"We Mean Business."

In the wake of Jayson Blair, Jack Kelley and numerous other journalists who were into instances of fabrication and plagiarism, the U.S. newspapers are scrutinizing their operations and stiffening their defenses against ethical lapses. With dismaying regularity, papers across the country are realizing that they have been had by cheating reporters. Jayson Blair's bamboozling of the "New York Times," the most headline-grabbing example, is among the reasons the industry has since heard of sin after sin after sin. As each new case chipped away at the news industry's already fragile credibility, most newsroom leaders this year heard a call to action. Knowing that wiping out plagiarism and fabrication is pretty much impossible, editors started having at it just the same, tightening ethics policies, having heart-to-heart talks with their staff, monitoring corrections, tracking expense reports and learning about software that detects plagiarism. To set the stage for solid editing, newsrooms might have to rethink the traditional editor-to-reporter ratio. Often, top editors say, there are so many reporters per supervisor that an editor just does not have enough time in the day to give copy the attention it deserves, let alone know exactly what each reporter is up to. INSET: PLAYING DEFENSE.