General newspapering

What experience do I have reporting?

You name it, I’ve covered it - from the 4-H kid at the county fair getting a blue ribbon to interviewing a party’s nominee for president of the United States. My early reporting assignments typically centered on police and county government, with a good smattering of city councils and school boards along the way. I’ve written plenty of features, from chronicling what happens one night on Lover’s Lane to how a four-year-old girl survived an extremely rare but usually fatal disease. I’ve done some sports, from high school basketball to outdoor pieces on turkey hunting. I’ve done spot news, from fatal car accidents to a police sting discovering a marijuana-growing operation in a secret basement. Like most reporters, I’ve probably been assigned too many government stories and prefer to write features.

What experience do I have covering government?

I started during college by regularly covering student council and town board meetings. As a daily newspaper reporter, and later as a weekly newspaper editor, I covered county government, city councils, village boards and school boards. I've also had the opportunity to write about issues discussed in three state legislatures.

What experience do I have at daily newspapers?

I have 10-plus years: three as a general assignment reporter at Red Wing Republican Eagle, two as news editor of the Herald Times Reporter, two-plus as editorial page editor of the Iowa City Press-Citizen, 1 1/2 years at The Desert Sun and nearly a year at The Daily Triplicate. This doesn't count several more years as editor of a weekly and of a campus newspaper.

What newspapers influenced me?

Growing up, I read a lot of weeklies in the West-Central Wisconsin’s farm country. They showed me how bad journalism could be - stories that left questions unanswered, that took local officials’ line, that never did more than report what was said at a meeting. But these papers also understood how to meet their readers' needs and expectations by remaining local, local, local. By high school, I was reading the St. Paul Pioneer Press, which at the time boasted future Pulitzer Prize-winner John Camp. A real turning point in college was hearing the Orlando Sentinel’s design editor speak at a Society of Professional Journalists’ convention in Atlanta. At that time, Orlando was among the first mainstream metro newspapers to adopt USA Today’s revolutionary designs, except Orlando did it with the notion that design should enhance reporting, not replace it. With incredible gullibility, after the session I asked the editor if he would send me a copy of the paper’s design guidebook - and he did! That summer, I used it as a model to entirely redesign and restructure my student newspaper, of which I had just become editor. Today, I pick up every daily newspaper I see when visiting a town, but on a daily basis I’m primarily looking at newspaper Web sites. I routinely survey the 15 largest circulating papers in both California and the United States and check out a few other favorites (see below for more).

What experience do I have working with zoned newspapers?

I'm a big fan of zoning. My primary experience came at the Duluth News-Tribune, where one of my copy editing duties was creating zoned local pages for Wisconsin readers.

What awards have I won?

Nationally, my most prestigious award was the National Newspaper Association's Democracy Award (second place) for five editorials advocating open records and meetings. At the state level, the Prescott Journal was named Wisconsin Newspaper Association's Weekly Newspaper of the Year for 2000 based on papers published during my tenure. Finally, after a mere 10 weeks as The Daily Triplicate's managing editor, my staff won six awards in the California Publisher's Newspaper Association Better Newspaper Contest for 2006. For other achievements, click onto the Awards page.

Miscellaneous

What computer experience do I have?

I regularly use Quark Express, Adobe Photoshop and Microsoft Word and have a rudimentary understanding of Freehand. At the Herald Times Reporter, I oversaw our paper's conversion to a new software system and Web site.

What Web experience do I have?

I run two blog sites and have developed this Web site. My grasp of HTML is respectable.

What's my typical work day like?

Answering how my day isn't typical may be easier. Generally, I meet with reporters and our photographer to coordinate the next paper's coverage and to discuss how they're doing with their work and meeting the company's standards. I then usually work on the editorial page, followed by lunch with a community member or another department head. The afternoon is spent checking with staff on their progress, responding to phone calls and emails and taking care of sundry paperwork. The late afternoon includes news budget meetings with our news and sports editors and reading of copy.

What is my level of education?

I hold a master's degree from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

Why did I leave teaching for journalism?

With the advent of standardized testing, my school district became more interested in teaching to the test than addressing students' actual learning needs. In addition, cuts to journalism programs and classes left me teaching transitive verbs and dangling participles most days. If you had to teach that five days a week, wouldn't you get out, too?