With the Star-Tribune selling for about half of its original value, you’d think folks at that newspaper would take a hard look in the mirror. Instead, they’re telling journalism fairy tales.

In this once-upon-a-time, the villain is usually wearing a nice suit and knows little about the newspaper people who he has come to plunder. And there’s a hero, who can save newspapers by summoning the power of “good journalism.”

The moral of the story is always: Invest in good journalism and magic just happens.

It’s like Santa Claus. Be good and you’ll get presents. Be bad and you get coal, or layoffs. Editors who listen to this story are taught it’s heroic to cocoon into their newsrooms and block out the influences of declining revenue and circulation numbers. Report more or edit cleaner and then, magically, world peace.

Journalism fairy tales make us feel better. But they’re also a big reason newspapers are falling apart.

Purveying the idea that simply investing in journalism cures all problems allows us to ignore the fact we’re working for a business.

The fairy tale also hints of nostalgia for days gone by. “Oh, remember the days when all we talked about was journalism and good writing. We were profitable then, so that must be what we have to do now.” Or so the thinking goes.

Here’s the version of our fairy tale that the Star-Tribune’s “reader representative” told in a column headlined, “Why good journalism is also smart business.”

Everyone has watched formerly great newspapers around the country weakened in short-term bids to appease Wall Street's and some private investors' insatiable desire for ever more profits.

Just last week, the Philadelphia Inquirer announced it was laying off 68 to 71 staffers . . . Will that now be the Star Tribune's fate? Or do these new owners have something else in mind for after the sale, likely to close in February? Could this be the market where someone finally figures out how to keep the quality of a profitable newspaper intact through a transition of some content and readers from print on paper to the Internet? . . .

Investors who generally gauge business health through profits may be surprised to discover how much evidence exists that financial success for newspapers is tied to investment in good journalism . . .

Researchers find more and more evidence that investment in newsroom staffs, budgets and space for news stories fuels credibility that attracts advertisers and readers . . .

At first blush, this labor-intensive, quality journalism may seem inefficient. It takes time and resources to produce that caliber of writing, reporting and online features.

But when that investment in journalism happens, the results very efficiently attract lots of readers' eyes -- something to warm the hearts of advertisers and circulation directors.

Only time will tell if this is a short-term flip of a newspaper property or whether something groundbreaking and smart is about to take place here in the Twin Cities. One thing is clear: The Avista folks strike me as anything but fools with their money. I'm betting on good journalism.