While reporters throughout the industry whine about the heightened productivity demands, Fisher just plows ahead. In addition to multiple weekly columns, he maintains a blog, Raw Fisher, that’s every bit as thoroughly reported and provocative as his print column. When the Washington Post had Washington Post Radio, he contributed there, too. He does chats, he talks with readers, and he picks up the phone when media critics call. Did we happen to mention that all that stuff that he produces is edgy, well-written, and lands with impact? Exemplars abound in the Post archives, but just read his Feb. 24 column, “A Case of a Family Services Job Well Done, or Overdone?” It’s a complicated tale about a moneyed family tangling with child-welfare authorities; Fisher lets his exhaustive reporting tell the tale, and the result is a great argument why journalism shouldn’t die, after all.

—Erik Wemple