If there is a through-line in my life and career, it’s been the news. I got my first taste of it in elementary school. The teacher folded up the accordion divider in the portable trailer doubling as a classroom, joining our two 6th grade classes. We were given an assignment: To create a mock town for one week.
Each student could volunteer for a profession — someone was the banker, a baker, a clothier, an insurance agent, the mayor. We used Monopoly money as currency. Every kid got the same amount to start, and you could spend it as you saw fit. It got us all thinking about personal budgeting and the costs of doing business.
When the teacher asked for a volunteer to run the community newspaper, my hand shot up immediately. It was the only one. Even at that tender age, I had a sense of how important it was that a town have a newspaper, and that it was both duty and privilege to tell its story.
Each afternoon, I would paste-up the daily edition, replicated on a mimeograph the school’s secretary showed me how to crank. I reported on the weather, the cafeteria menu, what the mayor had to say about the town’s vitality, school calendar events, interest rates at the bank, and what the townspeople were saying about their quality of life.
I had to sell both readers and advertisers on the paper’s value proposition. And I learned a hard but valuable lesson: It’s tough to compete with baked goods.
The sweet confections at our town’s bakeshop drew a crowd and its disposable income. They were less enthusiastic about paying for news — unless they could see themselves in the pages and “feel seen” by the journalism. News had to be practical and personal — a formative lesson, still applicable today.
As I take on this new role as E&P’s editor-in-chief, I reflect back on the spark that ignited within me all those years ago — about the power of storytelling and the necessity of a free press. My predecessor shared that passion.
Former Editor-in-Chief Robin Blinder’s imprint on E&P is well known to long-time subscribers. She transformed the newsroom and editorial mission, tasking her team to chronicle the state of news media as it is and as it so quickly evolves — the enduring challenges, as well as the little victories, the feel-good stories, the real-world innovation happening. She further expanded our reach into digital, audio, video and social platforms. She aimed to take E&P’s curious readership beyond traditional news operations, into the realms of nonprofit, ethnic, creator, independent, public, community and niche media.
This month’s cover story, “Life after mainstream media,” is a good example of the conversations she wanted to stoke: What opportunities await journalists who have made their mark in traditional media but have chosen new career paths as independent digital-forward journalists? And what happens to that space as it becomes more crowded and competitive?
Most important to Blinder — I observed firsthand — was that the pages of E&P reflect the people who give so much of themselves, professionally and personally, to deliver the news.
With gratitude, we’ll carry this mission forward.
Gretchen A. Peck is E&P’s editor-in-chief. She welcomes your emails at editor@editorandpublisher.com.
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