Charlotte Hall is editor of the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel and the president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors. Reach her via e-mail at chall@orlandosentinel.com.

WE HAVE JUST PASSED THROUGH the summer of our discontent. The center is not holding. How many of us lie awake at night agonizing about laying off talented journalists? How many of us cringe as we cut news hole and worry readers will desert us? How many of us are getting really scared about losing journalism?

This is not going to be a column about business conditions. We all know the business model needs fixing. I'm tired of that talk — and of listening to those who would write us off, though they haven't found a business model to support journalism either.

What I want to talk about is healing newsrooms and reigniting journalism. I don't know any more about this than you do, so I hope we will learn from one another. It strikes me that leaders sometimes avoid talking about their own insecurity and self-doubt. We are supposed to be tough and just move on.

Editors, as the face of management in newsrooms, are the object of some of the anger, and we, too, feel angry and sorrowful at what is happening. Some editors have decided that they will not preside over the dismantling of the newsrooms they built. All of this is understandable, and so we need time to heal, too. My friends and family during the summer admonished me repeatedly to take care of myself, and I would say the same to all of you.

How can we be apostles of hope amidst all of this? How do we manage our own fear and lead change at the same time? While open communication can help start the healing, the most important healer is journalism itself.

Go home to journalism. That is where the passion — and the hope — reside in our newsrooms. Some cynical humorist at the Orlando Sentinel — plenty of those around nowadays — opined during the summer that we needed a good hurricane to get us going. The thought was silly, but the message clear: What we do matters to our communities. We help people in crisis. We are the watchdogs. We are the mirror and lamp to our communities, reflecting life and shining light into dark places. That is our soul.

I am more convinced than ever that journalism, and only journalism, will save newspapers. Because people want journalism. We've heard it when readers complain about content cuts to the paper — they are mad because what we do matters to them. We've seen it in the growth spurt of many of our Web sites. Those who proclaim us dead forget that our total audience is growing. We are growing because journalism matters.

If some of us walked the edge of despair this summer, UNITY was the perfect antidote. Passionate journalists, full of energy and ideas, want into our business! Wow! They were lining up at job fair booths eager to be at a newspaper, eager to make a difference. They have new ideas and know things we will never know. They are our future.

Another positive reality check came at one of ASNE's summer institutes for high school journalism teachers. If you ever doubted whether journalism matters, talk to a teacher about how high school newspapers change young lives. The teachers face huge odds as they fight budget cuts, administrative indifference and the constant threat of censorship. Their jobs take guts and faith. So do ours.

I also discovered the wonderful work going on in the area of news literacy, the subject of an ASNE-sponsored conference at Poynter. For three days, smart folks from the academic and media worlds talked about how to help young people recognize and value credible sources of news. Rex Smith, our Education for Journalism Committee chair, provides the color and details on P. 19.

So signs abound that people care fiercely about the future of journalism — young people entering the business, high school teachers and students, university professors, our readers. Yes, many of our newsrooms are smaller after this summer of plague. But the good fight goes on, and journalism is the key. Keep the faith, and let's make sure we help each other. *