[Note: Amid all the media gloom, this occasional series focuses on what initiatives are working, journalistically and/or financially.]

James Shiffer is the first to admit he's not an innovator.

Shiffer heads up "Whistleblower," the Strib's year-old effort to encourage and investigate reader tips. Recently, he paid homage to a 1970s Minneapolis Star forbearer called "Column 1."

That consumer-rights feature righted small wrongs and conveyed a populist punch. But the Star Tribune has always felt more buttoned-down than the scrappy afternoon Star, and has never really worked the crowd like the bulldogs at the Pioneer Press.

Now, I love Braublog readers and crave your input, but the job of fielding complaints at the state's biggest paper gives me the shakes. You're a high-powered magnet for every axe-grinder and tinfoil hat in town.

But Shiffer, who came here four years ago from the Raleigh News & Observer, eats this stuff up. Honest to God, he may be one of the most satisfied journalists in town right now.

"My experience with this so far is that what people are calling in and writing about is interesting," he insists. "You can't go wrong writing what people care about."

I'm just a little more cynical. When I first heard about Whistleblower, I feared the small-bore would trump the serious investigation, which is always in short supply. But when I tweaked Shiffer about his tale of a woman whose kitchen twice flooded by bad plumbing, he shot back, "I got that woman $2,000. When was the last time you did that?"

Touché. But what's also shut me up is how Whistleblower has proven a pathway to top-flight enterprise stories. Among the high points: a compelling indictment of the state's lax guardian oversight system which cost an 86-year-old Minnetonka woman over $650,000.

"I think there's a place for multiple levels of reporting," says Shiffer. "The Star Tribune's model — which is essential — is for a months-long investigation, extensive reporting, extensive editing, and then splashed for multiple days. That's how you get laws passed."

"What's been neglected is the quicker-turn stories that still require records, but don't take months. Also, a faster turnaround is such a message to reader that we're responsive."

Shiffer admits the guardian story took months, but was never an exclusive project.

"I think this is a critical difference not obvious to people outside the business: In the past, we would have said, let's find as many people as possible and see if it's a trend, or if this is an outlier. I said, 'This is just a good story.' As it turned out, Peggy Greer, the subject of the story, was an outlier: unlike many people who need guardians, she could speak for herself and the system."

More common are tales of daycare teachers fired for complaining to the state, widows cheated out of their homes, and wedding photos taken but never given.

In an age where new-media types preach that the future is about creating "community," Shiffer is doing it at one of the oldest media properties around.

Readers have begun to recognize the Whistleblower brand as a welcome mat — "that the Star Tribune isn't too important for you anymore," Shiffer says.

"People right now feel they're being steamrollered by everything. Anything we can do, even in a small way, to give them the impression that we take them seriously and won't blow them off is critical to our survival."

Inside the shop, reporters have similar brand awareness, tossing Shiffer leads that might otherwise languish. And to complete the feedback loop, he funnels tips to them; a highly read piece on a $9.2 million mile of bike lane came from a Whistleblower reader.

"We need to be a lot more open than we've been to the public, and what they want us to write about," Shiffer says. "You'd be surprised how sophisticated our readers are about how things work, and the bigger structures that govern our lives."

Shiffer fields a handful of tips a day; "there are definitely some nut cases, but really a relatively small number." As for the angry, "When I've declined to do stories, it hasn't been a problem."

In addition to stories, he tries to blog once a day, where he regularly educates readers about accessing public records and the threats to governmental transparency.

Shiffer's pedigree helps keep Whistleblower from being petty or phony.

Before taking his current gig, he was a Strib editor who helped handle the 35W bridge coverage investigation, and also a series on ATV vandalism in state parks. Although Shiffer has been a full-time Whistleblower since September, he recently carved out time to supervise the paper's salmonella coverage. And unlike the bombastic TV consumer reporters past and present, he has a wry writing style that acknowledges ambiguity while not sparing the rod.

Say what you will about the paper's readership decline and financial struggles, but it still commands attention in boardrooms and at the Capitol. Best Buy and Electrolux coughed up the money for the flooded homeowner. The guardian piece helped propel a reform bill. And the 86-year-old victim in that case, whose dream was to be a published author, found donors to print not one but two of her books.

At a time when newspapers have to fight to keep readers, it's smart to have someone fighting for them.

There are several ways to contact Whistleblower. By phone, 612-673-4271; via email at whistleblower@startribune.com. The blog is here, the Facebook page is here and the Twitter feed is here.