As a journalist, let’s say I’ve been around the block a few times. I’ve lived and experienced enough to be able to review what happens today and compare that to what took place in the past.
Throughout my 34-year career at this newspaper, the rules have changed. It has become my job to adapt to those rule changes and forge ahead in new directions.
Under that umbrella of change, please bear with me as I reflect upon the previously unimaginable advances in the world of photography, and how those changes have impacted your daily newspaper.
I was a young pup of a reporter back in 1983. That spring, very unexpectedly, my mother died. While catching my breath and adjusting to this monumental loss in my life, I was reminded by a (now deceased) retired school teacher that I had promised to take a picture of a club’s new officers during the very same hour as my mother’s funeral.
“I’m sorry ...” I said, but those words wouldn’t console her. It seems there was no one, anywhere, who could replace me and my 35 millimeter Canon AE-1 at this photo op. No one from our newspaper’s staff could break free, and no one at the club meeting could step forward to take this photo. There were hurt feelings all around.
Fast forward to 2009. Judge David Mobley accompanied the Honor Flight participants to Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2009, the day before Veterans Day. He took photos of the participants on his cell phone, e-mailed them to the Courier-Post (newsroom@courierpost.com), and I posted them straight to our Web site (hannibal.net) throughout the day. In the next morning’s edition, we paid tribute to these honored veterans by devoting the equivalent of a whole page to Judge Mobley’s photos in our print product.
Judge Mobley won, because he received ample publicity for his pet project — Hannibal’s new Honor Flight chapter. The World War II veterans won, because they received much deserved recognition for the sacrifices they made during a war that changed America. And this newspaper’s readers won, because they were the recipients of both timely and heartfelt news of their neighbors and friends.
In our newsroom I have a hand-printed motto taped to the wall of my office. “It’s not what I can do for you that matters, or what you can do for me. What matters is what we can accomplish together.”
That motto reflects upon an important journalistic evolution that has transpired over the past three decades. Today, our staff consists of the most energetic and dedicated journalists I’ve ever worked with. While our physical numbers are literally half what they were back in the newsroom of 1983, today’s Courier-Post journalists’ dedication to their craft astounds me, day in and day out. Every edition of this newspaper has become a partnership between these journalists and our readers. Every edition is a testament to the motto scribbled on my office wall.
Thanks to advances in technology, management which embraces and supports those advances, readers willing to partner for success, and a newspaper staff standing ready to meet anyone at the half way point, the possibilities for the future are limitless.
The evolution amazes and inspires me, as I look to tomorrow to see what else we can accomplish — together.
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As a journalist, let’s say I’ve been around the block a few times. I’ve lived and experienced enough to be able to review what happens today and compare that to what took place in the past.
Throughout my 34-year career at this newspaper, the rules have changed. It has become my job to adapt to those rule changes and forge ahead in new directions.
Under that umbrella of change, please bear with me as I reflect upon the previously unimaginable advances in the world of photography, and how those changes have impacted your daily newspaper.
I was a young pup of a reporter back in 1983. That spring, very unexpectedly, my mother died. While catching my breath and adjusting to this monumental loss in my life, I was reminded by a (now deceased) retired school teacher that I had promised to take a picture of a club’s new officers during the very same hour as my mother’s funeral.
“I’m sorry ...” I said, but those words wouldn’t console her. It seems there was no one, anywhere, who could replace me and my 35 millimeter Canon AE-1 at this photo op. No one from our newspaper’s staff could break free, and no one at the club meeting could step forward to take this photo. There were hurt feelings all around.
Fast forward to 2009. Judge David Mobley accompanied the Honor Flight participants to Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2009, the day before Veterans Day. He took photos of the participants on his cell phone, e-mailed them to the Courier-Post (newsroom@courierpost.com), and I posted them straight to our Web site (hannibal.net) throughout the day. In the next morning’s edition, we paid tribute to these honored veterans by devoting the equivalent of a whole page to Judge Mobley’s photos in our print product.
Judge Mobley won, because he received ample publicity for his pet project — Hannibal’s new Honor Flight chapter. The World War II veterans won, because they received much deserved recognition for the sacrifices they made during a war that changed America. And this newspaper’s readers won, because they were the recipients of both timely and heartfelt news of their neighbors and friends.
In our newsroom I have a hand-printed motto taped to the wall of my office. “It’s not what I can do for you that matters, or what you can do for me. What matters is what we can accomplish together.”
That motto reflects upon an important journalistic evolution that has transpired over the past three decades. Today, our staff consists of the most energetic and dedicated journalists I’ve ever worked with. While our physical numbers are literally half what they were back in the newsroom of 1983, today’s Courier-Post journalists’ dedication to their craft astounds me, day in and day out. Every edition of this newspaper has become a partnership between these journalists and our readers. Every edition is a testament to the motto scribbled on my office wall.
Thanks to advances in technology, management which embraces and supports those advances, readers willing to partner for success, and a newspaper staff standing ready to meet anyone at the half way point, the possibilities for the future are limitless.
The evolution amazes and inspires me, as I look to tomorrow to see what else we can accomplish — together.
