Richard Aregood: THE DAILY NEWS ISN'T TALK RADIO, AND THAT'S GOOD NEWS FOR YOU

NEWSPAPERS and talk radio may as well be in separate universes. Newspapers compete to get a story quickly - and right. Talk radio competes to get angry listeners even more outraged and to confirm their prejudices, perhaps selling some gold-mine stock along the way.

Both the Inquirer and the Daily News acquitted themselves well in the sad, creepy molestation allegations against columnist Bill Conlin. The Inquirer broke the story in an impeccably detailed article by Nancy Phillips. The Daily News reprinted her story, then advanced it the next day with its own revelation of other victims.

That wasn't enough for a yakker from Kansas City on WPHT named Chris Stigall, who said, "If you know that someone of Conlin's profile and stature has been accused multiple times of something this heinous, it's a story the NEXT DAY."

No, it isn't. A newspaper does not deal in rumor and tips. It takes seriously the fact that anybody can say anything about anyone. It can't just blather darkly that there are "eerie, eerie similarities" between the Nazis and the President of the United States, as Stigall once did. A newspaper morally and ethically must make every effort to know what it's talking about before ruining someone's life. That's what was done, calmly, deliberately and quickly. But it was done. It's not like reporting a crime to a bishop or a football coach.

So, if you have loathsome rumors about a talk-show host and tell the newspaper, be assured that we'll check them out and make sure they're founded before printing them. It's the conservative way to practice journalism.

If there are two mantras in American business and politics, they are "competition" and consolidation for the sake of "efficiency." Never mind that the two are often in conflict with one another.

Very soon, the Inquirer and Daily News will move from the ironically nicknamed "Tower of Truth" at Broad and Callowhill streets to a floor of the old Strawbridge and Clothier offices, at 9th and Market streets. It makes sense as a real-estate move.

It can make sense journalistically, too, given the financially straitened state of newspapers today, but only if the distinction and competition between the papers that has so benefited the people of Philadelphia is maintained. The two papers are very different creatures, with different traditions and different focus. As Larry Jinks, the top news executive of Knight-Ridder Newspapers, once put it, the Inquirer is like a U-2, surveying the region and the world. The Daily News is a crop duster, close to the ground.

Daily News staffers are fearful that the two newspapers, separate entities under common ownership since 1957, will finally become indistinguishable from one another. The Daily News, for circulation purposes, is already called an edition of the Inquirer for circulation-reporting purposes. Other departments have been combined. Both papers have suffered from inevitable cutbacks.

A total merger would be a terrible idea for plenty of reasons. The Daily News is Philadelphia's local paper. It focuses on the problems of the ordinary Philadelphian, like the Parking Authority and the wretched excesses of City Council. It cares about its neighborhoods and the closing of neighborhood Catholic schools.

More important, from a business standpoint, it is the kind of newspaper that is doing better in the new world of lower newspaper profits. Papers with a strong local focus are doing much better than regionals like the Minneapolis StarTribune or, dare I say it, the Inquirer. They simply have a more compelling reason for being, and for readers to pay for them. If you want to know about business, you need the Wall Street Journal or the Financial Times. If you want a feel for Philadelphia, you need the Daily News.

The kind of competition that deepened the coverage of the Conlin story is important. Back when the two papers were among the best in the country (in my view), there was socializing among the staffs, even romances. But there was always the creative sense of competition. Nobody shared exclusives or even talked about what they were working on.

So, some advice to the architect of the new newsrooms. Build a wall between them. Without a door. Let the competition benefit both the business and the readers.