William Powers of the National Journal wrote an interesting column last
week about newspaper readers. He said there is no doubt that people who
read newspapers, or read stories on Web sites that originate from newspaper
newsrooms (most Web stories do), are more likely to succeed in this world
than people who don't keep up with the news. Powers offers anecdotal and
historical support for this.

It's something I often say when speaking publicly: Smart Mainers and smart
Americans know that to succeed and compete, they have to know what's going
on in the community, state and nation around them. That's why I am bullish
on the future of journalism -- because we journalists, imperfect as we are,
do in fact try to keep you informed, and we try hard to do it fairly and
honestly.

We have opinion pages, but we don't spin every fact in every
story into an opinion or position, the way so many Web sites and TV pundits
do.

Powers also noted that some really smart men -- Rupert Murdoch, Sam Zells
of Chicago (wants to buy the Tribune Co.) and Dean Singleton of Denver (his
MediaNews company owns dozens of papers, and is still accumulating) -- are
buying newspapers at a time when much is being written (and overstated)
about the industry's troubles.

Why, Powers asked, if these men are so smart
and have used their intellects to make millions of dollars, would they be
betting so much on newspapers when bloggers and other so-called "experts"
are predicting our demise?

Powers' point, of course, is that these men are right and the armchair
part-timers are wrong. Captains of industry who've made millions of dollars
by getting things right time and again probably see the future more clearly
than most.

He asked: "So what's more reliable: the behavior of the Murdochs, the Sam
Zells, and the other Darwinian alpha types who still see competitive
advantages in newspapers, or a bunch of sad-sack journalists who claim that
their profession is dying? You do believe in evolution, don't you?"

Eric Conrad
Executive Editor
Kennebec Journal and Morning Sentinel
Telephone: 207-621-5630