Mark Zieman is president and publisher of The Kansas City (Mo.) Star. Reach him at zieman@kcstar.com

LET'S BE FRANK: YOU WON'T win every fight with your publisher. You won't get every dollar you need or fill every job. Your latest online widget might not attract the audience you hoped. Even your friends and neighbors will at times be hurt or alarmed at the news you have to publish to fairly reflect your community and fully inform your readers.

So what's an editor to do? After 11 years, here's what I've learned. Maybe these lessons can help you each day as you tackle the truly heroic job of leading your newsrooms:

1. Build consensus, but move quickly. You have new and bold ideas to improve your newsroom and news coverage, and that's likely why you got the job. So resist the temptation to take several months to get the lay of the land before taking action. As the saying goes, time is the fire in which we burn - and because of enormous financial pressures our industry is pretty toasty right now. As Winston Churchill said, "If you find yourself going through hell, keep going!" You know where you want to go; don't wait too long to start.
2. Become a budget Zen master. Understand where every dollar is spent and in which bucket it falls. If you can't measure the dollars, you can't manage them. That means you leave critical resources unprotected - and yourself unprepared during the next financial discussion with your publisher. Understand trends over time, newsroom expense as a percentage of revenue, how your costs compare to those of your peer newspapers - every metric that can be used to secure more resources or defend against cutting them. Like in the movie "The Matrix," you need to be able to scan columns of newsroom data and spot the woman in the red dress - or in your case manipulate the numbers to pay for that investigative project or key hire.
3. Focus on the 3 Rs - Readership, Revenue and Recognition. Break down everything your newsroom does by how much it drives readership or revenue. If your zones are making 40 percent margin, your advertising director will be your ally in protecting those sections. If your blogger is attracting 500,000 page views a month, your online GM will plead with your publisher to protect that FTE.
   Of course, not everything you do has a robust business model. Lucky for you you're the editor - you can always champion the vital role your newsroom plays in informing, advancing and protecting your community and upholding democracy itself. Saving taxpayers' money, scooping your TV competitors with breaking news video, winning state or national awards or even receiving a testimonial e-mail from a happy reader can lift spirits across your company. Seek out and share this good news as much as you can.
4. Embrace diversity in all its forms. There is no debate - our world and workforce are rapidly evolving. The minorities of yesterday are the majorities of tomorrow. People are working longer before retiring - and switching jobs more often. The career aspirations of the millennials are wholly different from those of their boomer supervisors. Understanding - and accepting - people of different religions, sexual orientation, physical abilities and even family structures has never been more essential. So either you or your successor will have the most diverse staff in your newspaper's history. I hope it's you.
5. Make time to save the world. Some days you get the bear. Some days the bear gets you. Days when you won't want to answer the phone or look a stranger in the eye on the sidewalk. The days when all problems seem insurmountable, all solutions untenable. Thankfully, knowing the right thing to do will be easier than you think. Doing it, however, is often incredibly hard.

On those bad days, read "A Treasury of Great Reporting," or study a list of past Investigative Reporters and Editors awards winners. Remember that no one else at your newspaper - and likely in your community - is responsible for launching, reporting and publishing kick-ass journalism that will make the world a better place.

At any moment, you can walk into your newsroom, pick your best reporter and set out to defend truth, justice and the American way. You, personally, can set in motion coverage that will make life better for one person, or many thousands.