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Tomorrow will be one of those papers with the big story that tells people what they already know: Jesse Helms is dead. But it is a keeper because, regardless of what you think of him, Jesse was a pivotal figure in North Carolina politics.

I listened to Helms as a television editorialist as I grew up in Raleigh and wasn't impressed with his rabid conservatism or racial views. That did not change as we both grew older. But his savviness as a politician -- and manager of the press -- cannot be denied.

Through the years, I interviewed and spoke with Sen. Helms many times. He was always gracious and helpful. My first newspaper job was in Monroe, where Jesse's father had been police chief. He grew up there and went to Wingate College, which is also in Union County. While as a politician he castigated the liberal media, he was always kind to us at the Enquirer-Journal in Monroe. We actually felt pretty blessed politically because in addition to Helms, two other influential politicians -- Henry Hall Wilson and Skipper Bowles -- were born in Monroe.

All are gone now.

Juan Antonio Giner over at Innovations in Newspapers often posts photographs of newsrooms, both current and historic. Here's one unearthed from our archives that could serve as the beginning of a new series.

That's reporter Dawn DeCwikiel-Kane and me in our younger days, although somehow Dawn still looks the same today and I have no mustache and less hair on top of my head. Much less hair.

But anyway, that's not what this is about. This photo was taken at a company strategic retreat at least 10 years ago. Beer? We were drinking alcoholic beverages on company time on the company dime? In front of God and everybody? Boy, has that policy ever changed.

Hmmm, is it just a coincidence that newspapers were strong and dominant then, too?

We had discussion as to whether the story about Gettysburg and the Confederate Flag was too much on the front page. Or too high on the front page. Were there were too many images of the Confederate Flag on the front page? (The Confederate Flag is a divisive issue 'round here.)

You can see where I stood on those questions. How about you?

In December, three Greensboro police officers were suspended with pay after being accused of assault. We sued the city to force the release of more information that we believed was public information. The City Council then agreed to release as much information as possible about the case, and we dropped the suit.

Months and months later, the case is still unresolved, except that the officers haven't been charged with anything and the DA has said he does not have enough evidence to prosecute anyone.

Fine.

So what happens when we ask whether the officers are still on administrative leave? The city tells us they don't have to tell us. They refer to this ruling by a Superior County judge in another county in another case, a ruling that is not binding on the city. We're writing about this tomorrow.

Aside from the issue of why this case has dragged on for more than six months without apparent resolution, there's another point: the city's tendency toward opacity over transparency.

I understand that city lawyers are trying to protect employee rights. But the city of Greensboro is not a private business. Its employees work, in effect, for the taxpaying citizens of Greensboro.

When is someone at City Hall is going to start thinking more expansively and openly about what the public should know? Keeping information secret isn't normally the best path to restoring public trust and confidence.

We get occasional complaints -- normally when we mention Sen. Obama on the front page -- that we give him preferential treatment.

Today, your paper, once again, put Sen. Obama on the front page under "Quick Read" with a headline story on p.3, again with picture and plenty of coverage, while relegating Sen. McCain to "Washington Brief", two paragraph story farther down the page. In sales, we call this Position-Position-Position. Just another of your many ways to try to show Sen. Obama in the best of circumstances while trying to downplay his opponent. If you can't see this for yourself, you need to have your eyes checked.

That was yesterday. Obama was on the front page because his proposal to expand efforts to send money to religious groups is a decent news story. It breaks with his more liberal positions for one thing, and it expands upon a program that began in a Republican White House. On the other hand, Sen. McCain's visit to Colombia was much less newsworthy. He essentially asked the country to do a better job with human rights. Worthy but hardly surprising.

Still, we're going to track our presidential coverage to see who gets what sort of coverage day in and day out. The one caveat: When it comes to politics, we try to be fair, but we can't always give equal coverage. Sometimes candidates make news by what they say and do. And attempting to be equal cannot trump news judgment.

Media bias has become increasingly profitable given a polarized electorate in which conservatives and liberals want news coverage that tilts toward their political leanings, according to a University of Illinois study.

"You listen to news not just to get informed, but to be entertained," economist Stefan Krasa said. "And you're more entertained if they tell you you're right than if they tell you you're wrong."

Hmm. I am certainly pleased when I'm told I'm right, but I am vastly entertained when I'm told I'm wrong.

Kavita Pillai, a reporter for the Guilford Record, is leaving us for Memphis, family and, eventually, law school.

When I told her that society needs good journalists way more than it needs new lawyers, she told me that she wants to be a journalist with a law degree.

She's done outstanding work for us.

Last time we published a story about a Nelson Johnson-called news conference, we got some flack from commenters that we overplayed it on the front page.

How do you recommend we cover this story in tomorrow's paper?

I get a lot of phone calls every day. I try to return them within the same day. For the first time in forever I returned a call and no one or no thing picked up the phone. That is, no answering machine.

What's the proper etiquette? How many times do I call back trying to reach them before I give up?

I know some people don't have cell phones. I have heard from a lot of people who don't have computers. But no answering machine? How do they screen their calls? How do they keep their dinner from being interupted. How do they record calls from the presidential candidates asking for their votes? How do they remain on the grid?

Oh, wait. I'm beginning to understand.

Doug Fisher -- and Terry Heaton before him and Steve Boriss before him and Vin Crosbie before him -- has adapted the Kubler-Ross model on death and dying to newspapers.

It's not a bad fit, either.

As decribed by Wikipedia, the stages are:

Denial: "It can't be happening."
Anger: "Why me? It's not fair."
Bargaining: "Just let me live to see my children graduate."
Depression: "I'm so sad, why bother with anything?"
Acceptance: "It's going to be OK."

Heaton suggested in April that, as a whole, the industry is at the depression stage. Today, after last week when roughly 900 journalists, according to Mark Potts, lost their jobs in announced layoffs, my guess is that the depression stage is standing room only, all right.

Everyone I know feels the instability of the marketplace, the job insecurity and the fear of the unknown -- unknown future, unknown skills. Part of it is certainly inept management; I'm working on that here. Guiding folks through the stages is among the most difficult things I've done as a boss.

Industrywide, it is time for acceptance, and I think more journalists are there than the reports on Romenesko would suggest. That's the only way to focus on the challenges before us. While we enjoy, understand and, perhaps, privately cheer on the Angry Journalist, we also know intellectually that economic reality means we look to the future. Like, yesterday.

That means we understand how the world has changed, and we understand how our journalistic skills and assumptions must change. For instance, learning what it takes to be a digital journalist is vital. Reaching readers -- information consumers, really -- where, how and when they want it is good for journalism. Listening to and learning from them is even better.

Nostalgia for the good old days is a new form of professional shackles. What we did back then doesn't work any longer and isn't coming back. We control our own destiny by embracing the new opportunities to practice journalism. And if you truly love journalism, why wouldn't you want to reach and engage with new people? For instance:
* Thousands of people watched our video of Obama's speech as well as read about it online and in the paper.
* Hundreds of gearheads read about pit crews in the paper and watched the video online.
* Every day citizens discuss issues of the day at the coffee shop and lunch counters and online at our site and others. And they aren't just the predictable hot button topics. They include topics such as daycare for jurors, organ donation and problems a neighborhood is having.

And that's just us and we aren't even leaders in the field. Other opportunities lie with microblogging and beat blogging and social networking. As noted journalist Jerry Seinfeld told us, we should look to the cookie. In this case, Oreos, which has gone from one vanilla creme filled cookie to a dozen different types of Oreo, with different flavors and shapes and coatings. Journalism is in the process of reaching different customers in the ways those people want to be reached.

Clearly, I am optimistic about the future of good journalism. How do we pay for it? Smarter people than I -- thank goodness -- are working on that. Potts proposes solutions. So does Newspaper Next. So does Jeff Jarvis. (Link fixed.)

In the old way of thinking, it will be a rough road. If you think of journalism as ink on paper, your paradigm is breaking apart. If you think of journalism as telling good stories the best way you can, the world is opening like a brilliantly colored Chinese fan.

Monday update: Jay Rosen brings a different, more apt, metaphor into play.