You know what scares me the most in a horror movie? Not the gratuitous and clearly fake violence of a slasher movie. It's the dangers you can't see. What's behind that door? What's around that corner? The tension builds to such an extent that it generally outweighs what you find.

We're facing that situation as the Federal Trade Commission explores the fear of the moment: "From town crier to bloggers: How will journalism survive the Internet Age?" in a two-day workshop to be held on December 1 and 2 in Washington.

Despite a conference call and face-to-face meeting with FTC officials, I still don't have a great handle on exactly what these workshops will produce. They describe the ultimate goal of this proceeding as "the issuance of a public report on steps that can be taken by Congress, or other agencies with proper jurisdiction, to improve (save?) the financial health of journalism." They claim that they do not intend to regulate, but the fear of government intervention is always to big to ignore.

ASNE members can help me (and yourselves) face your fears by contributing empirical data and anecdotal evidence about actual projects or efforts that have been taken - successfully or unsuccessfully - to reverse the financial fortunes of journalism in the 21st Century.

The FTC has issued a Public Notice and will take comments on several topics until Nove. 6. You can read more in the Federal Register notice: Please feel free to submit your own comments or provide information to ASNE that we may submit during the comment period or provide during the workshops themselves.