That first step into a newsroom changed everything
One morning this week I went into the newsroom for the first time since March 12. It was eerie, like a sci-fi movie where time stands still.
Calendars stop at March. The big one in the common area where reporters Katrina Koerting, Julia Perkins and I put our initials on days we exercise at least 30 minutes — a friendly competition — is blank after March 12. And it will be for the rest of 2020 and beyond.
In my office off the newsroom at The News-Times in Danbury, my three plants are shriveled and brown. When I left in mid-March because of the coronavirus, I thought I’d be away a week, maybe two.
A battalion of hand sanitizing stations and socialdistancing warnings on the floor are the only signs that something has changed.
Let me describe for you what newsrooms are usually like. They are wonderful. They are crucibles of creativity, of challenges, of pursuing the truth on constant deadlines. You hear reporters on the phone, asking crucial questions. You hear collaboration — How does this lede sound to you? (Lede is journalism jargon for the first paragraph of a story.) You hear the sharing of ideas, the friendly workplace chatter about food and books.
I have missed all this since working from home, as our offices are closed — temporarily — in the pandemic.
From the first time I walked into a newsroom — the Groton bureau of The Hartford Courant, applying to be a freelance correspondent — I was hooked. This was decades ago. Clacking typewriters were the background music in that small outpost.
I didn’t get the job and no wonder — I had not one ounce of experience. Nor a college degree. But six months later when the person they hired decided to quit, the bureau chief recalled my mettle and took a chance on me.
That chance turned into a lifelong career, which brought not only awards my way, but also a husband. What more could you ask for, starting at 35 cents a column inch and $3 to cover a meeting? I worked hard and probably wrote too
long.
My first all-editions story uncovered the censorship of sixth-grade social studies books in a Gales Ferry elementary school. I won’t go into the reasons for it now — and the educators did have a reason — but it was wrong to censor textbooks. The district bought new books after my story came out. The power of journalism as a force for good was my abiding lesson.
I’ll tell you something about almost all the journalists I’ve known — at heart we are idealists. We always hope to right the wrongs, expose misdeeds, get at the truth, and make the world a better place.
I won’t deny it also can be fun. Like the time I rode on the back of a fast-attack submarine as it slid down the wooden ways at the Electric Boat shipyard, splashing into the Thames River for the first time. There I was among the
uniformed crew, which was saluting the crowd at the christening ceremony, going backward as the huge sub picked up speed. I clung to the flagpole when water sloshed over my boots (I hadn’t told my editor I didn’t know how to swim). But it gave me a Page 1 story and the chance to show readers a different view of what back in that era was a routine event.
Standing in the empty News-Times newsroom this week, I thought of the various newsrooms where I’ve worked: the Courant bureau, The Day in New London (defense reporter), the New Haven Register (business reporter), the RecordJournal in Meriden (rising into management positions) and in 2006 I became the managing editor of The News-Times.
I was so thrilled to be leading a newsroom, along with then-Editor Eric Conrad, that one day I actually
skipped down the aisle between reporters’ desks. And it was a homecoming. Some of the journalists who were there when my husband Jim was managing editor back in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s when we were first married greeted me, including then-Editorial Page Editor Mary Connolly and photojournalist Carol Kaliff. Both have since retired. So has the building, which will become apartments. Our offices moved down Danbury’s Main Street.
A community newspaper has a life of its own. People may come and go, and even the building where the magic happens may change, but like a church its spirit is more than the sum of its parts.
One of my proudest days was when my name appeared in the masthead on the Opinion page as a member of the editorial board in 2008. (My husband framed
that first one.) A pinnacle, an honor, to be writing editorials reflecting the institutional voice of the newspaper, to conduct endorsement interviews with candidates every fall, to meet with leaders and experts about issues.
And as much as I loved working with reporters and developing stories, when I was asked to be the next editorial page editor in 2014 — dealing strictly with opinion — I was excited and humbled. Mary was a legend — one politician called her a kingmaker — and her predecessor Steve Collins was renowned throughout the state for his influence on Connecticut’s Freedom of Information laws. (A public service award in his name is given every year by the Connecticut Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.) The Norwalk Hour’s opinion page was added to my responsibilities a few years ago and it’s been a pleasure getting to know that city and the people who make it hum.
Since my days as a reporter in New Haven, I’ve been writing columns. (When I took a year or so off to finally get my journalism degree at Southern Connecticut State University, I freelanced restaurant reviews.) For almost two years now, my column has run across all eight Hearst Connecticut daily newspapers.
It has been a privilege to write a column and engage directly with readers. And, boy, have we. Remember the brouhaha over the AOC political cartoon? Remember our mission to reopen the interstate Welcome Centers 24/7? Remember the outpouring when I asked last month why women voted for Donald Trump?
I like to write about people and what motivates them to push outside their comfort zone. In my columns you’ve met activists, authors, political aspirants, crusading mothers, and more. Getting to know them through interviews has made me a better person.
Why am I going over all of this? Two reasons. One is that I wish to explain how journalism works (admittedly, this is simplified. Books have been written on the subject). We don’t do that often enough and misperceptions arise. That is why I took on Tiffany Trump last August when she echoed her father and railed about the “enemy of the people” during the president’s nominating convention.
The other reason is that I was in my office for the first time since March 12 to clean it out. My last day as a Hearst Connecticut editorial page editor will be Dec. 31. This is entirely voluntary: Hearst offered a generous buyout and I am among several who are taking it. Time for a new chapter. I will freelance editing books and articles and maybe writing — but this time for more than 35 cents a column inch. And you just might be hearing from me again.
I still believe in the power and goodness of community journalism and I hope you will, too. Thank you for being with me on this exhilarating ride.
Jacqueline Smith’s columns have appeared Fridays in Hearst Connecticut daily newspapers. She is also the editorial page editor of The News-Times in Danbury and The Norwalk Hour. email jsmith@hearstmediact.com until Dec. 31. In the new year, jacqueline.wordsmith @gmail.com.