This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2007, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

My, my. A number of you were cranky this week about where we place stories, our ability to produce a paper and the state of what we have published.

For instance, one reader sent this e-mail:

"I'm so frustrated with seeing local stories on the front page! Particularly 'special interest' ones that could be printed anytime (i.e. international adoptions). They don't belong there, they really don't, and every editor in the world knows that. Local news shouldn't be on the front page unless the news is so huge, it is of national importance."

It's always amazing to hear from a reader who knows every editor in the world. I frankly know editors only in this country, so I may be the wrong one to respond. Be that as it may, this is the skinny on how medium-size daily newspapers in this country have adapted to what readers want:

Almost all those medium-circulation dailies (we are one) put local news on the front page because readers buy local newspapers to get local news. People can get world and national news 24-7 now on broadcast TV and cable news networks. News that reflects what goes on in Utah, what trends are hot here, what's funny, what's unusual and what will cause tax bills to jump belongs on the front page so that readers can find the local news they want - whether they buy the paper from the rack or have it delivered to their homes.

There was a time before the availability of world and national news on TV that medium-circulation dailies packed the front page exclusively with national/international news. That day is gone. But critical national and international stories still have a home on A-1, while numerous less important wire stories are published inside the A section.

A Fox-watcher? Another reader indicted us this week with this e-mail:

"I'm done reading the Tribune. In my opinion the D-News is now the most honest paper in the state, while the Tribune is nothing more than a liberal rag. You're not fair, you're not balanced, you're not nice, and you can't be trusted. Try going just one day without printing Rocky Anderson's name. I can't remember the last time that happened. Can you?"

I will bet sometimes we go at least three days a week without running Rocky's name. You have judged us during a week when the Salt Lake City mayor went after the owner of Real Salt Lake over his pledge to donate money for soccer fields on the northwest side. Additionally, Anderson was in the news over his off-again then on-again debate with radio pundit Sean Hannity.

As to not being "fair" and "balanced," please do not judge us by the Fox News channel's marketing slogan. Newspapers are supposed to present balanced news stories that are fair to all sides of an issue, but they also are supposed to "afflict the comfortable" and "comfort the afflicted."

At their absolute best, newspapers describe all the voices in a public debate - and provide a voice for those within society who have no voice.

Can we spell? I get calls and e-mails all the time about spelling and grammar errors in the paper. This one is typical:

"My primary question is does anyone proofread the paper prior to going to print?

"The reason I ask is due to the numerous typos, misprints, incorrect information and sentences lacking connecting words which I've encountered in dailies. I'm curious as to how these errors are continually overlooked?"

As Jethro Bodine used to say on "The Beverly Hillbillies," I have just been doing some ciphering: I figure there are sometimes up to 90,000 words in the daily edition of The Salt Lake Tribune. Of course, there are more words in the Sunday edition, but let's think about a typical day.

Those words come from wire services, staff reporters, correspondents, letter writers, editorial writers, columnists and headline writers. Before newspapers went to computer-generated "cold type," all dailies had a group of English-language perfectionists who sat in a room by themselves and proofread all of the hot lead type before it went into the paper. They knew that "i" came before "e", except after "c" and how to spell Afghanistan. They perfected the sentences before they got into the paper.

We don't have those women anymore. We have "spell-checkers" in our computer programs; we have news editors who read the stories for sense, we have copy editors who read the stories, write headlines and cutlines and then "proof" the pages before they are sent to the production facility in West Valley. Some of us are better than others at correcting our own and others' copy; some of us remember to run the spell-checker every time we write something.

Mistakes happen. We are not proud of that fact, but it is one we struggle with on a daily basis. No one takes our mistakes more seriously than we do.

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* THE READER ADVOCATE'S phone number is 801-257-8782. Write to the Reader Advocate, The Salt Lake Tribune, 90 S. 400 West, Suite 700, Salt Lake City, Utah 84101. reader.advocate@sltrib.com

* 32: Number of folks who want to know why we cannot spell

* 17: Number of people who hate Utah stories on A-1

* 25: Number of folks who want more Utah stories on A-1

* 7: Number of people sick of presidential race coverage