Kathleen Hennessey’s LinkedIn reads like a bucket list for aspiring journalists: J-school at Cal Berkeley, AP Washington Bureau, The New York Times politics desk, and now one of the most important regional newspapers in the U.S. Problem is, the bucket is full of holes, and every institution she’s graced faces obsolescence challenges other than the Times. “Journalism is changing dramatically,” she says. “There’s no clear formula. What we’re all trying to do is think deeply about audience, what interests them, what will they pay for, and how we deliver that to them.” Hennessey, publisher Steve Grove’s first hand-picked newsroom leader, joined the Strib in May. It is now the largest newspaper in the Midwest by staff, close to the L.A. Times and Boston Globe, which were once far larger. Hennessey’s focus is nonetheless her backyard: “I worry that a lot of the country has lost touch with local news, that national journalism has blocked out the sun. That’s why I’m here.” She is aware her own newspaper is viewed by many readers as biased and treads carefully as the profession wraps itself in righteousness. “Fact-checking is essential. The hard part we’re grappling with is the limits of the power of the fact check,” she says. For next year: “... delivering information that fuels passions.” There’ll be beefed-up business coverage, she says, and an election to cover.