The press in the age of the Internet

As we reflect today on the hard year drawing to a close and on the decade of change about to expire, we at the paper also find ourselves remembering Stuart R. Paddock Jr., the visionary third-generation owner who built the Daily Herald into the dominant voice of the suburbs during his three and a half decades of leadership.

He was enthusiastic, inspirational and gutsy. He loved the newspaper. He loved the company.

At Stu's death in 2002, company Chairman Daniel E. Baumann wrote, "Stu understood that unless you have the right product to sell, you are consigning yourself to a long, slow decline. The other key principle he clung to was that you must continue to move forward."

How much the newspaper industry has changed since his passing. Almost everyone saw the change coming in 2002, but almost no one recognized the breathtaking pace of it.

The rise of the Internet has forever altered the most basic relationships between newspapers and their customers. Agendas increasingly are set by readers, not editors; and by advertisers, not sales representatives.

The multiplicity of competition for the dollars that pay for journalism has mushroomed. The multiplicity of easily accessible sources of information has too. Today, you can get your news at anytime, anywhere and in any way that you want it.

Like forces of nature, these forces of the marketplace are not necessarily good or bad, but they definitely are. There's no point in decrying them.

Yet, in their wake, particularly combined with an economic downturn of generational scope, the newspaper industry has rocked in tumult.

Two of our august brethren - The Tribune Company and Sun-Times Media Group - have spent the past year in bankruptcy. Staffing levels at every newspaper company in the country are substantially leaner. Virtually all publications are slimmer and thinner.

It has gotten so bad that the talk show comedians now make jokes at our expense - not the comedic shots of days gone by that legitimately satirized newspaper shortcomings, but crueller jokes directed at the health and viability of newspapers per se.

Well, we're here to tell Jon Stewart and Jay Leno and all the rest that newspapers matter and that we're here to stay.

As an institution, we help make our communities better. Most often in small ways; on occasion, in big ways, but every day, in some way.

We matter, and we're here to stay.

Stu is gone now, but the Paddock family still owns the company.

Our journalism and advertising messages may arrive on different platforms, but that product still has value.

And most importantly, we are still moving forward.