More and more, newspapers are feeling peripheral to me — and that’s a wrenching statement for a veteran dead-tree journalist and news junkie to make.

I suppose the worm started to turn when I turned to blogging, which put me in close proximity to my laptop most hours of the day, either to write, research or listen to podcasts of local meetings. Then I added a job that involves searching the Web and rewriting stories for a variety of business and industrial readers.

The 2008 Tribune redesign also didn’t help. Newspapers will never compete with wide-screen TVs no matter how much newshole you devote to over-sized photos and graphics (what’s with that retro ’70s typeface, anyway?). They’ll just turn off the devotees who want to read the news. And once turned off, most of us will never bother to return.

Instead, we’ll flock to whatever online news source we prefer — if not many, many sources — and read, watch, listen to and comment upon our news that way.  If dinosaurs like me are doing it, there is no hope for printed newspapers. This is old news.

Question is: How quickly will the e-news format evolve and what are the costs? And I’m not referring to start-up costs (negligible) or advertising costs (negligible) or user costs (non-existent). I’m talking about the impact this new digital age will have on our understanding of the world and the independence and credibility of  whatever remains of  “the press” going forward.

I’ll be back with what I’ve learned about one exploding form — hyperlocal journalism — on Friday. It hasn’t been at all what I expected when I launced the DGreport three years ago.

Into my Twitter account came the question “What goes on in your library on a typical day?” with a link to a Flickr photo essay entitled “Snapshot of the Library:  Feb. 10, 2010.”

Check out the 62 other snaps here. And my compliments to the photographer. Love, love, love this colorful shot.