Together with writers Jack Smith, Jim Murray, Art Seidenbaum and cartoonist Paul Conrad, Champlin helped keep nervous readers loyal when the paper broke with its stuffy, provincial past and transformed itself into a major national daily. There was something solid and reassuring about Champlin's reporting, and especially his conversations with an eclectic mix of budding artists, including Barbra Streisand, John Frankenheimer and Mary Higgins Clark. His steady-at-the-helm prose and unceasing curiosity took readers into the uncharted cultural waters of the '60s and '70s.