You're reading a lot now about newspapers facing tough times, but the problem isn't with reader demand. The Sacramento Bee is actually growing its audience.

A couple of weeks ago, for example, we hit an all-time high in the number of people reading The Bee. While there is no doubt that it was a particularly "newsy" week (with the Amgen tour and the passage of the state budget), research shows that more than 1 million people read The Bee each week, a number that has continued to grow.

We are facing tough times – just as radio, television and Internet sites are – because our business models rely on the communities we serve being economically strong. The amount of money readers pay for the printed edition of the newspaper doesn't cover the costs of the newsprint it's printed on and its delivery to the reader. That means that advertising revenues pay for everything else. While The Bee's cost to transmit information electronically is much less (it's still not free), the content posted online is paid for by advertising, as well.

And our advertisers – like thousands of other businesses in the Sacramento region – are struggling. The Bee is a local business whose future is intertwined with the region's success.

We need to challenge ourselves to change our business model going forward. That's where community conversation becomes essential; in fact, it becomes key. Here are some of the questions we find ourselves contemplating:

• What is our role in helping our region to be successful? We are a local business and, like all local businesses we need to help our community recover from these very difficult times. In our view, tough reporting on the powerful in the community is important to any community's overall success, but should we be doing more? Do most readers understand that we can celebrate the success in the community and call people on bad behavior at the same time?

• Is there value to offering a "best of the day" synopsis? Modern newspapers have never tried to be your sole information provider, but rather seek to give you information about the things happening in your region, nation and world. We know that readers are flooded with information, but most don't have the time or desire to go to 50 different sources each day to see if there is anything new of interest to them.

• How do our opinion pages become a better gathering place for thoughtful conversation about the issues? We have to find a way to move from discussions where people keep saying the same things over and over to conversations where people actually listen to – and respond to – each other. Perhaps we can even find some common ground.

• How do we help consumers sort through information to determine what is credible and what isn't? And, no, I'm not talking about politics here. There is a lot of misinformation out there – and a lot of contradictory information. What is our role in identifying credible information?

• How do we communicate the true value of the newspaper? Some tell us that they get their news "from the Internet" without realizing that The Bee is still the source of the story. Google and Yahoo don't have reporters in our community, and many of the stories on local radio and TV have their origin in The Bee's newsroom.

• How do we make our advertising more accessible to more businesses? We know how well advertising works; our customers tell us this all the time. But, we are not the cheapest option in the market. How do we better communicate that successful advertising pays for itself in sales at the cash register? For years newspapers have been an intermediary – occupying the space between a story and the community that is interested in it; the advertisers and the consumers they want to reach; politicians and their constituents.

As we face tough times, we are trying to reinvent ourselves, and we need your help to do that. I've long believed that more voices lead to a better solution for most any problem and have advocated for community involvement. Today, we are asking you to spend some time thinking about your newspaper; I look forward to this ongoing conversation.