Nancy Barnes: Ups, downs -- both matter

It's hard to forget the scathing phone call that I received more than three years ago now from an area Realtor. We were just at the beginning of the descent of the housing market, and he was furious with the newspaper for writing about the decline in housing sales. He literally screamed into the phone that the newspaper was destroying his business and his personal livelihood, and that he would see to it that no one from his company advertised with us again.

Fast-forward another year, and we were catapulting into the Great Recession. The automobile industry was in as deep a freeze as anyone could remember, and hardly anyone was buying a car. We wrote about that in a front-page story that made area auto dealers, who are frequent advertisers with the Star Tribune, less than happy. At least one local dealer called the publisher to ask us to tone it down, pointing out that our business rose and fell with his.

I understand where these businessmen and businesswomen are coming from. It's long been clear to me in this business, as in others, how much perception can drive reality when it comes to consumer behavior. As an organization dedicated to telling people what is going on in their world, we play a role in driving perception. My husband also spent some years as a private contractor, and I know firsthand the stress involved when you have inventory to move.

I believe, however, that the media plays a critically important role in helping people understand the economic climate so they can make important decisions in their lives regardless of the pressure that might come from the business world. I feel most strongly about this when it comes to real estate and housing, because in modern history, a home has been the biggest purchase and often the biggest investment an individual could make. Fortunes have been made and lost in real estate over the decades. We want to explain to people how the housing market is performing, and what's going on with mortgages and real estate investment trusts, so they can make the most informed decisions they can. We want to provide this coverage in a manner that is divorced from any influence, so that our readers can rely on it.

I explained my thinking to the Realtors and car dealers and others who called as the economy was tanking, but I also promised that when things started to turn around, we would write about that, too. News organizations are often accused of reporting only the bad news and overlooking the good; there's a certain amount of truth to that.

I've been mindful of that promise as we have covered the local, state and national economy these last few years. It's fair to say that nobody could have imagined just how badly damaged the housing market was and how long it would take for real estate to recover. (Few call to complain about our coverage any more.) But when there has been significant news to report, we have put it on the front page.

After Black Friday this year, early reports suggested that consumer spending was up as much as 5 percent over last year. Few news organizations were budgeting that for their front pages, but as we discussed how much coverage we had given the spending decline two years ago, we decided to place that story in a prominent front-page position in our newspaper and on our website.

We will take the angry phone calls when we report that a business or sector of the economy isn't faring well so that readers can trust that we are accurately and fairly portraying the state of the economy. We also want readers and business leaders to trust that when business turns around, we will accurately and fairly portray that as well.