Comments on all things journalism and answers to questions from readers about news coverage and operations at the Tracy Press.

Monday, April 18, 2005

Who makes newsroom decisions?

Editor's Notes

Every day, our newsroom on the second floor of the brick building at 10th and A streets buzzes with the drone of the fax machine, printers, police scanners and telephones. By mid-afternoon, about 20 people turn up the volume as they head into deadlines, conducting phone interviews, processing the day’s photos, writing and talking about stories and designing pages.

But at 2 p.m. every day, a group of us gathers in a meeting room to plot improvement strategy.

Remember last May 1 when we changed to a tabloid format? That took a few months of plotting. And yes, we have more unique changes in the works. But more of that in May.

While readers have met some of the folks who write the stories and take the photos for the Tracy Press, they may not know the editors who make many of the decisions that affect what goes into the newspaper. So here’s an introduction to the team.

• City Editor Eric Firpo, 42, is in charge of daily news coverage, and he supervises seven news reporters, including the San Joaquin News Service, which has an office in the newsroom. If you were to call the Tracy Press with a story tip, you would likely find Eric at the other end of the phone. He knows news, and every night, he’s hard at work at his computer getting the first critical read on stories from the reporters.

• Managing Editor Tonya Luiz, 27, is in charge of newsroom operations, including a universal copy desk of five copy editors who design and produce pages, write headlines and captions and edit copy for the six-day Tracy Press. She’s a quality-control person, who flinches when she sees misspellings, typos or fact errors. She’s also our design guru, and she can tell you exactly what font we use where and why we decided to redesign our paper last spring.

• Jack Eddy, 53, has been at the Tracy Press has worked as news editor, sports editor and now associate editor in the 27 years he’s been at the Press. He is in charge of the Voice pages, writing editorials, editing columns and letters to the editor and leading editorial board meetings. He’s one of the few folks in the newsroom who is allowed to voice his opinion. Plus he writes a wine column.

• Our Town Editor Jack Elliott, 51, oversees dozens of volunteer columnists in Tracy, writes a column called “Thinking Out Loud,” interviews people for weekly profiles and coordinates coverage for the Saturday section. As a human resources expert and ordained minister, he doesn’t have a traditional journalism background like the rest of us. But he knows how to connect us with readers like you.

• Finally, in sports, James Leonard, 24, is the Tracy Press Play editor. He coordinates our sports coverage, which includes everything from youth baseball, high school softball and professional soccer games to racing and rodeo and recreation — as well as stories and scores from the Associated Press wire. He oversees three sports reporters and also finds time to write a parenting column.

Cheri Matthews, 40-something, is editor of the Tracy Press.

Friday, April 01, 2005

Minding the public's business

Editor's Notes

When the Tracy Press celebrated its centennial as a newspaper, a group of us from the newsroom paraded six blocks down 10th Street carrying a large sign that read, “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech or of the press.”

We were as idealistic as fresh journalism grads in our declaration. We could recite by memory the words of Thomas Jefferson, who said, “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”

Jefferson’s message was not that freedom of information is for the press alone. After all, he’s the one who also said, “As for what is not true, you will always find abundance in the newspapers.”

He encouraged a free marketplace of ideas as a cornerstone of democracy. The fact is, the First Amendment is a right vested with every citizen.

So we carry the banner for the public’s right to know. We make demands for access to meetings or information, such as e-mails or memos, citing the state Public Records Act. We consult lawyers when we are asked to give up reporter notebooks, unpublished photos and confidential sources.

Recently we protested when a staff photographer and crime beat reporter were subpoenaed to testify about what they saw while covering a fight at the mall last fall.

And this week, we’re reminded of why all that is important, as newspapers nationwide celebrate something the American Society of Newspaper Editors has dubbed “Sunshine Week.” It’s an effort to raise public awareness of the growth of government secrecy.

We’re lucky to live in a state that offers more protection to journalists than the federal government does. California is one of 31 states with a shield law, which prevents government from demanding information from newspapers and allows journalists to remain independent of government. That protection doesn’t exist for a New York Times reporter and Time magazine writer who face prison time for refusing to disclose confidential sources in a federal grand jury investigation.

We’re lucky, too, that legislators continue to propose “sunshine laws” that will strengthen open government. Just last month, a bill was introduced in both Houses of Congress known as “Openness Promotes Effectiveness in our National Government Act.”

Whatever the reason, it seems that more and more barriers are being raised for people who want information to which they are entitled. You may have examples of your own — we know we do here at the Press.
So that brings me back to this week.

I’ve decided to actively participate in the national celebration of “sunshine laws” by writing this column. I’m often asked about the inner workings of a newspaper, and I think the best way to do my job is to be open as possible about the “how” and “why” behind the journalism — no less than what I expect from government. In the months to come, I plan to write about the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, which opens public documents to public inspection. I’ll inevitably write about our own police blotter, and why we list felony arrests in Tracy. And I’ll introduce some of the other folks who make news and photo decisions at the Tracy Press.

I may even dust off that centennial sign.