For publishers wondering how to protect their paying business with Internet pay walls, there is a very interesting lesson in the story of two great American sports. Boxing was as popular as baseball in the 1940s. A. J. Liebling, the great New Yorker writer, wrote about "The Sweet Science" in the 1956 book called "the greatest sports book ever" by Sports Illustrated. But something happened over the last few decades to keep boxing from growing with the times, while Major League Baseball has built its success through thick and thin.

Question from a salesperson: I won't say that I've been guilty of burying impressions at the bottom of our pages, but I certainly haven't forced everything to the top either. Is the recent news about "viewable impressions" going to help or hurt the business?

True story. After a promotion to vice president of sales at a publicly traded dot-com publishing company, I started attending the weekly executive staff meetings. This executive team was in charge of executing a business plan for a company that made 99% of its revenue from selling advertising, and I was the only person sitting in the room who had ever sold an ad.

For many of us, it's hard to believe change can indeed accelerate, but now it can be said that change is the only constant. Change has been accelerating in how our readers and viewers access our media, and therefore we must change how we publish to our market.