In many ways a newspaper exists inside a bubble of contradictions.

Each department within The Observer is entrusted to accomplish separate goals based on a unique skill set, and I am often amazed at how well we are able to do what we do.

For example, the newsroom consists of reporters who go out and report on stories and take photographs. The newsroom’s task is much like what most readers imagine — men and women interviewing people, attending key meetings and visiting important community events.

Yet on the other side of the coin is our advertising department. The job of the advertising department is a simple one — make money.

That’s because, in the end, a newspaper is a business. That doesn’t mean, of course, that we or any other newspaper fashions its ultimate goals around finances. But it is pretty important. We are not a nonprofit. We exist to do several things at once — inform the public, make money, print the paper and make sure it is delivered on time and on a regular basis. Each department — the newsroom, advertising, composing, circulation, the mailroom and the press — must accomplish their specific mission every day, or we fail.

We are a business, a for-profit company that holds news values — independence, free speech, clarity and fairness — as critical elements of our success.

Yet all of us eat. Pay bills. The news that you see in the paper does not spring into the world like the Phoenix, fully formed and ready to be distributed. It has to be paid for.

That is why departments such as circulation and advertising are so critical to our success. And that is why we are one of the biggest cheerleaders for local business and economic growth.

Each of the departments inside our building is important. Advertising, the newsroom, circulation, the press and the mailroom could not exist without the others. One department must do its job every day so the rest of the departments succeed.

I feel proud that we’ve been able to be so successful in an age when newspapers continue to struggle across the nation.

We have been successful mainly because each of our departments, and the people within them, work together so well.