I have been thinking a great deal recently about the multiple roles a newspaper plays in a community. I suppose all this thinking stuff has something to do with my job, or I am low on my buttermilk smoothies.

I am fortunate that I get to roam around to numerous newspapers owned by Sound Publishing and pester folks. This roaming has given me the opportunity to watch a lot of very talented writers crafting stories and many fine newsrooms putting out papers.

A newspaper is a different kind of a chicken. It is a business that carries the limitations and, most importantly, responsibilities of First Amendment protection.

Most businesses are concerned with keeping the doors on the hinges and selling widgets smothered in cheese.

The intriguing part of producing a newspaper is the number of balls that must be kept in the air to keep the presses running.

I have read a pile of articles over the last few years from around the country about the future of newspapers. Many are either misinformed or in service of great and glorious Wizard of I Am Smarter than You.

Most of the articles I have come across predicting the future of newspapers are authored by someone who is not producing a paper – although the writers often say they did once, or their parents did, or they knew a guy down the street who read a newspaper. . . once upon a time.

I learned long ago to never predict the future. I can barely predict where I will be in the next seven minutes, or for that matter remember where I am supposed to be in the next seven minutes.

The wonderful writing goddesses Sarah and Becky at our paper in Covington are constantly telling me where I should be and pointing out that I am not there . . . wherever there is.

Nothing like youth and a functional brain complete with memory. I must have had that once, but I don’t really remember.

Here is my secret decoder ring forecast on the future of anything: No one has a clue – including those hair-piece wonders with beer cans strapped to their heads waiting for the apocalypse. (I hate to break the bad news, but the apocalypse happened last month and the Seahawks lost.)

I believe newspapers will be around because of the story. The form a newspaper will take I don’t know, but the story is the thing. Story is a spiritual being that demands great discipline and patience. If the writer is quiet and stays still long enough, the story will speak.

Read the writings of the talented reporters in this paper and others around the company and you will see what I mean.

Story is the thing.