Leonard Woolsey, 57
President and publisher, The Daily News; President, Southern Newspapers, Inc. Galveston, Texas First journalism job: My first byline came via the University of Central Missouri’s college newspaper, the Muleskinner.
What are some of the most important lessons you have learned while working in the news industry?
To be a journalist—particularly at a local newspaper—is a special charge. Local journalism is not about riches and glamor, but more of a calling. We avoid the trap of playing Chicken Little—that is, taking small or isolated pieces of information and passing along without context or ensuring the validity of truth. And like your birth name, you must earn your trust and reputation—and failing to keep this principle at the forefront risks our relevance and future opportunity to participate.
I’ve also learned to be a community journalist is to play a critical role in a community’s self-worth, success, and ability to move forward. God help us if we are one day left with unchecked social media to be our only place for discussion. We must manage every word, every story, every advertisement in our
newspapers or affiliated channels with an eye to how we improve the world around us—no matter how uncomfortable or unsettling our role may be. I believe our democracy is at risk without the constructive role of local community journalism.
And finally, regardless of our size, local journalism can make a positive difference in the world. We must continue to keep this torch afire.
What are your predictions for where journalism is heading?
Journalism is careening towards a day of reckoning—will local newspapers and local journalism remain a crucial element of our communities, or will we cede our roles to the steamrolling technology giants or opportunistic venture capital? We face a challenge requiring a new level of courage, sophistication, and relevance—and I’m not talking about a new app or website. We need to use this window to understand how to make a profit and create an engaged and loyal community audience. We need to have a tribe of people who respect and value the product we deliver, be it advertising, news, or community discussion. Customers will pay a premium for a quality product they believe improves their lives and has a higher calling. Newspapers tend to share an Achilles heel of not commanding a fair price for the cost for services provided. If the coronavirus pandemic is teaching us anything, it is the importance of a shared sense of community and the need to make decisions based on trusted and proven methods—the red meat of local journalism. We need to be smart, highlyengaged and never lose sight of profitability allows us to accomplish our calling.