Saluting 60 years in the journalism business
I did something recently that I rarely do. I got out of the office. When I appeared before the Delaware County Press Club, I meekly admitted I wasn’t sure whether I should introduce myself or apologize. It’s true, I’m not a member and I don’t regularly attend the meetings. So what would pry me away from my cubicle (we don’t do offices these days), and the laptop that runs my life?
Let me try to explain.
I arrived at the Delaware County
Daily Times in June 1982. After a couple of years scuffling at a small daily newspaper in Coatesville
(The Record for you history buffs. Hint: It shares something in common with the old Philadelphia
Evening Bulletin - neither one of them still exist). I thought I had died and gone to heaven.
Actually, I was in Primos.
To be honest, it was not the first time I was there. I had interviewed for a job a month before. I didn’t get it. I was crestfallen. A month later Managing Editor Linda DeMeglio called me and said they actually had another unexpected opening, was I still interested? She didn’t have to ask twice.
You need to understand something here. No one gets into the journalism racket to get rich. That was especially true for many of us who started at small papers, where your worked 1,000 hours a week for next to nothing.
To me, Primos - even though it does not technically exist except in the eyes of the United State Postal Service - was a little like landing in the Promised Land. It was a union shop, which meant a huge boost in salary and benefits.
My first job was assistant city editor. Basically, it meant running the newsroom during the day, getting the news budget ready for the night desk. Part of that job was running the small army of correspondents who covered most of the towns and schools boards in the county for us. That’s where I first met Barbara Ormsby.
That was 35 years ago. Going on 36.
Ormsby had already been in the business for 23 years. I was 27 years old.
The truth is I didn’t know what the hell I was doing. Some people would argue things haven’t changed much in the past 35 years. Luckily, Barbara and some other very wise women - folks like Dot Reynolds, Bette Alburger, Helen Passaro, Helen Morrison and Linda Reilly took me under their wing.
They were - and still are - literally the newspaper’s eyes and ears in the community.
If you wanted to know what was going on in Ridley, Ridley Park, Eddystone, Morton or the Ridley School District, Barbara was your source. She covered County Council and was our election night stalwart, always manning the courthouse beat and delivering the numbers we needed for our election stories.
Some things have changed in the newspaper business. Not all of them for the best. We don’t use our correspondents as much as we once did. There is a danger in that. When those prying eyes of the press are not there to act in the traditional function of watchdog, strange things can happen.
There are 49 municipalities and 15 public school districts in Delaware County. We used to have a face in every one of them.
Not anymore. Like I said, things have changed in the news business.
These days the Washington Post has a new saying that graces its masthead: Democracy Dies in Darkness. I’m telling you there’s a lot more darkness out there and it gets a little darker every day. That is not a good thing for Delaware County, or anywhere else. But that’s another column.
This was a day to celebrate.
Barbara was feted at the press club meeting as she approaches 60 years in the journalism business. The theme of the day for the March meeting, appropriately enough during Women’s History Month, was “Women Overcoming the Odds.”
Cherri Gregg of KYWNewsradio 1060 - the soundtrack of my life gave an inspirational talk on her background, and how it shaped the kinds of the stories she does today.
Overcoming the odds? Barbara Ormsby has spent nearly six decades in the newspaper racket. I think that qualifies. You tend to collect a lot of memories when you work with someone that long. One in particular has stuck with me. I have Barbara to thank for one of my all-time favorite frontpage headlines.
To this day I can tell you there is nothing I enjoy more than a killer headline, especially one that dominates our front page. That’s one of the reasons I got this job in the first place, and it’s a skill taking even the most complicated story and breaking it down to just three or four words total - that is a vanishing art.
Back in 1999, the Ridley commissioners were engulfed in controversy as the community rebelled against a proposed new business in the township.
This business happened to be located on Smiley Street. But the neighbors were less than happy about their new neighbor. Smiley’s was what today we refer to as a “gentleman’s club.” Neighbors beseeched the township’s ruling body to fight the new business. Ridley decided to use their zoning ordinances to try to prevent Smiley’s from gracing the township.
I always wondered what Barbara thought when she picked up her Daily Times in the driveway that morning and was greeted by a front page screaming: EROGENOUS ZONING! Without Barbara sitting in all those meetings, knowing what was at stake, listening to the community, that story easily could have slipped through the cracks.
For nearly 60 years, very little has slipped through the cracks on Ormsby’s watch.
Congratulations, Barbara.
It was my honor to attend.
And thanks for getting me out of the office.