When I started in this business, we had to walk to school in the snow, both ways uphill.

No, that's not right.

We had to walk over to the "morgue" -- where all the newspaper clippings were kept -- to get background information; we had to look numbers up in the phone book; we had to send documents through the mail; we had to walk over to the book shelf to look things up in the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Things have changed.

To find out how the Internet has changed reporting, I got some comments from staff writers -- some of whom write blogs and use Facebook and Twitter in their everyday work. The answers were as varied as the people.

Eric Watson, database coordinator for the Tribune's UtahsRight.com, said, "My job would virtually be nonexistent without the Net. Surely the paper would still benefit from database work without the WWW, but delivering this vast amount of data to the general public without utahsright.com would be a tall (and expensive!) order."

"We can work faster and smarter in the Internet age," said Don Meyers, who covers Utah County. "For one thing, we are no longer constrained by press runs for getting news out. We push stories to the Web any time of day or night. During the Nutty Putty Cave episode, I filed a dispatch at 4:30 a.m., and it was online almost immediately."

Katie Drake, who covers communities and thinks she is the greenest reporter in the room, said: "I think the Internet does help us, but I think we are too reliant on it sometimes. I remember when we had a power outage, and everything just came to a standstill. People were going to make phone calls, but they couldn't look up numbers because they were saved in source lists on desktops. We couldn't make photo assignments, couldn't get documents from the online court system, couldn't get documents from our e-mail."

Jennifer Sanchez, who also covers communities, said: "At times, I think the Internet has made reporters lazier. It's easier to Google people and call them for an interview, instead of going into unfamiliar neighborhoods and talking to people."

Tom Wharton, who covers travel and outdoors, said: "I use Google as a research tool for all sorts of stories. Even a few years ago, I would have to spend several hours looking for back issues of The Tribune when updating a story. Now, it's basically a click away."

"I started at this place with lead hot type, carbon paper rolls, glue sticks and manual typewriters. I wouldn't ever want to go back."

Jim Patrick, deputy sports editor, said: "All of us from the corner offices down to the clerks, are being asked to do more faster. The quality of the work on a macro scale isn't necessarily suffering -- we're still putting together thoughtful long-form stories as well as engaging features -- but I find the details are more and more difficult to manage."

Washington, D.C., reporter Thomas Burr said: "When I started in this business, deadline was maybe 3-4 in the afternoon. Today, it's now, right away and five minutes ago. The Internet allows us to quickly find experts, search for background and instantly break news."

We are all doing our jobs in different ways, but we worry that we may not be doing them as well in the age of the Internet. The Web doesn't change what constitutes good journalism.

As crime reporter Nate Carlisle said, "Technology in moderation can make our job faster and us smarter. Technology in excess does not make us faster and probably not smarter."

The Reader Advocate's phone number is 801-257-8782. Write to her at The Salt Lake Tribune, P.O. Box 867, Salt Lake City, UT 84110. E-mail: reader.advocate@sltrib.com.