She was industrious, she did real shoe-leather reporting and she let her experiences lead to her conclusions.

We're looking for long-form, 2,000+ word "evergreen" (not time-sensitive) content or serious shoe-leather reporting on technology issues, and we want your pitches.

But the pain of Messrs. Woodruff and Vogt and the agony of Ms. Carroll remind us how indispensable old-fashioned, shoe-leather reporting is to a democracy.

The articles combined data with what Leonard Downie Jr., The Post's executive editor, called "old-fashioned shoe-leather reporting."

"It's basic shoe-leather reporting that she is good at," said Jeff Fager, then executive producer of that broadcast and now executive producer of the Sunday broadcast.

Rather, in keeping with his practice of complimenting what he considered exemplary work, Mr. Raines sent Mr. Blair a note of praise for his "great shoe-leather reporting."

Tied to "shoe-leather" reporting and "beat reporting," enterprise journalism gets the journalist out of the office and away from the traditional news makers.

Which is not to say that this marks the death of old-fashioned shoe-leather reporting.

Bankers, traders and honest U.N. underlings are eager to whis-tleblow; shoe-leather reporting is required to hot-foot the watchmen now that they are finally awake.