A light bag of e-mail this week includes a criticism of how we covered an entertainment subject this year, an observation about a comment in one of our entertainment stories and another reader unhappy with the advertising department’s cut in pages for our TV Times, which is as most might have guessed, an entertainment-related issue.

Yes, folks like entertainment. And we know that. Here’s what they had to say.

An unnamed reader sent this message via our tip line on TheTimesNews.com.

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“it is very disappointing the lack of coverage of the Snow Camp Outdoor Theatre this year compared to other events … the theatre relies greatly on these reviews.”

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There was no concerted effort or plan to cut back on coverage of the outdoor theater that produces “The Sword of Peace” and other great productions each summer out at Snow Camp. In fact, we devoted less to theater productions across the board this past summer. This was a staffing issue as much as anything else. Our company cut a position late last summer in our Accent Department leaving it as a staff with two full-time writers who also design layout pages. There is a part-time typist as well as a fairly consistent flow of college interns.

That by itself ensures that we can’t get to everything the way we used to. Charity Apple and Brian Rose can only work so many hours each day — and believe me they spend lots of long days here just trying to keep their heads above water.

Things were complicated more this year by the terminal illness and passing of Brian’s wife Cathy. There simply were not enough hours or staff to handle the workload.

On the plus side it’s good to know that our theater reviews are read and appreciated. Thanks.

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While Charity was recently out with an illness, our news reporter Keren Rivas wrote a story about the showing of “Gone with the Wind” at the Paramount Theater. A reader took issue with a quote in the story, not the story itself. Here’s what she had to say.

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“I am a 30-something African American woman who enjoys the major storyline/love story in Gone With The Wind. When I read about the movie being shown at the Paramount in the today’s paper— the fourth paragraph threw me for a loop. When you mentioned that Gone with the Wind “…shows the good times prior to the War” my heart stopped. Some of my ancestors were slaves during those “good times” you wrote about. But I guess to the past commander of The Sons of the Confederate Veterans, Al Boswell, those were “good times”.

“Needless to say, I will not be attending the screening.”

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I share this reader’s concern about the lack of complete understanding of this chapter of our nation’s history. Slavery has shaped this nation’s future perhaps like no other issue. Until all people understand what this abomination really meant I fear we’ll never be truly be united as a country.

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And I got this message from Mary Futrell who has written before about issues involving the Times-News. Here’s the latest.

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“Please restore the late night TV pages and cut somewhere else. The entire editorial page could go.”

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I wrote Mrs. Futrell back and let her know that I wouldn’t mind eliminating the opinion page myself but I doubted our owners would care much for that.

They have no answers, only more questions.

My friend is the newspaper industry. Every other week it seems I write a column about its pending demise. A few pages here, a service there — it’s a slow withering away process. I wrote about it again this week. We cut eight pages from the TV Times. Dozens of readers wanted to know why. I’m the one with the job to tell them.

It’s not an easy story and it really began years ago. You see, newspaper companies got in debt because some such as McClatchy bought other newspapers. Others did so, my company being one, because some family owners wanted to sell and other family members did not. So one group bought a family company from the other. It had to go in deep debt to do so. Then the bottom fell out. Newspapers, always slow to change, blinked with the Internet came along. Only in the past few years have newspapers embraced this as the future of how our work will be delivered. Then craigslist came along and rolled over newspaper classified advertising — the backbone of our revenue for decades. As advertisers began eying the Web, the bottom fell out of the economy. The mortgage and banking crisis damaged real estate sales. Fuel costs set off chain reaction of higher prices and ultimately panic and malaise. Paper costs began to skyrocket …

See what I mean.

I wish I could stop but we still have customers with questions about why we stopped producing this, or for what reason we don’t provide that anymore and how in the heck can we charge more for this other thing.

We’re looking for a miracle cure — the antidote to whatever poison has invaded the body of our longtime friend. If newspapers can ride out the poor economy and online growth progresses then …

I have no idea.

And in the interest of full disclosure, yes, I took the test myself. So how did I do? Well, I’m almost ashamed to tell ya. What I will say is that I did beat 79 percent of all folks nationwide who took the test — and I did lousy considering I’m in the current events business. If folks aren’t up to speed any better than that on news and newsmakers we’re in trouble.

One question I did miss involved the stock market — which is something most in the newspaper business know absolutely nothing about. If we did we would’ve been smart enough to buy LabCorp early and would be semi-retired by now.

Instead, here I sit on a Friday night digesting my weekend allotment of grease from Zack’s. Is life great or what.

Actually forget that last part.

Anyway, when the editors broke out from the larger group to speak amongst themselves we hit on a variety of topics but one of the biggest was how to generate more editorials for our opinion pages. It’s a major problem small publications face on a daily basis.

Now lots of readers think the editors of each newspaper  write each editorial that appears on the opinion page. That’s pretty far from accurate. At larger papers there are editorial page editors who have a staff of writers. They generate the newspaper’s opinion — but theoretically not how news is reported — after a series of discussions on a topic of national, international, state or local interest. They often remain very much separated from the reporting staff. They are in another room conjuring lofty ideals  and conducting research in order to craft thought-provoking prose about greenhouse gases, Iraq policy or whether the government should continue to frown upon assassination and experiments on humans as part of its intelligence-gathering operations. Actually that last one shouldn’t take much thought at all.

At little daily newspapers such as the ones our company operate in North Carolina — Burlington, Gastonia, Shelby, Jacksonville, New Bern and Kinston — editorials are a lot harder to come by. The editors there sometimes have a one-person staff that builds and edits the page along with a variety of other duties. At other sites the editors take care of the page but juggle it with budgets, corporate meetings, overseeing other newsroom departments, talking to irate customers angry over something left out of the paper and negotiating with syndicate services for the best price on weather maps.

In both scenarios there is little time to write editorials — much less comprehend the global warming debate well enough to development a cogent opinion. Lofty thought is a luxury at papers our size.

So what happens at Freedom Communications, Inc. newspapers in this state is that editors try to write editorials about local subjects like city zoning or even state matters when they get the time and they feel they can write something that fits within our corporation’s philosophy mandated for its opinion pages. The editorials about the War on Terror and other national and international subjects largely come from the flagship newspaper  for the company — the Orange County Register.

At the Times-News, Managing Editor Jay Ashley usually selects the national and international editorials from a daily digest provided by the Register or the Colorado Springs Gazette of Libertarian editorials. He also chooses columns from our syndicated lineup that includes a mixture of conservative, moderate and liberal writers. Sometimes I’ll write a local editorial or Jay will do so. Frances Woody, our newsroom administrator, and I handle letters and guest columns and provide them to Jay as needed.

It’s all done without including reporters or line editors in the mix. I strongly believe the opinion page should have no impact on how news is covered.

Anyway, the problem our state editors have with the current system is that the California or Colorado papers usually write editorials that focus on things of interest in those areas. This is to be expected. As a result of our meeting on Wednesday we plan to develop a network of N.C.-based editorials that all of our state papers would contribute to. While some of the editorials about statewide issues would be valuable to all six of our papers the others of a more local nature might help as well. After all, cities everywhere deal with zoning. Schools in Lenoir County often have issues similar to those right here in Alamance. With a little tweaking and new information it won’t be difficult to turn a Kinston editorial into one that also works for Burlington.

Hopefully this will generate more interesting and pertinent editorials for our readers to digest each morning.

Theoretically anyway.

This week’s e-mailbag contains one small note about what turned out to be a fairly large change in our service.

Here’s the simple statement from reader Lawrence Edwards.

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“Boy, did you guys ever screw this up.

“Do not even list sports or late night schedule.

Is this a permanent thing?”

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Mr. Edwards is referring to the weekly TV Times which is produced by our advertising department. A couple of weeks ago we cut the pages to 20 from 24. This meant eliminating something — in this case the midnight to 6 a.m. listings and the sports highlights. The change was made as a cost-cutting measure. The price of newsprint has grown a handful of times in recent months. Meanwhile other expenses such as gasoline are up.

To date I’ve received more than 30 telephone calls from readers objecting to the change. While the newsroom does not control the TV Times, we are in charge of the daily listings so the calls came my way. I’m glad to talk to our readers and I’ve promised to send the complaints along to the proper authorities.

But that doesn’t mean those pages will return anytime soon.

I plan to write a column about this on Sunday.

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Other e-mail this week was more complimentary. I got two very nice notes concerning a column I wrote that was published Sunday regarding our coverage of the death of Army Cpl. Pruitt Rainey.

Here they are.

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“Sir, being a fellow church member of Linda Kearney & Pruitt Rainey, I really appreciate the consideration you had for Linda. I learned of his death that night and I too wondered why there was nothing in our local paper. Now I understand your feelings and I’m glad you take the family’s pain first before beating other papers. I see Linda’s great pain and loss and without knowing all the facts, none of the newspapers should have printed it. You are to be admired not criticized. I’m very sorry you have had to hear news-hungry people giving you a hard time, but I for one, am grateful to you.”

A reader,

Frances Allison

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“How refreshing to read your article regarding your action (or delayed action) of printing news of Pruitt Rainey’s death.

“While I do not know Mr. Rainey or his family, your reasons for your action shows not only moral purity and character, and great integrity but also puts words to your high ideals in the midst of this growing secular world.

“I highly commend you for standing your ground and sticking to your beliefs, taking the high road, all the time knowing you would come under attack and be criticized for your decision.

“Your standard of: 1) refusing to have reporters camp in front yards, 2) asking for permission to attend funerals, 3) approaching families through friends of friends rather than repeated phone calls,  and 4) trying not to report details not thoroughly substantiated, should be a guideline and basis for all reporters to follow not only in covering deaths but any news story.

“While the news media is becoming more and more biased and flippant in their effort to “get the story out first” or just to print the story and meet a deadline, I am pleased to see that there are a few caring and concerned souls remaining.

“Please do not be swayed from your moral values.

“Blessings

“Eleanor”

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In a post I plan to file later we’re taken to task for our handling of a case involving the death of a member of the community. I’ll go into more detail about that later.

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Got this e-mail from Dale Stearns, an area car dealer, in response to my column about his call for more good news in the Times-News.

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“Madison,

“Just wanted to thank you for the kind response to my note regarding the $4.00 gas prices.  I had been meaning to send you a note but have just stayed busy trying to make the car business work … better!  I got an email this morning from the President of our New Car Dealer Association in Raleigh complimenting both of us about the article, so I decided it was time to say thanks.  We will keep an eye open for some news worthy “good news”.

“Dale “ 

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And here’s another note our city editor Brent Lancaster received regarding our work in print and online. It’s nice to hear the good stuff from folks.

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“Brent,

“It has been quite a while since I purchased the Times-News or any other paper.  But I stumbled onto the web site and have been reading the blogs and forums and I have to tell you it is great and I wanted to thank you and the staff for the laughs and the stimulating comments.

“Thank You

“Jim Young

“Ear Candy”

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Thanks for writing folks.

Got this message via a third party who tied it to the talons of a carrier pigeon which I was then directed to meet at the City Park train depot where it then deposited a microchip by the pink donkey that I could only open after lowering the Cone of Silence and alerting the ordnance disposal team from Fort Bragg. I’m assuming it’s from the online poster mentioned in my “Managing the ‘Bully’ Pulpit post — Zanconda, the artist previously known as Amazed.

Here it is.

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“I read with great interest Madison’s pompous ed/comment about “Ernest T. Bass” posters. I get a little sick of this pious attitude by him and the whiners. It is pretty evident that he has not read all the posts by all the people or he would see the same things that many who post agree with me on in these crybaby posters that complain to him have their own highly defined lack of respect for others opinions. I liken them to the Republican Party which for decades now has said just about anything they wanted in derogatory fashion about anyone who didn’t agree with them. In example, do you remember that Douche Dimbulb Rush Limbaugh calling Chelsea Clinton the family dog when she was every bit of 12 years old. Could you imagine the uproar if someone in mainstream media had called Bushes daughters underage alcoholic whores. Same principle applies. If you don’t want mud slung at you don’t sling your mud — no matter how clean or respectable you might think it is others will see it as mud. So next time Madison do yourself a favor and read all the posts from all sides and don’t just listen to the whiners or pretty soon you will be regarded as another slanted self-righteous whiner yourself.” 

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Thanks to Zanconda for passing this along.

My only responses are these:

1. Since when is it pious or pompous to advocate good manners, respect for others and intelligent debate?

2. I did read the other posts and yours were far more mean-spirited.  The ones that were blocked were too crude for publication.

3. Is this the same poster who once made a nasty comment about a high school girl in a Times-News story that was so scurrilous I had it removed?

4. I’d think you would have better role models than Rush Limbaugh … just kidding. I have no explanation about why Limbaugh is on the air except to say he’s not welcome in my house and I don’t listen to radio stations that carry his program. That kind of name-calling has no place in the communications business no matter which side of the political spectrum you come from.

5. By the way, Limbaugh used to have a TV show but it was quickly taken off the air because of his commentary. He found his market on AM radio. That says a lot.

6. All I want is for posters to live up to the agreement they signed when they joined Community Voice or to heed the note that accompanies our stories. Otherwise write clearly, make good arguments, debate fiercely, show some respect .. in short, be adults.

Is that too difficult?

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Here’s a letter I received from Karen Mebane about our Web site and the online comments. She shipped it as a letter to the editor of the Times-News. But because most of our print readers don’t use our Web site, I’m posting it here instead. Thanks again to Ms. Mebane.

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Dear Editor,

I very much like your Times News website and the online edition of the paper there. I also like the reader forums and the discussions. You have the Community Voice section with which readers can create an online identity and post to the forums, express comments and even upload photos and videos. All of this is indicative of how varied newspapers must become in order to compete with the flood of information and news that is already on the internet.

However, your forums do present a concern for me. Most people create an identity and simply post their thoughts and pictures. But as with most things, there is always that odd duck who wants to make other people who post uncomfortable. Perhaps you and your readers have noticed this on the two reader forums, “I Am Harry” and “Talk Line-Apalooza.”

It’s quite easy for me to ignore derogatory comments on the forum when they come from an anonymous source simply because I do not take it personally. But I do feel that it might be a bit off-putting to someone new to commenting in an online discussion. I noticed that your newspaper does have measures in place to remove offensive material. Nonetheless, in my opinion, the vitriol exchanged between the I Am Harry and Talk Line-Apalooza discussions are a bit hard to digest.

Perhaps as more people become aware of the potential for community discussion on your website, varied opinions from more than just the usual who post might expose the senselessness of the written conflict mentioned. For example, I think groups like law enforcement gang control, Community Watch or the D.A.R.E. organization might benefit from creating a discussion there for community feedback. Perhaps the mayor’s office or the city council could create a discussion to evaluate community concerns and interests. The same could be done for the school system. The list of opportunities for community input on the website is endless. Of course, most of these groups already have lines of community input but every avenue can help us all get to the destination of understanding ourselves.

Karen Mebane

Should TheTimesNews.com ban unrepentant, unsavory or otherwise unconscionable commenters from further posting on our Web site?

It pains me to even ask such a question. After all, I fundamentally believe that speech should be protected at nearly any cost. It is, most can recite, one of the basic freedoms outlined by the framers of this nation. But what lots of people who cite the amendment fail to mention is that free speech also carries responsibilities. In addition, free speech shouldn’t trample upon the free speech of others.

That’s where our online and print divisions at the Times-News are right now with a handful — and I mean only a handful — of name-calling and crude posters who inhabit the comment function contained on stories posted by the newspaper online. This tiny faction often drives discussion away from the topic at hand, delves into personal attacks against other posters when they have nothing else to offer in terms of legitimate comment and halt what might otherwise be interesting and perhaps enlightened debate. And the comments violate the guidelines set forth when Community Voice was created earlier this year.

From my perspective these posters — who are all anonymous — have become an Ernest T. Bass kind of element. And while Ernest T. was a fictional and humorous character on the old “Andy Griffith Show,” nobody in their right minds would actually like to have a cackling rock-thrower in their neighborhoods.

At the moment we can block potentially abusive content and do so with a message to the poster. That has had little impact.  As a result there is serious discussion at the Times-News about what guidelines might be used to ban someone from posting on our comments sections and forums. We’ve asked for feedback from other interactive teams in our company as well. At the Times-News this is a group deal. There is no one editor of the Web site. Several areas supply content. Nothing is clearly cut in this new territory.

So I’d also like for readers to send along any comments they have at the end of this post.

Believe me when I say any ban would be an avenue of last resort. We welcome debate, commentary and criticism. Personal taunts and name-calling that harkens back to middle school recess as well as matters of racism or obscenity are matters for serious review.

The questions I ask are these:

Do abusive posters keep others from joining our forums?

What’s the potential damage to our site or other brands?

Did I get into this business in order to take on the role of Principal Skinner where I’m forced to monitor disputes not worthy of the playground monkeybars?

Here are some comments I received via e-mail on this topic. Please add your own.

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“Early on when you began the new format, I was delighted that you might actually censor some of the content which had devolved the previous edition of the forum into a cat fight and bully pulpit for the unsavory elements in our community. These folks were not commenting often on the content of the article under review, but were using it as a chatroom and a platform from which to launch very personal jabs at anyone with a differing opinion. Now it seems you have allowed this newer and improved format to stray down the same path.

 “From the onset of my first post … the barbs began to fly … I responded politely with a warning that such behavior would not be tolerated, and reported the comments as offensive. Apparently no action was taken by any “moderator”.

 “It was suggested later by another poster in a private communication that we should simply ignore the guy, and I complied. As I expected, that only drew more ire and personal insults, some of which were also subsequently reported as offensive content with no apparent action taken.

 “I have also had private communications from other readers and now ex-posters on the forum that they find this behavior intolerable and so no longer choose to be a part of the forum because of it. After all Madison, it DOES violate the very rules of the site, and intimidation does not breed open sharing of ideas.”

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Here’s another.

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“If one differs with his opinion and tries to introduce theirs, he attacks with name calling ridicule and debasement to say the least. I have tried in the past to not respond in kind, but I must say if one is backed into a corner, the fangs can come out.

“It has caused me to reduce my posts just to avoid the abuse. So it looks like the school yard bully has his own playground now.

“We have had some decent sparring in the past without incident and some agreements, but his demeanor is like one who is of a multiple personality and you never know when the demons will appear.

“I know you have no control over others personalities, but the off gassing of their mean temper and verbal attacks are keeping some people from participating. I have invited many people to join the conversation and have had response like “Why would I want to subject myself to such verbal assaults just to voice my opinion?” and “I have dealt with children all my life and some on here haven’t yet made it out of childhood”. 

“If you can, read some of his attacks that use name calling, slurred names meant only to make the other one mad. There is no substance in it and almost every time it draws folks off the subject. I guess it is his defense when he can’t adequately explain or defend his point and must draw others into something else where he feels comfortable, abuse!”

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Anybody else got an opinion?

We actually had a story ready to go Monday night that was at least as documented as the current one by the News and Record. By Tuesday night we had a lot of information the N&R didn’t have — including the rank and base where the young man was stationed.

But what we didn’t have was military confirmation and as an editor who worked in a military town that presents a problem for me. In addition, a military casuality officer had yet to visit the family by Tuesday night — which is unusual based on my experience.

From our perspective the News and Record story with only two sources, no military rank, no base is way too skimpy to publish. Newspapers have been burned by printing information too early for years. And once it’s published it can’t be taken back. Channel 2 also has the story up on its web site but is only using the News and Record as a source.

Maybe I play things too safe. But with something as important as the death of a soldier I’d rather err on the side of caution.

Hopefully our readers will understand. I had a phone call already from one who did not.

Because the News and Record has a story on its Web site about this incident and Channel 2 does as well, I’ve decided to post ours so readers will at least have more information. N&R editor John Robinson posted a blog about their decision and ours. He’s right that it’s a tough call and I understand why they made the decision to publish.

I just wish I felt more comfortable with the whole thing.

 Not that anybody in the news racket thinks there’s much merit to the lawsuit filed this month in Wake County Superior Court by a Durham attorney who was once a newspaper reporter. He’s suing the News and Observer of Raleigh for cutting its staff and pages over the past few weeks. The attorney contends that it’s not the product he subscribed to.

And rather than cancel his subscription like most any normal customer would, he’s taking it to court — largely to make a point.  “I wanted to get the newspaper’s attention and the news industry’s attention,” said the attorney, Keith Hempstead, a former reporter at the Fayetteville Observer. “I hate to see what companies that run newspapers are doing to the product.”

So it’s a nuisance lawsuit — the kind of thing that gives the legal system a bad name.

It’s not surprising that a former reporter would be behind such an action. After all, reporters like to think that they always know best. And for years those who have toiled in the trenches have decried the parsimonious nature of newspapers. The pay is historically low while profits have always been high.

While the former is still largely true, the latter is anything but. Ted Vaden, the public editor for the News and Observer wrote about this in a recent column about reaction from readers to the N&O recent changes. Ted’s column sounded so much like some I’ve written in the print Times-News and here online that it was frightening. As editor of the Times-News I’m the public editor by default. At least the Old Reliable can still afford one.

The bottom line is, readers there aren’t much happier about changes at the N&O than Alamance County readers are with similar changes at our much smaller Times-News. In fact, I got a large package of newspapers from someone who only identified themselves as a 50-year subscriber last week. It contained an N&O and a Times-News from the same day. They wanted me to compare the amount of news and comics in both and justify how both cost 50 cents.

The truth is, that same imbalance has existed for 50 years. The News and Observer serves a market five times our size and with a staff that dwarfs that of the Times-News. Before their recent cuts, the sports staff there was larger than our entire newsroom operation. They have more space and staff because their circulation is 150,000 and ours is 26,000. In relative terms our costs to produce the paper by percentage aren’t too much different.

Times are tough for newspapers and readers shouldn’t expect them to get much better. Lawsuits such as this one will only dilute the pool of resources newspapers have to work with. The attorney wants newspapers to change their current business model and they already are.

What you see is part of the result of that.

Here’s the whole story.

RALEIGH — A News & Observer subscriber is suing the newspaper for cutting the staff and the size of the paper.

Keith Hempstead, a Durham lawyer, filed the suit last month in Wake Superior Court. Hempstead says he renewed his subscription in May just before the paper announced June 16 that it was laying off 70 staff members and cutting its news pages.

The paper, he says, is now not worth what he signed up for and therefore the cuts breached the paper’s contract with him.

In a phone interview Thursday, Hempstead, 42, said he could cancel his subscription but filed the suit to make a point.

“I wanted to get the newspaper’s attention and the news industry’s attention,” said Hempstead, a former reporter at the Fayetteville Observer. “I hate to see what companies that run newspapers are doing to the product.”

Hempstead said he wants to keep the paper from reducing news coverage and wants the newspaper industry to revisit its business model. His suit asks for an unspecified amount of damages and attorney’s fees.

John Drescher, executive editor of The News & Observer, said he’s glad Hempstead is a loyal reader and that the N&O has meant so much to him.

“We’ve had some really good papers recently, and they’re worth more than the 36 cents a day that Mr. Hempstead is paying us,” Drescher said.

Said N&O Publisher Orage Quarles: “I’m surprised Mr. Hempstead didn’t simply ask for a refund. That’s usually what happens when people are not happy with the service.”

Hempstead said he is seeking a law firm to take his case. He added that he’s not in it for the money.

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 We don’t go looking for bad news, it only seems that way.

In the world of potential newspaper mottos, that one’s not very awe-inspiring. The only thing it’s got going for it is that it happens to be largely true. This gives it a leg up on the much more famous “All the news that’s fit to print.” Don’t get me wrong, I like the New York Times - but they’re not infallible.

Anyway, on most days here at the Times-News bad news manages to find us. It can’t be avoided. Stuff happens in the community; we hear about it and then report it. That’s pretty much the nature of the job at a newspaper. I’ll admit we go looking through warrants or other records to find out what’s going on out there. But that’s about all the overt searching we do for what some might call actual bad news. If we didn’t do those things, people would cancel their subscriptions.

And they should.

Outside of that, well, bad news arrives in many forms at our office each day. In some cases, the minutiae of daily life become a source of bad news. And there are times when simply recording things for historical purposes makes us look like purveyors of the most negative aspects of our community.

Can this be helped? Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

I thought about this a lot over the past week after getting a letter from Dale Stearns at Stearns Ford, Inc. in Burlington. He questioned how we presented a story on gas prices going to $4 a gallon locally just before the July 4 weekend.

Here’s the note.

“Madison,

“Why does the Times-News insist on printing negative items on the front page of the paper.

“After seeing the overwhelming picture and article on “County gas prices hit $4 a gallon,” I thought to myself that I have seen plenty of stations where the fuel was less than $4.

“My office is 100 yards from the Exxon station at Mebane Street and Alamance Road so I walked down there to confirm that gas was indeed less than $4 a gallon. And I think that most everyone recognizes Exxon as a pretty good brand of gas!

“Granted there is not a lot of difference in $4 a gallon and $3.94 but a lot of people would see $4.05 and $3.94 as pretty significant.

“Most importantly, everyone would like to see some positive news regarding the economy so please find something a little more upbeat to put on the front page. Let me know if you need any help finding anything.

“Dale Stearns”

I appreciated the note from Mr. Stearns, a longtime businessman here in town. I think his observations are valid and his points well taken. Any bad news - particularly about money - probably isn’t good for the emotional well being of anyone from the family trying to stretch a buck to the retailer trying to draw one to the incumbent politician asking for a vote. Add the Times-News in there, too. We’re working to sell subscriptions in a market where folks are choosing between cable TV, newspapers, basic transportation to and from work and food in terms of what they can afford.

It’s enough to make anybody more pessimistic.  I’m getting a depressed just writing here now.

Yes, there’s a lot of bad economic news out there these days. It’s easy to see. Most don’t have to look far to find it.

The story Mr. Stearns referenced wasn’t meant to be another story about how bad times are these days - although it’s understandable that it would be taken that way. I’ll accept the blame and responsibility for that.

I made that particular assignment myself and did so because I thought the price of gas going to $4 a gallon for regular unleaded an important historical benchmark worthy of note. I didn’t really see the story as a general one about gasoline prices but rather one about the point at which drivers revolt - figuring that $4 would be very, very close to that point. I know I felt that way.

So instead of thinking about our readers today I was considering those who will search through our archives 10 or 20 years from now as they research what life was like then. Our current readers perhaps would have been better served by a larger snapshot of the issue instead of such a narrow one. I’ll try to do a better job of keeping that in mind.

But readers need to also remember that the newspaper is in most ways only the messenger. If times are a little tough, then, those are the stories out there to write about. What I need to beware of is that sometimes how a story is presented, including photos and headlines, determines a lot in how it’s received in the community.

I’d like folks to realize, though that we do publish many positive stories throughout the Times-News - and often on the front page. But I’m always glad to hear about any more.

So to Mr. Stearns and all of our readers - please feel free to help us find all the news - good and bad - that’s out there.

We appreciate it.