Editor's Welcome

by David Reed

June 27,2008

After I assign a reporter to do a market analysis and see the article pop up in my e-mail inbox, I'm always anxious to find out whether the story is balanced. It shouldn't be weighted toward the negative or positive; it should be a portrayal as close to reality as we can make it. But I also know that negative perceptions can become self-fulfilling. And as Mary Wilkerson says in Randy McConnell's article on the mortgage market, when it comes to consumer confidence "it's not about reality." It turns out that the short-lived designation of Columbia as a declining market had little practical impact on lending, but its emotional impact was significant. We tried to chock this CBT full of facts about the local economy, because we believe the majority of readers do care about the way things really are.

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