Red and Dead: Every good journalist comes to work every day prepared to quit on the spot if he is forced to do something that goes against his conscience. The student staff at the Red & Black did just that last week.

It all started when the independent student-run newspaper decided to pare back its print edition from five days a week to one in 2011 and emphasize its website. That's th direction print media is headed, so it made sense to train young journalists that way, although the shift was perhaps too abrupt and premature. They hired a semi-retired board member named Ed Stamper, who once sold advertising for the Red & Black and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution before making a fortune in loss-prevention software, to craft a new business plan. His plan, basically, was to turn editorial control over to professional staff, who would be charged with running as much inoffensive content as possible, according to a memo the students leaked.

It really shouldn't be any surprise. In their flailing about to remain relevant and profitable, newspapers have retreated into milquetoast-dom, afraid to offend any reader or advertiser lest they sink another inch into oblivion. They're boring. As former Red & Black editor Chuck Reese put it Friday: "You can't learn a damn thing about what to report from a focus group." What readers say they want and what they actually read are two completely different things. Nor should "digital first" be a euphemism for fluff.

At a news conference Friday, Red and Black board vice chairwoman Melita Easters and, via written statement, Stamper, were appropriately apologetic. But what led the board to put the paper's future in the hands of someone like Stamper? Why was he allowed to put forward such terrible ideas to begin with? I posed these questions to Easters and got, essentially, no response. The organization—ostensibly a nonprofit—was successful enough to pay publisher Harry Montevideo $189,000 and rake in half a million dollars in net revenue in 2011, according to tax returns. From a business angle, it's healthy.

Witness, though, what chains like Morris (owner of the Athens Banner-Herald) and Advance (owner of the New Orleans Times-Picayune and major dailies in Alabama and Michigan) have done to their publications. Advance cut back print to three days a week, laid off half its newsrooms and turned its websites into glorified blogs, even though it is still profitable. At least Morris had the excuse of crushing, ill-advised debt it took on at the tail end of its halcyon days, then couldn't pay back, for cutting three-quarters of the ABH staff.

There is really no excuse for the Red & Black. The board—made up of businesspeople, advertising executives, academics and retired journalists, but not a single working reporter or editor—is clearly out of touch. It took almost a full day for them to make a statement about the fiasco, which might as well be a century. It's like the Pony Express trying to run a radio station 80 years ago. The students have a far better grasp of what "digital first" journalism truly means. They started a blog, tweeted up a storm and proved yet again that nimbleness is far more valuable than a big-name masthead.

Here's an unsolicited piece of advice for those students: Don't do it again. Journalism isn't a job, a career or even a calling. It's a lifestyle. It's who you are. And when the rent's due, it's much harder to walk out that door. Learn to compromise in a way that doesn't compromise your integrity. Fight. Don't run away until you have no choice.

I continue to believe, against much evidence, that readers crave real news. They want someone to hold the powers that be accountable. Whether they are willing to pay for it in sufficient numbers to support it remains an open question. Good thing Flagpole is free.

Party On, Athens: Sunday is a holy day for many people, but this Sunday in particular will be the holiest of holies. If you go to the beer aisle at the grocery store, you will be bathed in light, because that beer will no longer be shrouded in darkness; it will be for sale, and the blue laws shall not overcome it.

Shocking absolutely no one, Athens voters approved Sunday package sales by a 70 percent to 30 percent margin July 31, and I suspect most of the 30 percent were just trolling. But it has taken the Athens-Clarke Finance Department a few weeks to process stores' permit applications. As of last week, 36 of the 109 eligible establishments in Athens were approved, so if you're rebuffed at one store, don't be discouraged. Canaan is out there, just over the mountain.

A Public Service Announcement: The environmental group GreenLaw is hosting a $100 fundraiser in Athens this Sunday to fight a Rayonier paper mill that would pollute the Altamaha River downstream from here. Five & Ten will cater and Randall Bramblett, among others, will perform. For more information, go to green.org/southern-nights.