San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
After 43 years in journalism, a new story awaits
It’s difficult to sum up a 43-year newspaper career in a farewell column of just 700 words.
Retiring is bittersweet. It has been an incredible experience for this news junkie to have a frontrow seat to history in the making.
I am thankful for the privilege of continuous employment in newspapers since I graduated from the University of Texas in 1978, at age 20. Five newspapers and four cities later, I count myself among the fortunate few who made it to retirement without being laid off or having the newspaper that employed them fold.
The rumbling of the presses and the smell of ink are ingrained in my memories. San Antonio was my second two-newspaper town, and nothing can compare to the exhilaration of picking up the competition and finding you had scooped it again. Of course, it wasn’t so good when you got beat and had to spend the day matching someone else’s story.
It was a sad day on many fronts when the Express-News won the newspaper war and the San Antonio Light closed. My husband and I, both employed by the ExpressNews at the time, had just mailed off our first home mortgage payment when we learned that Rupert Murdoch was selling our newspaper to the Hearst Corp. For a few panicked minutes, I thought it was the Express-News that would be shuttered.
It has been devastating to see colleagues here and across the country lose their jobs as more
and more newspapers downsize or close.
The newspaper business has dramatically changed over the four decades I’ve been part of it. My generation was drawn to journalism careers during the Watergate crisis. We all wanted to be Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the Washington Post writers whose relentless investigative reporting led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon in 1974.
Today there are many who would consider the news media the enemy and discredit the work being done. Yes, staffs are shrinking. Circulation numbers for newspapers printed on paper are down. But the day-to-day work of reporting the news in communities across our nation — and across the globe — is more important now than ever before.
News organizations play a vital role in maintaining transparency
in government and holding elected officials and public agencies accountable. As a former reporter who covered City Hall, federal courts, county government, the criminal justice system and higher education — and as an opinion writer for the past 20 years — I like to think I contributed to that. We need to maintain that momentum.
When I first started in this business, there were few journalists of color. Women were definitely in the minority. And very few people in newsrooms spoke Spanish. Those factors worked for and against me.
As a minority recruited to the Express-News in the mid-1980s, I worked hard to prove I wasn’t simply hired to fill a quota. Being one of the few bilingual reporters in the newsroom meant a few plum assignments that included travel across the U.S.-Mexico border to cover the aftermath of an earthquake, and flooding caused by a hurricane.
Sadly, diversity issues still persist in America’s newsrooms. It is encouraging to see the Hearst Corp. recognizing the problem and working to address it. I look forward to seeing it reflected in the next wave of new hires.
I hate that I have to end my career remotely. The ExpressNews has been like my second home for so long it has been strange to work from home the last 10 months. I miss the camaraderie. And the occasional chaos.
I met my husband, Don Finley, a former medical writer, in the newsroom. Our daughter, Hannah, spent a lot of time there, too, when we were on deadline and the day care across the street had closed for the day. All precious memories I wouldn’t trade.
I’m not really sure what the next phase of my life will bring, but I am looking forward to travel and volunteer work when the pandemic is in our rearview mirror. In the near future, I’ll be focused on my daughter’s wedding, which, like many others, was postponed last summer due to COVID-19.
To all the readers who have taken time from their busy lives over the years to provide feedback, criticism, praise and tips, I say thanks. And keep reading.