News-Record.com

He had a point, but I wasn't going to tell him that. I start to describe the concept of transparency to him. "We are trying to be more open about our actions and to be accountable for them. When we make a decision about something that I think is important to our readers, I want to tell them and tell them why. They deserve that."

"But," he said, shaking his "Even-Cowgirls-Get-the-Blues"-like oversized finger at me, "you knew they would pillory you for it. Now you're being accused on your own pages -- I still don't know why you publish letters criticizing yourselves; what successful business does that? -- of leading the charge to dumb-down the city, of caving to Hillary's right-wing conspiracy, of fueling the infotainment culture."

"No," I said, "they won't miss the stories so much, but I knew they'd miss Tom Friedman, and why would we hide it? Why would we try to sneak it past them? You think they wouldn't notice? You're the one who talks all the time about being a man. Where's the manliness in that?"

I thought that might get a rise in him, but no: "You acknowledge the change to those who ask, but you don't announce it, you wing-nut," he said. "It would be December before half the people who cared even noticed. Instead, you've invited all this criticism upon yourself."

It's true. And some of the people writing letters seem to have gotten their information from letters we've published, which suggest that we're eliminating news from around the world altogether, which isn't true. I didn't say that; I couldn't get a word in edgewise.

He went on: "And then you say how much you're paying, opening yourself up to being chintzy."

He was right about that. In the spirit of openness, I had mentioned the cost of the service. It hadn't occurred to me that some people would consider $34,000 chump change. It's a year's salary for a lot of workers.

"Look," I said, "It is vital to us as an institution that relies on the trust of our readers to be open about what we're doing. I know that people will disagree with my decision. I know I may even lose a few readers over it. But I can't shy away from it. In a few weeks they'll find that, in fact, they won't notice the difference, except for those folks who really like Friedman and don't want to read him online."

He always gets the last word because, well, he's in marketing: "No salesman in their right mind would tell you to drop a service and then tell everyone about it. What you should have done is come up with all the new services you were offering and written about that!"

He's right about that. Problem is, we're still deciding on what those are going to be. In the end, they'll make the paper more interesting and relevant.

This transparency stuff can be tough sledding sometimes.