Letters from the Editor

Woo was the first person outside the Pulitzer family to edit the "St. Louis Post-Dispatch" and the first Asian American to edit a major American newspaper. After forty years in the newsroom, Woo embarked on a second career teaching journalism at Stanford. This volume collects some of the best informal weekly essays he wrote to his students on their craft's high purpose. Among the wide-ranging topics are reflections on journalism as a public trust and print journalism conducted in the face of broadcast and online competition. Also included are personal reflections on the Pulitzer family's impact on journalism, the tensions between a journalist's personal and professional life, and the conflicts posed by political advocacy vs. free speech or a reporter's expertise vs. a newspaper's credibility. Woo's essays come straight from a newsman's heart and soul to remind new students of journalism of values worth preserving.