Warren Watson teaches journalism at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind. In his 35-year career, he worked for newspapers large and small, including the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times, where he was assistant sports editor and graphics editor/art director from 1984-88. His is a past co-chair of The American Editor Committee. Reach him via e-mail at wwatson@bsu.edu.

NEIL BROWN believes that a unique, political Web site started last year as a joint project of the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times and Congressional Quarterly has the immediacy, urgency and interactivity that can be a formula for online success for newspaper companies: PolitiFact.com.

Executive editor and vice president of the Times, Brown said the site helps voters separate truth from falsehood when it comes to the claims of presidential candidates. "The site truly makes the case that at least part of our future rests in focusing on the smart, credible journalism that we have always done so well," he said.

Brown said the Times has shifted a substantial chunk of its traditional political coverage to "old-fashioned, shoe leather reporting."

"When a presidential candidate makes a claim - or attacks a competitor - we spend the time to verify whether what the candidate said was true or false. The signature piece is our 'truth-o-meter,' a graphic that takes a stand and rates the veracity of the comments."

Comments are rated with meter images that note whether they're "True," "Mostly True," "Half True," "Barely True," "False" and - everybody's favorite - "Pants on fire," with dancing flames. Brown noted that the feature is reverse published in the newspaper. "It has become our single most popular feature on our Web site other than our daily breaking news blog," he said.

Brown started at the Times in 1993 as world editor. He served as managing editor, joining the Times Publishing Co. board in 1997 and was named to his current position in August 2004. Earlier, he spent four years in Washington as managing editor of Congressional Quarterly, an affiliate of Times Publishing Co. Brown spent eight years at The Miami Herald covering government and politics. He is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Iowa, and past president of the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors.

Q: What are the strengths and weaknesses of the print newspaper?

A: Depth. Portability. Visual power. The ability to linger. Thoughtful. And above all: The reports that end up in the paper have a standing and a credibility that make them consequential. This is as profound today as ever. That's why those in power still pay serious attention to what we publish. Weaknesses? Lack of immediacy and urgency. Lack of interactivity with the audience. An inclination toward stodginess.

Q: What of online?

A: The emerging online format offers a host of antidotes to every one of those weaknesses. As a result, newsrooms now produce print and digital products that marry up the urgency, vibrant technology and creativity of online presentation with the credibility, depth and consequence of newspaper journalism. And often what unifies those products is the brand of the company and the standing it has in the community. Enlisting and interacting with our readers is extremely powerful. By inviting our audience to come and play, we stay much closer to their interests and needs. Plus, they become a vast network of correspondents, generating content.

Q: Profits have shrunk at media organizations. What can an editor do in these troubled times to continue producing the latest news and opinion while balancing the needs of the business? How do you cope?

A: First, have the courage of your convictions and believe that the journalism we do - no matter what form we deliver it in - matters and has value. If you doubt it, so will everyone around you. Second, get on a great story. When we're working on a great story, the distractions of the economic climate subside, and we are all quickly reminded of how talented our staffs are and how valuable credible journalism is to our community. It's also the best way to remind the institutions we work for that this business is special and has a value that will ultimately be a financial success. Optimism should not be spin - it should be part of your core.

Q: Is newspaper-style journalism still relevant at a time of flash reports, PDAs, Blackberries and iPhones?

A: It's critical that we get away from the false choice of journalism being either old-school print or high-speed online. Many of our best newspaper readers have Blackberries or cell phones or read stuff online. It's not an either-or. It's more about what readers want when and via which delivery mechanism. They can read the paper in the morning and get news notifications on their phones or PDAs at work, read a newspaper Web site on their lunch hour, and read the Sunday paper then get sports notifications on the weekend. Why pick? It's all so relatively inexpensive. What they need is credibility of the information.

Q: What of investigative reporting?

A: Investigative is as important now as ever. We created an I-team about a year ago that is made up of print journalists, database experts and researchers who are doing work in print and online. We've only started to dabble in multimedia but see great potential. We're still getting our traction, but we've declared investigative work to be one of our biggest priorities because it's the right thing to do and because it is a superb way to distinguish ourselves in a fragmented media marketplace. Our mantra has been, "If we don't reveal these stories, who will?" We know it's expensive - in a difficult time. So to find the resources, we're eliminating things (like stock tables) that simply don't hold as much value for people anymore.

Q: How did you discover journalism?

A: I was in my kindergarten class in Chicago (in November 1963) when another teacher came rushing into our classroom in tears and breathlessly announced that President Kennedy had been shot. My teacher grabbed a radio, turned it on, and we all sat silently looking at the radio and listening to the coverage. That whole weekend my father had the TV on, watching the coverage. I got the bug at that point in two ways. First, ever since then I've wanted to be the first to tell somebody something. I love surprising people with something they didn't know - preferably something big. Second, watching the coverage on TV (and seeing my father riveted by it) made me very politically aware, even as a kid, and I thought about how cool it would be to see things firsthand. I've been a current affairs/history buff ever since that day.

Q: What will the St. Pete Times of 2020 look like?

A: I suspect it will continue to grow into an interesting mix of more in-depth, investigative and enterprise stories - almost magazine-like - combined with a wonderfully vital (and colorful) rundown of breaking news developments (heavily local) and the vast offerings of multimedia presentations produced by our newsroom. As for 2020, I think the paper may be like those editions in Harry Potter, where the subjects in the pictures move and talk to you. The print and digital technology become so blended that you can hold the paper in your hand and brush your finger across a story or an ad and have it come to life. Kind of a New York Times meets the Jetsons.

Q: What skills do young journalists need to possess?

A: The same as ever: They need to be curious and have a healthy sense of outrage. They need to learn how to write and communicate clearly, how to ask questions, value accuracy, be fair; and they should have excellent research skills because the mountain of available information is as wonderfully high as ever. Of course, they'll have more technology options on how to present the fruits of their work, be it reporting, visual journalism or design. Those are skills to be learned, for sure, but without the first batch I mentioned, those are mechanical.

Q: What are the unique challenges you face at a metro daily in the South?

A: Not much different than any metro. We have a lot less cash available because of the decline of classified advertising, which suggests a transformation of our business. Here it is compounded by a down economic cycle - in particular the collapse of the real estate market. But it's still an appealing place to live, full of great news stories, a region that will continue to attract talent.

Q: Is it still a satisfying business, Neil?

A. Absolutely. We have a historic presidential campaign, a controversial war, an economy that is sputtering in ways that are deeply changing day-to-day life in America; we have a global environmental movement under way; and we have no shortage of scandal, local feuding and technological and cultural change swirling around in Tampa Bay and Florida. That's news, baby! It's a great time to be a journalist, and we have more cool, high-powered tools available to tell our stories and hold people accountable. We just need to keep our eye on the ball.

Q: When you were 10, what did you want to do when you grew up?

A: In this order: Third baseman for the Cubs, newspaper reporter, lawyer. Options one and three turned out to be crazy.

Q: If you were to compare your newspaper to a culinary creation, what might it be? And why?

A: A Chicago deep-dish pizza - sausage, extra cheese and green pepper. Absolutely distinctive versus all the other pizzas out there - hot, fresh, full of flavor, filling, goes great with beer, never gets old. That's my definition of a newspaper, too.*