Posted on May 27, 2010
ALAN SHEARER and JAMES HILL: This month we're interviewing J.R. Labbe, editorial director of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
You're in a bit of a unique situation in that the Star-Telegram and The Dallas Morning News overlap in parts of the metropolitan circulation area, creating a very competitive environment. How does this affect your approach? On local issues, do you concentrate mostly on matters concerning only the Fort Worth area, or do you include the entire Dallas-Fort Worth area as part of your mandate? And what is your main focus when it comes to statewide issues?
LABBE: Although there is some overlap in the circulation areas of the Star-Telegram and the Dallas Morning News, it does not necessarily factor into our editorial board’s daily decisions on what issues we tackle. Fort Worth alone is a city of 730,000 people; Tarrant County is pushing 1.8 million. We have plenty to say grace over on our side of the Metroplex. That said, the entire region struggles with issues of transportation, air quality, immigration, education. But we can always find a local example to illustrate the challenges in those areas.
As far as statewide issues, I’m sure you’ve heard that Texas is a huge state. And it ain’t bragging if it’s true. When we look at statewide issues, it generally stems from something that’s occurred or is being discussed in Austin, the state capital. Frankly, we’re just grateful the Texas Legislature only meets for 180 days every other year.
SHEARER and HILL: If you could change one thing about your job, what would it be?
LABBE: I almost feel guilty typing this, knowing how many of my peers in the National Conference of Editorial Writers are laboring in one- and two-person shops, but I would so welcome one more warm body in the department to handle letters to the editor and production chores so I could have more time to think, research and write. I’m blessed to have three fabulous staff members – Mike Norman, Linda Campbell and Bob Ray Sanders – who all do double duty as editorial and column writers. But I miss having time to do more of that writing myself.
SHEARER and HILL: In a given week, what do you see as your greatest reward?
LABBE: Cue the sappy music. Personally, having the privilege of working in a city I adore, for a newspaper with a 100-plus-year tradition of community service and with such talented, smart and funny people – on the editorial board and in the newsroom – is reward beyond anything I could have imagined in my life.
SHEARER and HILL: How on top of the news do you feel you have to be? Do you try for a mix of the topical and the offbeat? Any special projects?
LABBE: In a world of instant pundits, we’d better be timely and topical if we want to remain relevant. Our editorial well is probably focused on government and politics more than we’d like, but we also keep on alert for issues that aren’t normal editorial page fodder. We’ll write off the sports and features pages, which generally provide us with the opportunity to flex our creativity to use a different tone or voice to make a point.
As for special projects: We’re catching our breath after the March 2010 primary races and the May 8 local elections for city councils, school boards, county colleges, etc. Providing candidate recommendations is a major commitment of time and space.
SHEARER and HILL: What about your online presence? Do you use the Web to expand your coverage? Do you direct readers of the print edition to your Web page? Do you post breaking-news commentary on your site immediately? Do you commit to print and your site simultaneously? And do you seek ways to engage readers in conversations on your site?
LABBE: Confession is good for the soul, they say. We aren’t as aggressive online as we’d like to be, but we’re working on it. The focus on the printed page is local, local, local. People can read about national and international issues in a myriad of venues, but the only place they can find commentary about Fort Worth and Tarrant County is the Star-Telegram. So I’ve been putting the majority of our syndicated columnists online, with teases to them from the printed paper. When we have special projects that lend themselves to visuals, we’ll use the website for video. All content on our opinion web pages allows for readers to comment.
SHEARER and HILL: So, what's on your extracurricular reading list?
LABBE: I’m a nonfiction fanatic and tend to reach for the obscure. I’m finishing Mike Dash’s “Satan’s Circus: Murder, Vice, Police Corruption and New York’s Trial of the Century” (about the only U.S. police officer ever executed for murder). And today I picked up “The Billionaire’s Vinegar,” by Benjamin Wallace, about the mystery of the world’s most expensive bottle of wine, and “Napoleon’s Hemorrhoids and Other Small Events that Changed History,” by Phil Mason. How can you resist that title?
SHEARER and HILL: You and Keven Willey at The Dallas Morning News are co-hosting this year's convention of the National Conference of Editorial Writers. How is that going? Can you give us some insights into what type of convention is in the works, and why you think it is important for editorial writers to attend?
LABBE: I’m very excited about the 2010 convention, which will be in Dallas Sept. 22-25. Keven and her crew have done a remarkable job of lining up must-hear speakers on topics such as immigration, energy and justice in a post-DNA world. Confirmed speakers include Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, former U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza, T. Boone Pickens, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, author Kurt Eichenwald and former state demographer and director of the U.S. Census Steve Murdock. In addition to speakers, we’ll have craft workshops that focus on writing and online. Plus, attendees will have an inside look at the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium in Arlington (a massive and amazing monument to football and ego) and the country’s largest state fair will be under way in Big D. I mean, how can you resist the call of fried butter at the State Fair of Texas?
NCEW provides a network of support for editorial and opinion writers at papers and TV stations across the country. (Yes, there are still broadcast editorialists who present the opinion of the station.) The organization has a vibrant and active online listserv through which people can ask for assistance, share tips and tell war stories, but the convention is the place for folks to put faces and voices to names.
SHEARER and HILL: We note that in 1992, you were the first woman to hold a full-time editorial writing position in the Star-Telegram's history. Tell us about your own experiences of rising to the top position in your shop, and also about your own goals to diversify the staff. What do you look for first when interviewing a candidate for an editorial writing job, and what do you want that person to accomplish over the course of a career?
LABBE: Hard work, a solid understanding of the community made possible by a broad network of contacts and a sense of humor all contributed to my achieving the position of editorial director a year ago. I was so fortunate to have worked with now retired Editorial Page Editor Paul Harral, who provided so many opportunities for me to expand my knowledge through offsite training, fellowships and involvement with NCEW.
As far as diversifying the staff, I’m fortunate to already have a diverse stable of writers because who knows if or when I’ll be able to add to my crew. Two women, two men; two Anglos, one African-American and one Hispanic. We aren’t real diverse when it comes to age but I honestly don’t lose sleep over that. Readers of the editorial page aren't real diverse when it comes to age, either.
SHEARER and HILL: Back to Dallas and Fort Worth for a minute. We've heard it said that Fort Worth is where the West begins and Dallas is where the East peters out. Is this still the case? And if so, can you give us some examples of how it influences your coverage?
LABBE: I’m seeing more cooperation and regionalism between the two sides of the Metroplex than at any time in the 30 years I’ve lived in Texas. (For the record, I have always lived on the Fort Worth side. There’s a saying in these parts that was started by a state rep who owns a great barbecue joint in town, the Railhead Smokehouse: Life’s too short to live in Dallas.) The challenges we face with transportation and air quality alone demand regional approaches. Within the last five years, the Star-Telegram and the Morning News editorial boards have teamed up to work on transportation issues, running coordinated editorials on the same day.
That said, we’ll still poke at Big D when the opportunity arises. After all, I work for the newspaper founded by Amon G. Carter – the man who would take a sack lunch to Dallas rather than spend so much as a dime in that city.
SHEARER and HILL: Is journalism, particularly opinion journalism, still a turn-on for you? If you had a career to do over, would it still be in the newspaper business?
LABBE: Actually, journalism was my do-over career. I focused on public relations in college, and my first job post-University of Kansas was as a national public relations coordinator for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. (Great training for a newsroom, by the way.) When I left Ringling and settled in Texas, I rented beds and peddled danish in the hospitality industry for eight years. I served as the office manager for the Fort Worth Sesquicentennial Commission. I taught recreational bass fishing. While each of those experiences added another splash of color to the canvas of my life, I wasn’t very happy. It wasn’t until a wonderful man named Dave Berry – no, not the humorist Dave Barry – took a huge leap of faith and hired me as the editor of the Grand Prairie Daily News, one of the community newspapers owned by A.H. Belo, parent company of the Dallas Morning News. That was 22 years ago and I’ve been in the newspaper business ever since. I’ll celebrate 18 years at the Star-Telegram in August. It is, without question, the most enriching, challenging and fulfilling work I have ever done.
SHEARER and HILL: Can you give us your perspective regarding journalism's obligations under the First Amendment to maintain a watch over government and inform the citizenry? And where the opinion editor fits in?
LABBE: Democracy remains dependent on an informed citizenry. Advances in communications technology haven’t changed that, although they have contributed, I fear, to the silo-ization of America. Reading a newspaper offers a serendipitous exchange of knowledge. I’m turning a page, not knowing what will come next, and before I know it I’m reading about the Shroud of Turin or the man who faked his way into the Army Reserve. I didn’t go looking for those stories, but I read them. With the Internet, we search for information by topic. And you can read all that your little heart desires about wayward ferrets or how to stop oil spills, but you don’t get out of that silo unless you choose to.
In the opinion world, it’s more problematic. People no longer have to test their own philosophies or ideologies by being exposed to contrary viewpoints. They can stay within their own left wing or right wing or tea party. We’ve forgotten how enlightening divergent viewpoints can be.
My job, in part, is to make sure that our opinion pages reflect a variety of ideas, attitudes and opinions. I look for columns and letters to the editor that present views divergent from the editorials. And the institutional editorials are written by professional journalists who have skills in not just gathering data, but in organizing, analyzing and interpreting the information in such a way that valid assertions can be made about a topic – and then supported.
|
