There is a comfortable anonymity that comes with working for a newspaper.

Yes, we come into your house every day. Both in print and online. And my picture does appear in the newspaper every Monday, along with my print column. I have opted instead for a logo to accompany this blog, The Heron’s Nest.

But for the most part, we ink-stained wretches toil in the background.

Every once in a while, someone will approach me in the Wawa or out on the street. I can always tell what’s coming next by the way they look at me. “Aren’t you the editor of the Daily Times?” they ask. I always offer them my stock response: “That depends on who wants to know.” Along with a smile. Hopefully they smile back. That’s not always the case.

On the other hand, those who make their living on TV, especially in this market, become much more familiar to their audiences.

The fact is that it’s a completely different medium. People on TV enter people’s homes and make a different, more personal connection with their audience than folks who write for a newspaper. They become like family, sharing meals, offering accompaniment. Their voices – and faces – become part of our conversations, and our lives.

I can admit that TV news folks make a connection that a newspaper editor for the most part simply does not. It’s the visual element that does it.
I’m sure that fans of a local TV newscast believe they really know the people delivering the news. They welcome them into their home each night. They become like trusted family members.

In this market, I’ve always been a bit taken aback by how we treat the folks who do TV news. They become like our own little celebrities. And they get covered in a way that newspaper people simply do not.

That’s not always a bad thing, at least as far as I’m concerned.

Dawn Stensland recently graced the cover of the Daily News. She used to be an anchor at Fox 29. Her contract was not renewed. She also happens to be married to Larry Mendte, the Delco native who made a slew of headlines of his own the past couple of years.

I have to admit that during his travails, I did not envy Mendte’s celebrity one little bit.

We now will go through this process once again, but for a different reason.

Dave Roberts is leaving Channel 6. I wish I could count how many times I’ve watched as Roberts gave me the nightly forecast. The truth is I can’t. But for most of my life, Roberts has been the guy who gave me the weather.

He’s been on Channel 6 for 31 years, the majority of his 56 years in the business. His face and voice are the equivalent of a favorite blanket. I suppose you might say for some of us he would be considered a security blanket.

I always liked Roberts for another reason. He seemed to resist what has happened all too often in recent years when it comes to weather in this market. But that I mean the hype that accompanied even the slightest possibility of snow. Now they seem to do the same thing when it rains.

Roberts announced on the 11 p.m. Action News show that he is calling it quits. He will serve as always as the co-anchor of Channel 6’s coverage of the annual Thanksgiving Day Parade, and his last forecast will be on Dec. 11.

No doubt the sun will come up on Dec. 12. But make no mistake. As a community will be a little bit different. A very familiar figure will no longer be a part of our lives, will not come into our homes each night.

I’m guessing it will be a cloudy day.

Thanks for a million forecasts, Dave. And for being a constant, soothing presence in an increasingly stormy world.