Both Giles's admirers and detractors agree that journalism as a whole has become more corporate in the last half century, a change they attribute in no small part to Gannett, the chain that now controls 93 newspapers across the United States with a combined daily circulation of 7 million readers.

"Before, reporters would wear jeans to work. Now they wear suits," says Dick Mitchell, a reporter who worked with Giles in Rochester before moving to the Chicago Sun-Times. "The business has changed. It's now a business."

Some say the careers of people like Giles, who moved from Ohio to Rochester to Detroit, are typical of the new era of journalism in which editors, particularly at Gannett, are less attached to the communities they serve.

"Newspapering no longer is a place where loyalties are rewarded," says Mike Zeigler, who is still at the Democrat and Chronicle, where he worked with Giles. "Editors serve tours of duty at newspapers. They move up the ladder and out."

The pressures of making a profit and working for a chain instead of for an independent institution shape the way that Gannett editors operate in the newsroom, some say.

"Gannett has a very definite outlook on how a newsroom runs," says Gary Jacobsen, editor and publisher of the Arlington Morning News in Arlington, Texas, who has worked for the company on and off over the years.

"When you're there for a while you adapt to that outlook," Jacobsen says. "Bob did the same thing and I did the same thing."

Giles was more than a follower of the Gannett practice. He was also a leader, authoring a book entitled Newsroom Management: A Guide to Theory and Practice, and developing a system for periodic evaluations of employee performance in a number of categories, ranging from spelling accuracy to acceptance of criticism of their work to ability to produce under pressure.