Patriots beat writer Shalise Manza Young is the latest scribe set to leave the Providence Journal's sports section.

Boston Sports Media Watch had this yesterday:

Young announced the news on both Twitter and Facebook this afternoon. On the latter, she posted:

Providence Journal executive editor Tom Heslin indicated to a Common Cause audience last October that the ProJo was likely to experiment with a new approach for Web content in the new year. That moment is fast approaching, reports Ted Nesi of the Providence Business News:

Update II: DMN publisher weighs in

Via Romenesko, the Dallas Observer has an update in which Dallas Morning News publisher Jim Moroney calls this issue "much ado about nothing":

Media critic Dan Kennedy has a good online slideshow -- entitled What's Next for News: The Future of Journalism in an Uncertain Age -- highlighting some of the familiar challenges and upsides of the shifting media landscape.

ProJo executive editor Tom Heslin describes some tweaks today to the newspaper's look, pleasant changes, IMHO, bearing a passing resemblance to the mid-'90s appearance of the Boston Globe.

A day before his appearance during Common Cause's annual dinner, however, Heslin didn't touch on the existential challenge facing Rhode Island's statewide daily.

Amid news of declining circulation at the Providence Journal and other dailies, ProJo executive editor Thomas Heslin is slated to talk this week about the future of newspapers.

Random mid-week observations:

-- US Representative Jim Langevin isn't waiting for Elizabeth Dennigan to formally roll out her primary challenge. On Monday, his campaign team sent out a mass e-mail, foreshadowing future missives "to maintain open lines of communication with you about my work." And at Not for Nothing, David Scharfenberg has a post describing what might be called Langevin's pre-emptive strike against the abortion issue.

For readers accustomed to finding a Rhode Island section in their Providence Journal each morning, the redesign unveiled today may be jarring -- a seeming effort to streamline the smaller capacity for local news than in the past.

Here's executive editor Tom Heslin's explanation:

From the Boston Globe:

Times Co. seeks Globe bids
Potential buyers say paper's owner has hired firm to manage possible sale

And the New York Times:

Revenue at Craigslist Is Said to Top $100 Million

The Providence Phoenix's David Scharfenberg picks up on talk about a potentially significant change at the Providence Journal:

ProJo newsroom sources say Mark T. Ryan, the paper's executive vice president and general manager, will be leaving the company come August.