At a recent reunion, a former colleague of mine stood, beer in hand, and pointing at me, shouted: “There’s the man who told us we’d soon see his by-line in the New York Times.”
I’ve been wondering ever since whether I could possibly ever have said such a thing. It’s true that when I graduated from college several decades ago, I dreamed of being a reporter and probably said so. My first jobs were with the Associated Press and the New York Times Washington Bureau, and eventually I landed an assignment as a rookie reporter with United Press (now a part of Reuters), covering the Florida state legislature in Tallahassee back in the days when it met biannually.
But that was as far as I went with my brilliant career. Until I found a home as a writer at the Press four years ago, my life took a very different course. It’s only now, as I step into a job others have done so well, that I realize my new role at the paper is, in fact, a dream long deferred. It’s also a responsibility I don’t take lightly.
As national and regional newspapers struggle to survive, papers like the Press have a vital role to play in their communities. Our job is to be “intensely local;” we’re part of the fabric of our town. If we can help build a sense of shared citizenship in a government and community that is 90 percent volunteer-driven, we’ll have done our part. To quote my predecessor, Matt Cook, I hope that as editor of the only independently owned paper in town, I can contribute to that effort.
—J.O.
