A new report documents how newspapers are struggling to find a financial footing on a dynamic digital landscape - a fight that is hampered by tensions between old and new and resistance to changes that include centralizing some operations.

“The Search for a New Business Model, How Newspapers Are Faring Trying to Build Digital Revenue,” from the Project for Excellence in Journalism is chock full of interesting insights about the industry’s transition from print to digital. (Here’s a quick summary of key points.)

It also focuses squarely on culture as an obstacle cited by leaders of companies who were interviewed for the report. “Officials at 10 of the 13 companies said their biggest challenge was the continuing tension between people in their organizations who are advocating a more aggressive digital approach and those more aligned with the legacy tradition. In essence, they described a conflict between going faster and going slower. (One other executive didn’t cite this as a problem at his particular company, but said it was the crucial issue for the industry at large.)”

The culture of newspapers is famously defensive, as the Readership Institute reported more than a decade ago. In “News, Improved,” we noted that the defensive culture is “risk averse, internally competitive, hierarchically top-down, usually so focused on small details of the day-to-day that it loses sight of larger goals - and ultimately (is) unable to keep pace with changing times.”

According to the PEJ report, “The core cultural issue, executives told us, is the tension between the old ways and the new ways-and some of that stems from newspaper leadership that came of age in the days of monopoly newspapers and 20% profit margins.” As one executive told PEJ researchers: “We haven’t needed innovative people. So you get what you need. The kind of people that came into this industry were more operationally focused, executors instead of innovator risk takers.”

That contrasts with the constructive organization which we described in “News, Improved,” as “nimble, collaborative, ready to learn and try new things, focused on improving the performance of the organization and on each member’s achievement.”

Which type of organization would you like to lead into the digital storm? Unfortunately, because of cultural resistance - both in the newsroom and on the business side - most newspaper companies went to battle with one hand tied behind their backs - and as the PEJ study indicates, that has not changed universally.

Can organizational culture be changed? Yes, but it’s a slow process - it may take three to five years. Good things don’t happen overnight. Here are some ideas for changing culture in your organization:

- Train your staff. Strategic, goals-focused training will not only raise skills, it can improve culture. Features of effective in-house training include an emphasis on open communication and the opportunity to test new skills in a safe environment. Develop a training plan to taps into skills that the staff has and be ready to bring in experts to train to the gaps (like digital advertising sales). Leaders who mean business will participate in the training themselves, by the way.

- Ignore the curmudgeons. Some leaders spent way too much time responding to the resisters. It’s an easy trap to fall into - the curmudgeons tend to be the loudest. Instead, focus on staff members who are making positive changes - hold them up as examples and get their help in bringing others along. Meanwhile, keep the curmudgeons busy with a performance improvement plan and hold them accountable.

- Stop marginalizing the innovators. One of the more disheartening developments is when an organization brings a digital innovator on board with fanfare, and then fails to support that person when the inevitable internal backlash occurs. If your organization is fortunate enough to have online innovators on staff, create a system that gives them authority to move forward - and be poised to run interference with the curmudgeons - that’s the leader’s job.

For more on best practices on leading through the digital transformation, read our “Leadership Report 2011: New practices shape transformative news leadership in the digital age.”

The News Leadership 3.0 blog is made possible by a grant to USC Annenberg from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.