By Ed Pierce
Managing Editor
After more than four decades in the profession of journalism, I’m often asked who I’ve tried to pattern my career after or what journalists played a part in helping me to reach my full potential in the newsroom.
I suppose that some of these names you’ve probably never heard
of because they worked in other states or worked behind the scenes as
department leaders. Some were editors who were skilled in asking me why I
failed to ask a particular question during an interview or why I chose to focus
on a particular aspect of an article instead of another.
Aurelio “Arley” Sanchez was a reporter for the Albuquerque
Journal who covered Valencia County where I lived in New Mexico. He also was a
graduate of the University of New Mexico’s journalism program like I was. As a
newsroom intern at the Albuquerque Journal, I quickly came to see why Arley was
such a favorite of editors. He knew every aspect of his beat and was masterful
at relating stories about ordinary people who did extraordinary things. To this
day, I believe observing the professional way he approached his job as a
reporter and the fact he was never without a story to tell was a great
inspiration to me.
Tom Breen had been an idol of mine when I served in the U.S.
Air Force in Washington, D.C. at The Pentagon. He was a wonderful feature
writer and storyteller for the Washington Star newspaper and years later after
reading and admiring his work daily for that paper, Tom landed a job writing
feature stories for the same paper I worked for in Florida. Even though I had been
writing news and sports stories for more than a decade, I made time to pick
Tom’s brain and listen to his thoughts about writing style. Tom shared his
ideas to producing an interesting feature article and I soaked up nearly
everything he told me and applied it to my own work.
He confirmed for me that his secret to creating a great story was
to write it as if you were carrying on a conversation with the readers. I
incorporated his sound advice into my style and despite his death a few years
back, I always cite Tom Breen as key to my success in storytelling.
Don Walker was a great friend and editor I worked with in
Florida. He knew what questions were unanswered in an article, who to speak
with to make an article comprehensive and how to have fun and laugh during
stressful times on deadline. He never lost his sense of humor or an ability to
recite last Thursday’s Final Jeopardy answer and question. Much of my
preparedness and managerial style as an editor are modeled after Don’s example.
In terms of an outstanding leader, Tom Clifford was one of the
best supervisors I ever had. He knew how to motivate you to produce your best
work. He always made the time to listen to your concerns or weigh your
suggestions to do something better. Tom had an innate ability to place people
in positions where they could really thrive and succeed and gave me one of my
first breaks to advance as an editor in the newsroom of a significant daily
newspaper.
For me, Terry Eberle was exactly the kind of executive editor
that you see in movies about newspapers. He was objective, experienced, a
genuine truth-seeker and utterly thorough. He was a stickler for details and
someone I always felt never asked anyone to do a job he himself couldn’t do
superbly.
The thing I enjoyed the most about working for Terry was that he
wasn’t full of himself and you always got a feeling that he cared about you. He
backed you when you wanted to try something new and reveled in your success
when it succeeded.
Each of the individuals I’ve mentioned helped shape the
direction of my career and inspired my quest to become a better journalist.
Isaac Newton once said, “It is by standing on the shoulders of
giants that I have seen farther.”
For me, Newton’s words ring true.
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