Another one fades

Early on, after I had written my fifth robbery roundup in five days, the metro editor at that time, a great guy named Bill Gerdes, came to me and said, "Stop! No more robbery roundups."

Then he explained the Post-Herald mission to me.

"Look," he said, "you don't have to write about every crime committed in the city. This is not the paper of record; those guys are," and he jerked his head toward the other side of the building where the reporters and editors of the Birmingham News worked.

"What we do," he said, "is pick the best stories and do them better." (More)