I just gave a talk in Germany where a prominent editor charged me with being a doomsayer. No, I said, I’m an optimist … in the long run. In the meantime, we in media will see doom and death until we are brutally honest with ourselves about what is not working and cannot ever work again. Then we can begin to build anew and grow again. Then we will have cause for optimism.

Late last year in New York, I spoke with a talented journalist laid off from a digital news enterprise. She warned that there would be more blood on the streets and she was right: In January, more than 2,000 people have lost their jobs at news companies old and now new: Gannett, McClatchy, BuzzFeed, Vice, Verizon. She warned that we are still fooling ourselves about broken models and until we come to terms with that, more blood will flow.

So let us be blunt about what is doomed:

• Advertising in its current forms is burning out — perhaps even for the lucky ones who still have it.
• Paywalls will not work for more than a few — and their builders often do not account for the real motives of people who pay and who don’t.
• There is not enough philanthropy from the rich — or charity from the rest of us — to pay for what is needed.
• Government support — whether financial or regulatory — is a dangerous folly.