Philadelphia can be the national center for news media innovation, although it sometimes feels like it already is.

Terreance C.Z. Egger, publisher of the Philadelphia Inquirer, and Pedro Ramos, president of the Philadelphia Foundation, were both rock stars in Miami this past week.

Mr. Egger and Mr. Ramos held the attention of a couple hundred leaders from across the nation for almost two hours, gathered next to the headquarters of the Knight Foundation in downtown Miami to discuss the future of news media in the United States.

AL DÍA was a privileged witness to the exchange in which our colleagues from the other end of Market Street here in Philadelphia spoke about what we, here in AL DÍA Newsroom, have called “The Philadelphia Media Experiment of the 21st Century”— borrowing words from the founder of our great city, Mr. William Penn.

The man who envisioned a “City of Brotherly Love,” chartered in this patch of land between the Delaware and the Schuylkill rivers, with lines he himself drew on a piece of paper, imagining streets he named one after the other, in precise and symmetrical order, down to the center —a City Hall square— as the central crossing points of Broad and Market, where the cornerstone, the axis was to be.

He on purpose picked a name with a Greek root and a profound meaning: from philos, "love" or "friendship", and adelphos, "brother": Philadelphia.

In a moment of Quaker lucidity he added this tagline: “a Holy Experiment.”

It was to this town that Benjamin Franklin came as a 17-old runaway from Boston. Over the following 70 years he experimented here with everything —in his laboratory of experimentation and innovation— from the sciences to the arts, even the art of politics— of which he became a genius.

Out of his workshop, for example, a nation was born, called the United States of America, so far the most developed on planet earth. But before that, he was instrumental on those many other inventions for which Philadelphia is now known:

The first Library Company, the first University, the first Insurance company, the first Bank, the first Fire Department.

All created by that native innovator who came from Boston knowing only how to make candles.

All created by that native innovator who came from Boston knowing only how to make candles.

One doesn’t need to be a genius to realize the great opportunity Philadelphia possesses in this very moment, 298 years after the Philadelphia founder's death, and 226 years after the passing of his greatest innovator.

Not only to attract national attention, as Ramos and Egger did this week in Miami. Also to attract the indispensable human capital from all across the country, needed urgently here to propel, not only news media, but mainly technology innovation— and, as result, progress, in 21st Century America.

In an open society like ours, founded on sturdy foundation like its 2-century old Constitution, and one of its cornerstone, its First Amendment, a healthy news media is vital to progress in other key areas of our society

In an open society like ours, founded on sturdy foundation like its 2-century old Constitution, and one of its cornerstone, its First Amendment, a healthy news media is vital to progress in other key areas of our society:

Such active formation of fair public policy that includes all; clean and civic-minded public administration; more honest and civic-centered electoral politics; strong and dynamic commerce and trade that lead to job generation and, out of its own dynamics, imposes the need to enhance our public education system, from the public schools of our city, to its many colleges and universities where access for all can be achieved.

Can we dare to create the new standard for the nation, here in the cradle of our republic, starting with news media and the technology that is driving it forward, using this very moment when the old media models are imploding and there is no choice but to reinvent the new ones, or rebuild on top of the ruins from yesterday.

We did it once, and multiple times, under the leadership of visionaries like William Penn and Benjamin Franklin.

Why not do it again?

After all, we can't prevent history from happening, particularly here, where that very history started, exactly 240 years ago.