it. Lesley's great to work with, so the combination has been a nice bit of work. The site's been well-received, continues to gain readership each week and we really enjoy the work, but we're still building an audience and working to sign up advertisers. We have no idea how this will end up, but we're optimistic.

As for the state of daily deadline journalism, I am far, far from a scholar or pundit on the issue. But, since I was asked, here goes: I agree with the general forecast of a great deal of change still coming. Unfortunately, I think, most of it will include many reporters, photographers, editors, designers and production staff losing their jobs as more newspapers close or merge into various regional publications.

Five years ago, we weren't processing pages full of tweets and status updates from dozens of friends (and people we want to be our "friends"), along with e-mails and text messages from spouses, partners and co-workers.

Additionally, many folks have favorite niche sites they read or aggregators they turn to who serve up a collection of information bits, videos, photos, games and so on. On top of that, there are still enough daily newspapers publishing and local television stations broadcasting that average people have more data available to them than they can possibly absorb.

The likely tipping point will be when the economic problems reduce media output to the point that folks really notice it (if that point has not already arrived.)

I think, with traditional media, a beat that isn't covered by the local paper or a story a station doesn't have staff to cover, just gets lost in the roar. There's an argument that those lost beats are going to be picked up by micro-bloggers or citizen journalists. Some will, some won't. Some will be covered well, some won't. Whether or not that is a satisfactory solution has yet to be answered.

My (far from original) suggestion to newspaper publishers is to streamline the content they deliver. If it is an easily collected and processed piece of data, someone else already has it. There's a lot of noise out there; don't contribute to it. Don't waste folks' time by repackaging the same information five different ways on the page.

Elegant and clean presentation, interesting and fair (which is different from the canard of "objective and balanced" reporting) stories will find a way through today's fog of information.

Let's just hope the fog is lifted before it's too late.