Online journalism seems to be alive and well, even as newspapers struggle to understand and adapt to seismic shifts in the industry.

At the American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) conference going on in Seattle this week, a young, fresh-faced crowd on stage addressed a considerably older and grayer audience to talk about embracing the Web. Who was the leading the charge into the future? A journalist/programmer who develops new Web services for readers, a news producer who created a virtual community based on Hurricane Katrina coverage, and a tech editor who defied his bosses and used a do-it-yourself approach to begin podcasting.

The panel produced an interesting exchange between a newspaper editor and a Google News product manager. The editor asked if and when Google would begin sharing revenue with publishers for the content used on Google News, and Google News product manager Nathan Stoll responded that his company tries to help publishers by driving traffic to their Web sites.

I bet you can guess which one of them just reported a 60 percent rise in profit.