Our jobs stir up trouble: Good. (President's Letter).

When you consider the challenges that face us as professional journalists who specialize in opinion, consider these pleas for help posted to the NCEW e-mail list in recent months.

Cynthia Moorehead in Findlay, Ohio, wrote, "I was hired as ed page editor specifically to start taking a stand on issues, which never had been done in the past (in recent memory; anyway). It's a difficult change for all concerned."

Carroll Wilson from Wichita Falls, Texas, wrote that "my publisher is starting to pressure me about having both an editorial page and an op-ed page.... He looks around at some of the other papers our size and a little larger, sees they have only an edit page (and sees that some of them don't even run editorials!!!) and wonders why I insist that we will have both of those pages daily plus locally written editorials every day."

The public and our bosses may not always be comfortable with the work we do, in other words. It stirs up trouble. It costs money. And what good comes of it in any case?

In this era of people feeling disconnected from each other, in a time when off-the-cuff opinions are as accessible as a radio dial and as valuable as a small pile of pennies, the careful work that we do plays a critical function in our local communities and in the national democracies of the U.S. and Canada. At our best, we advance the common good, we thoughtfully challenge the prevailing orthodoxies, we give voice to the hopes and fears of our readers and viewers.

Look at the role that print and broadcast editorials, political cartoons, opinion columns, and letters to the editor have played in the past few months. They have helped enlighten folks about the complexities of Islam, anthrax, civil liberties, military policy, and the economy. They have helped clarify the ultimate issues of war and peace. They have evoked so many of the emotions that people have experienced.

That's all very noble, but when counting dollars and cents, is a strong editorial section worth the cost? The massive readership study completed earlier this year for Newspaper Association of America and the American Society of Newspaper Editors identified several areas where the work we are doing in editorial sections represents key elements for attracting readers. Our own Lynnell Burkett laid the groundwork for that notion in her 1999 book, Future Voice -- Editorial Pages: Newspapers' Overlooked Strategic Tool.

I mention these because they are good resources for you to draw on if you need to defend your work to a publisher. Members of NCEW are great resources for each other as well. Carroll Wilson said responses from members of our organization enabled him to prepare "an impenetrable defense" of his op edit page if his publisher ever brings up the subject again.

Cindy Moorehead, meanwhile, found that taking strong stands brought rewards as well. Her bosses have "seen things happen (or not happen) as a direct result of what we've said in our editorials. They've also seen an increase in letters to the editor. When we have the guts to say something, and we survive, a lot more people seem to be willing to do the same thing in letters."

Lots of folks out there have opinions and are not shy about giving them. What sets us apart is that we are trained to sort through issues, we are paid to spend a lot of time at it, and we are skilled in presenting opinions in a way that should engage the minds and emotions of our readers and viewers.

As I entered the presidency of NCEW this year, one of the goals I set for myself is to advocate for the place of strong opinion sections as part of the package of print and broadcast journalism. That is a critical role for this organization to take on, and seldom has it been as urgent as it is right now.

There's internal work to be done as NCEW goes through a transition from the long and dedicated service of Cora and Tom Everett and Tomi Fontaine to the new opportunities offered us by the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association. There's external work to be done as we strive to protect the First Amendment in a time of diminishing public support.

Ultimately, we need to make sure that we continue to help the Cindys and Carrolls of the world maintain their strong voices in their communities. If we do that, not only will NCEW fulfill its mission, but also we will be invigorating democracy at the same time.

NCEW president Phil Haslanger is managing editor of The Capitol Times in Madison, Wisc. Contact him at [e-mail]