It was a typical fall day on Sept. 27, 1993, in north Missouri.

I anxiously arrived at the Chillicothe Constitution-Tribune office on my first day as the daily newspaper’s new reporter.

I eagerly accepted my first professional story: a feature on the local Humane Society, which apparently, had a shelter overflowing with animals needing adopting.

The shelter was located well outside of the city limits, requiring a trip down several gravel roads.

This was before GPS or even Mapquest. I just had some haphazard instructions from the sports editor who I think secretly hoped I’d get lost.

I did.

In fact, I inadvertently pulled into the driveway of a couple who were sitting on death row for killing several transients, but that’s a story for a different day.

Since then, I’ve witnessed a lot of changes in the newspaper industry, well beyond the handy GPS which almost always guarantees I don’t get lost anymore.

When I went out on that story assignment, I had a 35 millimeter camera filled with something called … film. Film that was black-and-white and manually loaded and developed in a dark room … a standard feature of newspaper offices 30 years ago but exist only in museums today.

There were no digital cameras, no fax machines, or internet. The story I wrote about the humane society that day was done on a basic word processor and the paper was designed with glue sticks, tape and scissors.

One thing though that may have changed as much as the technology isn’t as obvious.

It’s you. The reader.

The changes are subtle in reader expectations, but anyone who’s been responding to them for the last four decades is very aware of them.

I remember one of my daily assignments for the paper was to call the local hospital and get a list of names of individuals who were admitted for publication. We would publish divorce decrees and the amount of court-ordered child support payments.

Over time, readers became less and less demanding of that kind of information, more concerned with personal privacy in relation to medical issues and personal matters such as child support payments.

Another change in reader expectations became apparent again this week following the shooting of a man in rural Elsberry.

Readers today are both more skeptical and less patient when it comes to information and developments.

After the shooting Monday afternoon, St. Louis television stations were reporting on it that evening. Stories included information related to the shooter being taken into custody for questioning before being released.

No other detail or explanation was provided, and immediately, the public began questioning the integrity of the investigation.

Consequently, when I talked to the prosecutor who reported he believed it was self-defense, I published a story online.

The prosecutor stated he would be releasing a public statement later in the day, and I fully intended to update the story once that was released.

That statement provided additional detail and context, explaining the prosecutor’s preliminary assessment.

However, in the short two hours between my initial story and that statement, both the prosecutor and the sheriff’s department were further criticized and their investigation questioned.

In my experience, law enforcement and prosecutors are very reluctant to release details about a major crime that’s still being investigated. The last thing they want to do is jeopardize a criminal investigation by commenting on it before all the facts have been collected.

I contend though there are two reasons why the public is less accepting of that approach than ever before.

One, we live in the information age. Thanks to the Internet and social media, we are inundated with information and there are plenty of outlets willing to provide it as quickly as possible in order to meet the demand. As such, when there’s a matter of significant, local importance, the public expects the same immediate and up-to-the-minute updates as they receive with stories on a national level.

Secondly, the public is much more skeptical than ever before. Whether law enforcement, prosecutors, judges, politicians, or even (especially) the media, the public doesn’t trust the establishment. And with several missteps over the years in Lincoln County, the public here is even more skeptical.

As a result, when I report the prosecutor says the shooting was self-defense, that’s not enough. The public wants and demands details proving it was self-defense before they believe it.

The days of trusting what the prosecutor, sheriff, chief of police or mayor, say on face value is over.

Months before I took that first newspaper job, I was a long-haired college student wearing a “Question Everything” button, so I can certainly appreciate a healthy level of skepticism while doubting “the man.”

Sometimes, I forget the public has since adopted that “question everything” mantra. It’s an important change I need to remember, almost as important as that handy GPS.

Gregory Orear is the General Manager/Editor of the Lincoln County Journal, Elsberry Democrat and Troy Free Press. Anyone who wants to talk to him about the “stone age” of newspapers can contact him at gorear@cherryroad.com.