Jeff Jarvis, who started Entertainment Weekly and was Sunday editor of the N.Y. Daily News, has some interesting format ideas for the "post-Internet newspaper." He goes beyond "shorter stories" and talks about acknowledging that the morning paper is not really about breaking news anymore, and adding more voices, and separating actual news from background. He's an online junkie and doesn't deal with the fact that most real people aren't, but check it out. In arguing against long "show-off" ledes, he also says:
We don't waste time online. So the worst thing to do is waste my time in print."
Speak for yourself. I waste way too much time online.