The film “Broadcast News” gave Mark Potts a novel idea for saving newspaper jobs and newspaper people:

If that network executive didn’t have the (guts) to suggest that a bulging salary be cut to save some jobs, maybe somebody in newspaper board rooms should step up. Because as layoffs and cutbacks continue to course through newsrooms, in no small part because of longstanding and chronic management incompetence, newspaper company CEOs still are taking home the big bucks, and even getting nice raises in their base pay.

Most newspaper CEO compensation packages still add up to millions of dollars per year, in fact, with an average among the 13 public-company newspaper CEOs of just under $6 million a year in 2007, according to corporate proxy filings with the SEC. A little belt-tightening among the fat cats might help to save some jobs–and that’s no joke …

Given the industry’s problems, it’s a little hard to see why more newspaper CEOs aren’t stepping forward to take a little less swag in exchange for keeping more of their valuable human assets on the payroll. Just imagine the goodwill, good morale and good press that would be generated if some newspaper CEO said, “You know what? If it means saving the statehouse bureau, the copy desk and our features section–and making some smart investments in the Web site–I’m going to take a couple million less next year.

Any takers, corporate newspaper management guys and gals?

Also, Tampa Tribune intern Jessica DaSilva has been getting lots of feedback on her blog, where she gives us this first-person window into the moments when editor-in-chief Janet Coats gathered the newsroom together and announced more layoffs and the Trib’s new business model.

(Full disclosure alert: The Tribune is owned by Media General, which also owns the Opelika-Auburn News, WRBL and this site.)

DaSilva’s account is a riveting, no-nonsense, no-frills look at what happened, the staff’s reaction to it, Cook’s defense of it and the aftermath.

I don’t agree with all that’s said here. But I agree that the industry is worth fighting for. The question is, do you fight a battle you can win? Or do you fight a battle you know you’ll lose?