I got into the journalism racket in 1976 for all the usual reasons -- a desire to see my name in print, not make much money and get the chance to see boxing matches and baseball games without having to pay admission. But it wasn't until fairly recently, quite unexpectedly and completely without desire, that I found myself actually running a newspaper.

The one you're reading right now.

I'd been a writer and editor, and that was it. I didn't even know how much paper and ink cost, much less health insurance, office supplies or computer equipment. When it came to such matters, I was as green a rube as ever fell off the back of any turnip truck.

When one is thrust rudely into such a position, a position of -- dare I say -- responsibility, one has little choice but to scour the memory banks in search of some scrap of experience with which to deal with to deal with the problems suddenly being faced. And the only thing I'd ever done that was even remotely comparable was directing the movements of a broken down rock and roll band that had achieved some minor notoriety during the late 1970s and 1980s.

You'd be surprised by the similarities. When you were touring the country, for example, you needed the money they'd guaranteed you for a show in Pittsburgh in order to get to the next show in Philadelphia. You had expenses, and if you didn't meet them you might find yourself stranded on the I-80 in the middle of a blizzard and, if you've seen "Easy Rider" or any of the "Friday the 13th" series, you know how that can turn out.

It's the same in the newspaper business. If you didn't make enough money on last week's paper to pay for this week's, the consequences can be immediate and severe. We've never bothered to ask for a bank loan, since any bank that would give the Niagara Falls Reporter a loan would not be the sort of institution that I'd keep my money in, and of course we've never troubled ourselves applying for any sort of government handout, even though City Hall, the county IDA and the state's USA Niagara Development Corp. have squandered millions here on business proposals even more dubious.

The most important thing about running a band, though, was picking the proper personnel. My philosophy was always to get the best people I could find to fill each slot, and then let them do whatever they wanted to with as little supervision as possible.

And I'm lucky to be able to work with the best.

Jim Bower, our advertising director, has had more than 30 years of marketing experience, setting the pace for the rest of us. Most civilians don't know it, but the number of pages is dictated by the amount of advertising you're able to sell, and this week's issue is the thickest we've had in a long time.

He works closely with Design Editor Margaret Coghlan, who does the art for most of the ads that appear in the Reporter. Like Jim, she's a publishing professional who must've started when she was 15 or something in order to have had as many years on the job as she has.

Rebecca, often referred to as the Redhead in this space, puts the whole package together, blending the ads with the editorial copy, proofreading, doing the Web page and, in her free time, taking care of the banking and payroll.

I write, of course, but I've got a lot of help. Frank Thomas Croisdale, Bob Kostoff, Michael Calleri, Mary Lefevre, Jim Cwierley and, this year, Frank Parlato have all made enormous contributions that broaden our coverage and make the paper a must-read for those who are interested in what's going on outside the confines of City Hall.

None of what we do would even matter though without our ace circulation department. Tom Sharpe and Jerry Slish are up long before the sun every Tuesday morning, making sure the Reporter is available at any of the more than 500 locations from Youngstown to North Tonawanda and Niagara Falls to Lockport where you pick it up later in the day. It's a lot of work.

And then there's Publisher Dan Cipollitti. He recently celebrated his one-year anniversary in that position, having spent the previous nine as treasurer of Niagara Roar Publications, which owns the paper, and in that one year I think he got quite an education.

Back in April, he covered the massive earthquake in the Abruzzo region of Italy. As is so often the case in the newspaper business, he happened to be in the right place at the right time, or the wrong place at the wrong time, depending on how you look at it, and his reportage was superb.

Working both the phone and a computer he found somewhere, he sent home dozens of bulletins, dispatches and photos, painting a poignant picture of the tragedy, which had its epicenter near the tiny village of Prezza, his boyhood home.

Get the best people you can find and pretty much just let them do whatever they want. I learned that a long time ago, and it still holds true today.