Andy Howell

The Democrats may be the minority party in Utah, but they sure aren't a silent minority.

Top of Utah Democrats flooded the newspaper with calls, letters and emails this week complaining about the lack of coverage of the state party convention.

The tablet could be just what the doctor ordered for the ailing newspaper industry.

The Pew Research Center’s annual Project for Excellence report indicates that the growing number of tablet computers and smartphones is contributing to an influx of people returning to traditional news sources, like newspapers, online. The growing use of social media has also led to more digital exposure to news stories through referrals.

We’ve seen this trend in our own analytics. Traffic to our mobile site has doubled in the last year, especially since we introduced an app.

How is a letter-writing campaign to a newspaper ineffective?

When the protesters are too lazy to write their own letters.

That about sums up an email astroturfing letter campaign last week to the Standard-Examiner and other newspapers that chose not to publish controversial Doonesbury comic strips that dealt with abortion.

The Standard-Examiner's electronic letters account was flooded with more than 8,000 emails of the same letter signed by different people from around the country. Many of the names were duplicated as the automated emailings rotated through again and again.

The principle mission of journalism is to convey news and information to as many people as possible.

Pilots know how to fly an airplane, but they may not know exactly how a plane flies. That is where the mechanics and engineers come in.

On Sunday, Nov. 27, we ran a Page One photo of the FrontRunner commuter train passing over Union Pacific steam engine No. 844 as both approached Ogden.

Alan Hall knows his business.

And he plans to share that knowledge with our readers on a regular basis.