The walls, at least here at The Bee, they keep tumbling down.
There was a time when being the top editor of a large paper brought with it a certain built-in detachment from the public at large.
It was hard enough each day organizing from scratch the production of a daily paper, not to mention fighting the standard out-of-nowhere personnel brush fires, newsroom budget meltdowns and the like.
To expect much more was a stretch. Sure, there were the occasional service club speeches and banquet appearances, but most top editors were strangers to their readers.
They were by and large powerful and influential within their communities because of the paper they led, but anonymous.
That some of them carried an imperious bearing impervious to outside criticism, or a tough-guy, can’t-be-pushed-around persona, didn’t exactly warm the hearts of readers, either.
While the paper worked in the public’s interest while still making a buck, the public itself was usually somewhere over there.
But like rising newspaper stock prices, those days are in the past. Maybe.
Pushed along by the currents of transparency, falling circulation, transition to the Internet, new and heightened reader expectations, to name a few, The Bee’s executive editor, Rick Rodriguez, next month will begin a blog and a twice-a-month column in the paper.
You may not know him now, but you’re about to.
“The intent is for readers to understand our decision-making process,” explained Rodriguez, who has been the paper’s top editor since July 1998. “Readers should get to know the people who make the decisions and their thinking … This is not an exact science, we make judgment calls and readers want to know how these decisions are made.”
It’s clear, Rodriguez said, that reader demands and expectations are much different today. The Internet, with its vast and varied information sources, and cable television’s 24/7 news cycle have transformed readers into knowledgeable and critical news consumers.
Newspapers and the rest of the mainstream media no longer are the sole gatekeepers of news, analysis and commentary.
“Readers demand much more now. Expectations have changed dramatically in the last 10 years, like having an editor’s blog,” Rodriguez said.
It has taken awhile for the fire to build, but in the last year, The Bee has significantly increased its blogging. Leading the way have been sports and entertainment blogs.
The side of the paper that writes editorials has also increased its blogosphere presence. Editorial columnist Daniel Weintraub, the first person at the paper to have a blog, now has two, one focused on state politics in Capitol Alert and the other on sacbee.com on health care.
Writer Tom Philp, who two years ago was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his editorials urging lawmakers to consider draining the reservoir at Yosemite’s Hetch Hetchy Valley, blogs about the politics of water.
And, starting next week, editorial writer Stuart Leavenworth will begin one on global warming.
Rodriguez said other newsroom editors may join him as bloggers.
He envisions his blog dealing with questions from readers and breaking news, such as why, for example, the paper published a front-page photo of the Virginia Tech killer brandishing two handguns and posturing, commando-like, which several readers criticized.
The new column will delve into issues more deeply and is being paired with the blog because, Rodriguez said, a sizeable number of the paper’s readers don’t have computers or use the Internet as their primary source of information.
Some readers may be thinking how an editor’s blog and column fits or doesn’t fit with my role as public editor.
Well, first let me say that Rodriguez is not my boss. He and I both report to the paper’s publisher, Janis Heaphy.
That’s an important distinction because it affords the public editor independence to criticize, disagree or question decisions made by Rodriguez and the newsroom.
It’s an arm’s length arrangement of many years standing that benefits readers, especially those who feel their own concerns and criticisms are being ignored. That’s not to say I agree with each reader’s complaint, but that’s a subject for another day.
What the editor’s new blog signifies is that the paper now more than ever — albeit forced by pressures eroding the industry’s business model — continues to experiment, to find itself in permanent transition as its Internet footprint grows more each year.
There is no more standing still. Flexibility is the operational theme. Change never stops.
The paper’s long-term survival in whatever form (or forms) it ultimately takes is at stake, and with it the serious journalism of investigative and watchdog reporting.
Will the editor’s blog work? Is there reader appetite for more blogs? And how large is that audience? Is it worth the effort?
Those are questions without answers right now.
Certainly, anything that helps readers understand the paper better, that demystifies how things are done, that explains how decisions are reached, is a positive development.
If readers perceive it as self-serving Pablum, however, then all is for naught and the paper is weakened.
On an entirely different note, the paper has decided to renew the weekly and long-running Auto Album, which a few dozen readers complained they missed when it was dropped in March.
The feature and illustration of old cars and trucks returns Wednesday in the Wheels section. Nothing will be missed, as the feature will pick up right where it left off.
