Spring Break
Column: Edit board offers hope for industry
Newspapers are being hammered on all sides, but good journalists prevail
Krystal Moya / Administration Editor
Issue date: 4/15/09 Section: Opinions
Today I went to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's editorial board meeting with my opinion writing class headed by John Ryan, professor of journalism.
Dressed in interview attire and armed with a notebook, I was anticipating both a learning experience and a networking experience at one of the largest papers in the Midwest.
However, when I sat at the table with only two editorial board members, I was confused. Where was everyone?
"We have two staff members on furlough and one on vacation today," said Gilbert Bailon, editorial page editor.
There it was, staring me directly in the face: the monstrous Internet trend, the downward-spiraling economy, the corporate greed of forced vacations and staff cuts, the loss of advertisements and revenue and the loss of respect for a group of people who stand for something more than money.
There it was, and I was hit with it hard. I felt like I was lying on the floor, my lungs without wind, gasping for air and asking one question over and over. Do I have a future?
Here was one of the giants of Midwest media, struggling to survive. Why?
Kevin Horrigan, the deputy editorial page editor and other member in attendance, knew the feelings around the room as over 15 prospective journalists stared at him for answers. He valiantly took a chance at quelling the ogre in the room by repeating the paper's responsibility to the people who read it, and how he wishes there was something he could do to change the "Age of the Downsize."
As the paper's staff dwindles, he said, the quality goes out the door, like our dreams had as we sat down in that office.
But Bailon and Horrigan went back and forth on editorial ideas anyway, while mixing in encouraging messages about the process of the opinions page. Slowly, our morale was raised up off the floor.
They worked well with each other and focused on issues that mattered. They emphasized reporting and credibility. They gave me hope. And, as their editorial cartoonist RJ Matson walked in the room, the onslaught of everything I had heard was killing newspapers seemed less daunting. There was one more to contribute.
And he did. They all did, hammering down energy bills that would cheat the people out of their earnings and giving a face to the "new poor" that developed in this economic recession.
I wish everyone could have seen that room and how those men dealt with our faces of doubt, because if they had, I don't think there would be a problem with newspapers dying out anymore.
I realize how trite and cliché it sounds to say people should support newspapers, but you didn't see it. You didn't see these men holding on to the last threads of the industry and doing it with valor. But you should have.
Despite the monsters the industry is up against, I have hope for my future. If men and women like this exist in the industry, there will always be newspapers.
Krystal Moya is a junior journalism major. She can be reached at 581-7942 or at DENopinions@gmail.com.
Dressed in interview attire and armed with a notebook, I was anticipating both a learning experience and a networking experience at one of the largest papers in the Midwest.
However, when I sat at the table with only two editorial board members, I was confused. Where was everyone?
"We have two staff members on furlough and one on vacation today," said Gilbert Bailon, editorial page editor.
There it was, staring me directly in the face: the monstrous Internet trend, the downward-spiraling economy, the corporate greed of forced vacations and staff cuts, the loss of advertisements and revenue and the loss of respect for a group of people who stand for something more than money.
There it was, and I was hit with it hard. I felt like I was lying on the floor, my lungs without wind, gasping for air and asking one question over and over. Do I have a future?
Here was one of the giants of Midwest media, struggling to survive. Why?
Kevin Horrigan, the deputy editorial page editor and other member in attendance, knew the feelings around the room as over 15 prospective journalists stared at him for answers. He valiantly took a chance at quelling the ogre in the room by repeating the paper's responsibility to the people who read it, and how he wishes there was something he could do to change the "Age of the Downsize."
As the paper's staff dwindles, he said, the quality goes out the door, like our dreams had as we sat down in that office.
But Bailon and Horrigan went back and forth on editorial ideas anyway, while mixing in encouraging messages about the process of the opinions page. Slowly, our morale was raised up off the floor.
They worked well with each other and focused on issues that mattered. They emphasized reporting and credibility. They gave me hope. And, as their editorial cartoonist RJ Matson walked in the room, the onslaught of everything I had heard was killing newspapers seemed less daunting. There was one more to contribute.
And he did. They all did, hammering down energy bills that would cheat the people out of their earnings and giving a face to the "new poor" that developed in this economic recession.
I wish everyone could have seen that room and how those men dealt with our faces of doubt, because if they had, I don't think there would be a problem with newspapers dying out anymore.
I realize how trite and cliché it sounds to say people should support newspapers, but you didn't see it. You didn't see these men holding on to the last threads of the industry and doing it with valor. But you should have.
Despite the monsters the industry is up against, I have hope for my future. If men and women like this exist in the industry, there will always be newspapers.
Krystal Moya is a junior journalism major. She can be reached at 581-7942 or at DENopinions@gmail.com.
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