People in the newspaper business seem awfully gloomy about the future right now, and with reason. But there’s one bright spot: Wall Street Journal publisher Gordon Crovitz, who describes himself as “the last person in the country with ‘newspaper publisher’ in his title who nonetheless is an optimist.”

We’ll talk about why he’s optimistic, about how the Wall Street Journal’s online edition came to be the fourth biggest newspaper in the country — bigger than the Washington Post or the L.A. Times — and how newspapers, and newspaper publishers, should be adapting to the new era. Plus, his view of blogging as “a great journalistic art form.”

Music is “Superluminal” by Mobius Dick. This podcast sponsored by Volvo USA.