From The Daily Miracle to the Web, it's been a hit

Angelina Jolie. Brad Pitt. Batman. Hulk Hogan. Britney Spears.

None of those characters have anything to do with this column. But just because their names are included in it, thousands of Internet surfers who rely on the World Wide Web for their celebrity news may click on this and read along until they realize they have been fooled.

It makes no difference that they will move on in seconds. Their "hit" on this Web site will have been recorded, and hits are the latest way newspapers measure readership these days. (Actually, they no longer call it "readership"; now it's "audience.")

That's one reality in the rapidly evolving newspaper business. In cyberland, it's not so much what one says as it is where and how one says it, and who is likely to listen.

It's a far cry from when I started in this business. Thirty years ago, we spent most of our waking hours in noisy, smoky, poorly lit rooms using now-archaic tools such as typewriters, teletypes, carbon paper, pica poles, proportion wheels and blue pencils to construct what we affectionately called The Daily Miracle.

Only the big-city papers had any kinds of tools that resembled computers, and they were word processors called "video display terminals."

Those were exciting times. They also were stressful and demanding times, the pace of which defeated the emotional and physical well-being of far too many reporters and editors. Some took their memories and moved on, most to jobs where they worked less and were paid more. No shame there.

Others hung in, committed to the purpose of our profession and dedicated to making a difference in the lives of the people who depended on us not only to expose injustice and hold their government accountable, but also to care about their kid's ball game and to spell their mom's maiden name correctly on the obituary page.

Despite all the technological advances in how news is delivered, that core mission remains. How and to what degree it is accomplished has changed, and it will change again and again as the newspaper industry looks for new ways to give readers what they want.

Let's just hope that what they want is more than celebrity snippets and the opportunity to post anonymously on blogs.

• • •

All of that nostalgia and reflection is a lead-in to announce that this will be my final contribution as an editorial writer and columnist at the St. Petersburg Times.

For 16 years, I've held forth on this page, authoring the institutional opinions of the newspaper, as well as a column with my personal musings, which have ranged from the serious to the silly.

It's been a sweet ride and the most fulfilling of my journalism career. Now I have the opportunity to reap some rewards for my efforts. I have accepted an early retirement package offered by the Times, which, like most large newspapers in America, is restructuring in reaction to the fragile economy and a demand to provide more online content. The Times' editorial board will continue to publish an opinion page in the Hernando Times, but I won't be writing those editorials and columns any longer.

Don't conjure up an image of me in a rocking chair, grumpy about being a retiree on a fixed income. This will be only my first retirement, and I'm already looking forward to where Round Two takes me. I don't expect it will be too far from this place, where I arrived 18 years ago and made my home.

In the meantime, I intend to wet my line and tee 'em up, following the example of those who have much more experience in the art of leisure living.

But before the fun begins, I am obliged to convey that it has been my pleasure to oversee this valuable community forum, where ideas are traded, feelings are shared and judgments are made. My genuine gratitude goes to everyone who still appreciates the role and the importance of the Opinion Page in a democracy, and the necessary distinction between it and the news report.

And special thanks to those who took the time to weigh in. You have demonstrated the courage of your convictions and a concern for your community. I'm depending on all of you to keep speaking up in an effort to improve your corner of the world, one Web hit at a time.

And that goes for Jennifer Aniston, Madonna, Urban Meyer, Miley Cyrus, John Travolta and Oprah.

Jeff Webb can be reached at jlwebb@tampabay.rr.com