The Bismarck Tribune newsroom is dealing with more than the crunch of deadlines these days.

Tribune Editor Dave Bundy is being treated for colon cancer and Opinion Page Editor Frederic Smith is undergoing treatment for throat cancer.

Both editors were diagnosed on March 25, and both underwent surgery this week. Both are preparing for chemotherapy treatments.

Publisher Julie Bechtel said that everywhere she goes in town, people ask how the two editors are doing.

"There is an outpouring of concern from the community," Bechtel said.

Bundy, 36, and Smith, 62, say they intend to beat the disease, and won't be out of the newsroom long. And they say the newspaper will continue without a hiccup while they're gone.

"I certainly don't want to overstate my importance to the paper," Bundy said Friday. "We've got some really experienced managers and solid journalists. People know their jobs and they will keep on doing them."

Smith said he plans on being back at work late next week but will have to take time off periodically for treatments.

"I'm OK. My outlook is real good," he said. "The radiation and chemotherapy treatments are supposed to see me through this."

The Tribune, the capital city's only daily newspaper, has a daily circulation of 27,500 and a Sunday circulation of about 31,000, Bechtel said. The paper is owned by Lee Enterprises of Davenport, Iowa.

Managing Editor Ken Rogers said the newsroom staff of about 30 will have to take up the slack while the two editors are gone.

"You don't take two significant people out of a newsroom without paying a price," he said.

"Dave provides the tone and cohesiveness that holds this newsroom together," Rogers said. "Fred may be our best pure writer."

"It does seem like there is a big hole in the newsroom right now," reporter Deena Winter said. "They are both very loved and respected. We miss them."

Bechtel called Bundy a "great editor and leader," and Smith a "gentleman and great writer."

Smith has been at the paper for 19 years. Bundy took over as editor in 2001, after serving as a news editor at the Lincoln Journal Star in Nebraska. He was an assistant news editor at the Tribune from 1994 to 1997.

Bundy and his wife, Allison, have two children, ages 6 and 3, and they are expecting twin sons later this month or early next.

Bundy wrote about his cancer in a column in the Tribune's Sunday edition.

"I dumped more emotion into it than I probably should have," he said Friday. "But it's an easy subject to write a lot about."

In the column, Bundy wrote about his family, and how the cancer diagnosis changed his life.

"I'll leave this ordeal a kinder, happier, more patient person - a person who truly appreciates his life," he wrote.

Smith is known around the newsroom for an upbeat attitude. At home, he is "in good spirits just like he always is," said his wife, Linda.

"I think there is a light at the end of the tunnel for Dave and me," Smith said. "We just need to make the necessary adjustments."