ST. PETE BEACH - Members of the Role Models Today student advisory panel visited the St. Petersburg Times headquarters in December during the foundation's third annual awards ceremony weekend. Editor of editorials Philip Gailey, business news editor Alecia Swasy and community relations specialist Carolyn Hobbs treated the students to two hours of inside-the- newspaper-industry information.

Gailey brought the students to the room where the Times editorial board meets each morning, where he explained how the board, consisting of 11 writers, determines which issues to write about. Gailey said that the editorial board is the "heart and soul" of a newspaper. He said also that members of the board routinely disagree on issues, but they are able, in most cases, to arrive at a consensus that best represents the paper's position.

Swasy, who was also keynote speaker at the awards ceremony, discussed the ins and outs of business writing. A former reporter for the Wall Street Journal, she is the author of the book, Soap Opera: The inside Story of Procter & Gamble. The RMT advisors enjoyed Swasy's humor and learned a lot from her insights.

Hobbs, the insider's insider, took the students on a tour of the entire newspaper operation. Her many years of experience at the Times give her an intimate view of the paper that she clearly loves. The tour shows students how the various departments--news, editorial, sports, advertising, business, marketing, community relations--fit into a cohesive unit to produce one of the best daily newspapers in the world

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