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Newspaper reporting is really storytelling. We call our articles 'stories,' and we try to tell them in a way that even people who don't know all the background can understand them.

Journalism is a craft that takes years to learn. It's like golf. You never get it right all the time. It's a game of fewer errors, better facts, and better reporting.

Digg is like your newspaper, but rather than a handful of editors determining what's on the front page, the masses do.

If you're a good journalist, what you do is live a lot of things vicariously, and report them for other people who want to live vicariously.

As a novelist, you deepen your characters as you go, adding layers. As a reporter, you try to peel layers away: observing subjects enough to get beneath the surface, re-questioning a source to find the facts. But these processes aren't so different.

I've always thought of myself as a reporter.

Journalism: an ability to meet the challenge of filling the space.

Don't commit to being a columnist unless you're willing to do it right. Report your behind off, so you have something original and useful to say. Say it in a way that will interest someone other than you, your family and your sources.

I think that a great newspaper is one that puts a real premium on digging to get the story behind the story.

Journalism makes you think fast. You have to speak to people in all walks of life. Especially local journalism.