On Topic: Give me an R ...

Everyone knows this: Reporters call their assigned areas “beats.”

Why they're called beats I've no idea. Maybe because in the early days of journalism, rough-and-tumble reporters were determined to “beat down the doors” of reluctant miscreants in the course of gathering news.

Or maybe because the reporters beat a regular path in the course of covering their designated subject areas every day.

The myriad reasons for beats are clear, though. One is to ensure you don't have more than one person spending time - time the newspaper, broadcaster or online site is paying for - rooting around on the same story.

Another is to cut down on squabbling. (It's been known to happen: It's a matter of pride to put together the most accurate, best-written story.)

A third reason is, over time, good reporters can gain insight on specific topics, while also developing trust among expert sources in those fields.

As someone who's had to plot who should cover what at a few publications, I've learned certain beats carry more weight in some markets than others. When I was in Columbus, Ohio, for example, you never saw an article about crop prices.

In western Michigan, it was mostly about manufacturing. All those car giants clustered around Detroit counted on the tier-two and tier-three parts makers on the Lake Michigan side.

Here in Eastern Iowa, we also spend a good deal of effort keeping an eye on manufacturing, though less about automobiles and more about oats, avionics and other items that begin with vowels.

Another similarity that continues to be the inspiration for stories in both locales is regionalism, with a capital R.

In the mitten state - seriously, that's what they call it, with the thumb to the east and ignoring the Upper Peninsula all together - we devoted a criminally large number of words to a region that didn't want to be any such thing.

That Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo, Mich., should work together - with Battle Creek (home to Kellogg) and Benton Harbor (Whirlpool) as longitudinal braces - seemed a sensible idea. But try though the well-intentioned heads of their individual economic-development agencies might, and no matter how many editorials I wrote in support of the notion while I was there and how many public forums the business newspaper I edited hosted, it just hasn't jelled. Scheesh.

But here in the Corridor, it's a different story.

As you'll read elsewhere on this site, in a Q&A with Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance President and CEO Dee Baird and Iowa City Area Development Group interim President Mark Nolte, Iowa's Creative Corridor is already working together.

Their respective agencies - along with 11 other organizations in this part of the world - have “the will” to try to make things work, as Baird remarked during the session with George C. Ford and me.

Cedar Rapids has the work force and it has Rockwell Collins, while Iowa City has the University of Iowa, among other know-how, can-do businesses and organizations. Muscle and brain power.

Those, Nolte added, are the makings of a truly powerful economic engine. And he's right.