You go to work on a newspaper thinking big thoughts about the big stories you crave to cover. Then a gruff city editor brings you down to earth, sending you over to the obit desk. There’s a method to this humbling routine. Obits drill the basics into the journalistic spine.

You learn the Five W’s every story must answer: Who, What, Why, Where and When. I have added another letter to the formula: H, which stands for How, the storytelling part of the equation.

How it began

I started as a journalist on a weekly paper in the U.S. Army, worked for and ran newsrooms at the biggest and best daily newspapers, started an online news organization from scratch, and had fun at each turn. It wasn’t a job, it was an honor, and I’m not going to quit regardless of fate and age. At the Chicago Tribune, where I spent much of my career, I learned a famous saying the first day you walked into the newsroom: “If your mother says she loves you, check it out.”

I started this blog to examine the basics of how stories are covered — or equally importantly how they are not covered — by the shrinking rolls of professional journalists, which at times seems to be an obsolete occupation. This is not a place for breaking news. We have plenty of people competing for that. This is a spot for context, the long view that gives some meaning to the news.

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