We in the news business either develop thick hides or move on.On some days incoming e-mails and phone messages left over night are so vitriolic that you’re not sure that "kill the messenger" is a figure of speech. We in the news business either develop thick hides or move on.On some days incoming e-mails and phone messages left over night are so vitriolic that you’re not sure that "kill the messenger" is a figure of speech. This story didn’t reflect the reader’s world or political view. That headline was sensational or insensitive. We didn’t show proper respect for the police department or the president. We’re un-American. Why didn’t we put the real news on the front page rather than that fluff. Or all we do is push bad news on the front page. We’re not fair and balanced, etc., etc. One time a profane caller threatened in a voice mail to dig up all the dirt he could and expose me the way the newspaper has exposed others.While I’m no saint, I laughed at that one. Married 38 years to the same woman. Don’t gamble. Sober most of the time. My run-ins with the law have saddled me with a record of three speeding tickets. And I’ve been known to utter an oath or two. Now you know.The truth of the matter is that most communication from readers comes from angry readers. But a funny thing happened when I started this series of columns.I got nice notes from people."…reading the daily newspaper is important to me. I appreciate the Trib’s balance of local and global news stories," wrote Mary Warren of Tempe."The gift of news and opinion through the print media and e-media is precious. It cautions the majority and the powerful and makes room for the minority and the vulnerable…. Thank you, Jim and everyone else, for having the courage to sustain the print media and freedom of speech.," e-mailed Mike Durham.Here was Peter O’Malley’s comment made on my blog:"At age 63 I look back to a virtually unbroken record of reading the newspaper every day. The habit was inculcated within me by observing my mother’s daily assignment of informing herself on what’s going on…."My mother, now 93 years old, relies on a daily shot of the Trib to start each day. Even as dementia clouds her full understanding, it always surprises me when the light goes on and she asks, ‘Did you read about those serial killers?’"Now it so happens that the debut of this series coincided with the capture of the serial killers and the launch of the Tribune’s series on a family of Katrina refugees. Both sparked a rare measure of reader praise that was forwarded around the newsroom."Thank God I find the Tribune in my driveway every morning. At least someone can give me the true story," said a Venter."The Tribune is obviously more in touch to the needs of its readership than the ‘other’ Valley newspaper," wrote Cecil Kirk of Scottsdale.See, we’re just like you. We like to know that somebody notices what we do and cares.But here’s the thing. The nice comments were from people who read the newspaper.Ted Weisenburger nailed the issue in his comment on my blog:"Today’s children have formed no such (newspaper) habits. They are entertained by TV, Internet, computer games etc., and as they grow up they tend to rely on those same sources for information. "In other words, newspaper reading will continue to decline as the older readers pass out of the picture. I don’t believe there is really any way to reverse that."I hope he is wrong. But he may not be.I approach this issue on what would happen on two levels:What if the Arizona Republic succeeded in putting the Tribune of business.Doing so would be good for their business. If they had a print monopoly, they could raise ad rates, subscription rates and they could cut costs by decreasing the staff they’ve deployed in the East Valley.You do the business math and tell me whether they would pay as much attention to the East Valley if they had no competition. And you tell me what side they would take on issues that put East Valley cities at odds with the city of Phoenix. Competition is good. It results in higher quality news coverage and low costs. That’s why the Valley has benefited from the battle between America West (now U.S. Airways) and Southwest Airlines. If you like the Tribune and believe competition is good, then you need to tell your neighbor. In the long run, you’ll be doing us and yourself a favor.End of altar call. And back to the more fundamental question: What if Ted is right and the days of print newspapers are numbered by the passing of generations?Internet news organizations, perhaps including the Tribune’s, will probably become more vital along side TV and radio. But if current patterns continue, news consumers will go to the Web for breaking news and essential information. TV will continue to offer breathless breaking news stories.Missing will be news features that help us become better neighbors. Gone will be investigative stories that take more than three minutes to be told. Stronger will be special interests.Endangered will be local trend stories that help us connect the dots. Informed opinion and reputable stories that help you make sense of local governments and community issues will be hard to come by. Do you agree with Ted? If you do, do you see any way of preserving the community building and checks and balances roles that newspaper have traditionally played?

Newsroom morale soars when big stories break, deadline pressures climb into the red zone and all seems hopelessly confused.But let there be a series of slow news days and woe be to the editor whose HR department decides to do a survey on newsroom morale.I’ve seen it a hundred times. Under the most stressful circumstances imaginable, newsrooms are at their happiest.Why is that? One answer is that big stories take journalists’ minds off of low pay, lousy hours and supervising editors demanding to know, "What have you done for me lately."But a better answer is that, when they are working on high profile stories, journalists feel the most useful. They know they are doing something that readers value. When asked why he does what he does, assistant lifestyle editor Sam Mittelsteadt noted he has a friend who is a pharmacist and makes maybe three times more than he does.But when Sam complains, his friend responds, "Yeah, but you like what you do."In most of what I have written in the previous columns in this series, I have drawn from decades of experience and a few recent anecdotes.For this column, I hit the bricks. More precisely, I grabbed a pen and paper and walked around the newsroom asking people why they do what they do and why this newspaper does what it does. Some felt that their answers sounded corny, but they were from the heart and deserve to be shared with you."I do what I do because it combines my two greatest passions–music and writing," said Chris Orf, the Tribune’s music critic. "It is not just my job, but my passion, to continue the Tribune’s reputation as the leading source for local and national music in the Valley.’Life-long passion is also what drives sports columnist Scott Bordow. "Ever since I was 12 years old and found out I couldn’t hit a curveball, I knew I wanted to write about sports," said Bordow. "I’m one of the lucky souls who can say he’s doing what he dreamed of.""I try to use my insight and contacts to take readers inside the locker room of the local sports teams. My goal is to be their eyes and ears and, as a columnist, to offer my voice and opinion as to what’s going on locally."Tribune investigative reporter Mark Flatten said, "It’s rewarding when you can tell people things they don’t know but need to know and things people have a right to know."In her first year as a professional photojournalist, the Tribune’s Lisa Olson radiates enthusiasm and pride in her work."I love the creative outlet it gives me and I love meeting people," she said. "Being at the front of things and a part of it is cool and exciting.""We are a local paper that gives readers a local point of view," she continued. "On several prep (sports) assignments I have heard from people that our local coverage kicks butt compared to the Republic’s."Blake Herzog grew up in Scottsdale and now lives in Mesa. After 10 years as a copy editor and reporter, she recently accepted an assignment as an editorial page writer."There needs to be somebody out there who gets into the issues in a more in-depth way than either radio or TV can," she said in talking about the Tribune.When asked why the Tribune does what it does, Mary Kay Reinhart, one of our most experienced reporters and skilled writers, put it this way:"Inform, enlighten and connect people with each other. It’s information. We’re trying to provide people with relevant information so they can make sense of their lives and take action if need be." Gary Smith and I have worked closely at the Tribune since I began working for the paper over 14 years ago. Smith currently edits our nation/world wire report with an eye for identifying stories and presentations designed to help readers make sense of events in the nation’s Capital or half way around the world.I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone more eloquently frame why we do what we do and why it matters:"When we do our job well, we’re like a really good neighbor. When someone in the community needs help, we give people a way to help them. When there’s a corrupt politician, we tell people so they can decide whether or not to take action. And if a really cute dog needs a home, we run a photo and the next day he’s playing with a 6-year-old."It’s the same sort of things people do for other people all the time; we’re just able to do it for a lot more people. And like a good neighbor, we become part of people’s lives, and we’re all better for it."Do these comments from Tribune journalists surprise you? How do they affect your view of journalists and the Tribune?Next: What would happen if we went away.

This series of columns was sparked by the suggestion that we in the newspaper business need to set about restoring a relationship with news consumers that has become increasing frayed. It seems that consumer don’t trust newspapers any more than they trust any other big business or government, for that matter. It also seems that the Internet has led to a lot of muddled thinking on what news is. Does one person’s opinion or assertion in a blog have the same value and credibility as a news story?How do we decide what news is and who influences us?The questions are sweeping and defy answering in the confines of a few short columns. And there’s the boredom factor. I pontificate. You get bored. Nothing is accomplished. Keep it simple. Talk with you about what we do, why we do it and what will happen if we don’t do it, I was urged.I can’t do that without at least saying a little something about how we do things.I’ll get into that by telling you how I’ve caused a bit of an uproar in the newsroom in a discussion over our process for publishing stories on eastvalleytribune.com or scottsdaletribune.com.You see, stories that are printed in the newspaper are read several times by different people. They are read for accuracy. They are read for fairness. They are read for clarity. And once they go on the page, they are proofed for typos. The headlines are not written by the reporters. Headlines are written by copy editors in part because it’s a special skill and in part because it puts another set of eyes on a story. If a copy editor can’t figure out what the headline is, the reporter and the story’s originating editor failed to focus the story or make it clear.So one day I told my colleagues that we have to think more like live television when we post breaking news on the Internet. The priority should be getting the news posted on the Web for the sake of immediacy.That could mean in breaking news situations, the reporter would gather the news, quickly write an Internet version and post it directly to eastvalleytribune.com without sending it through a proofreader. After the story was posted, editors could go over it and repost the edited version.My colleagues were horrified. They didn’t tell me I was stupid because I’m the boss, but they thought it.I don’t know whether I’ll win this one or if I should win this one, because there is strong precedent and culture in newspaper newsrooms that stories go through several filters.You see, we don’t want to publish unfair stories or one-sided stories. We don’t want to publish stories with a slant or agenda. We don’t want to publish unclear stories or inaccurate ones. So we’ve developed newsroom checks. Sure inaccuracies occasionally get through as do stories that are unclear or occasionally unfair. You can chalk it up to the high number of stories that must be read each night under strict deadlines. You can chalk it up to lack of experience or skill levels of different people in those layers.But when you look at the number of stories and words that are processed each night, page after page of content, I think we do a darn good job of publishing credible news reports.You won’t find that amount of care put into a lot of stuff that circulates through email and on the web under the guise of news.My question for you is, does that matter? Next: Why we do what we do.