He moved to USA TODAY in 1983 as a reporter, and later headed up Washington and World coverage. He oversaw coverage of politics at the paper for a dozen years, attending 11 political conventions and biting his nails with the rest of the journalistic community on Election Night 2000, where the paper went through seven different front pages before declaring no one had yet won! He was Deputy Managing editor in News and later Deputy Executive Editor of the paper before taking over the front page. '

David still believes the most important thing in journalism is fairness, accuracy and the next day's newspaper.

About the news, in David's words:

Here's what guides me at USA TODAY and which increasingly will need to guide the editors at all newspapers:

News and information is now everywhere, and readers learn the news as it happens -- on CNN and Fox, at work on computer screens, on their cellphones, on street corners and in elevators. By the time a newspaper comes out, readers know whether Bode Miller won a medal or fell, whether the man Dick Cheney shot is in or out of the hospital, whether Iraq is exploding.

For newspapers, that's a whole new ballgame. Instead of being first with the news, which was our traditional role before radio, TV and the internet, now we have to be the deepest with the news. 

That is, everyone knows Bode Miller pulled up short. But why, and what will Nike do next about their $5 million investment in him. Everyone knows the Shiite mosque was attacked. But what are the clerics saying and is 'civil war' too strong a word to be throwing around on TV? Everyone has heard about Arabs running our ports, but what is the United Arab Emirates and how they have worked with the U.S. in the past?

Those are the things newspapers can do. Not cover the news -- that's being done before our eyes -- but explain the news, add context and depth. Make the reader smarter for his 30, 35-minute experience and 75 cent investment.

That's the future of newspapers and why we at USA TODAY think our total package --in print and online -- can bring immediacy and depth 24/7.

That said, there's choices -- hard choices -- to be made every day.

Last Thursday's [2/23/06] front page was a great example. Among the choices for Page One were the Olympics, second day coverage of the Iraq mosque bombing, the growing controversy over Dubai and the ports, and the press conference held by eight workers in a meat processing plant who won $22M each in the Powerball lottery.

What we tried to do was to capture the sheer human interest in the Powerball winners -- no, it didn't mean a whole lot in the scheme of things, but it was intensely readable and the talk of the nation that day. So we made that a big art element, using quotes from all eight winners.

Then we led with the latest on the port controversy -- noting that the White House said Bush was unaware of the deal -- and an in-depth cover story on just how pervasive foreign ownership of the USA's infrastructure already is.

And we played the Iraq violence as a photo above the fold in Newsline. A quiet day at the Olympics for the USA -- no medals for the hockey team -- so we played that in the Left Ear. A story about flu and a teaser to Dancing with the Stars rounded out the mix.

While any one of those stories can be argued on or off the page, surely it's an engaging mix of smart, sober reporting, human interest and yes, some fun with a TV reality show. That's USA TODAY. Every day.

Another key for newspapers is to not simply cover the news, but to lead the way by making and breaking news.

The New York Times does it routinely and did it a few months ago with their story about surveillance of calls from overseas to U.S. citizens. The Washington Post can be counted upon to make news with stories about Washington and politics. And increasingly, USA TODAY has become a player in that arena -- breaking news about the lack of safety inspections at the Sago mine, or a story last week about a lobbyist connected to Sen. Arlen Specter's office and defense contracts.

We do this not only for journalistic pride, but for an old-fashioned reason: To sell newspapers.

In an environemnt where news and information has become like AM radio was in the 50s -- always on and being pushed at you from every direction -- newspapers simply must deliver something new every day. To survive. So every time we have an exclusive or enterprising story on Page One, it makes the paper different and, hopefully, essential for the reader.

That's what we try to do on Page One. There are 20 ways to put out any front page. But the keys remain giving readers things they DON'T get elsewhere, while at the same time giving them major news in a way that expands their understanding.

So as we choose from the stories each day, we look for the biggest and latest news -- that will always be a part of what we do -- but also the best stories that readers haven't heard elsewhere, or which we can bring deeper understanding.