Editorial column to end after more than 40 years
By Roy Ockert Jr.
Dec. 22, 2015
After writing this column weekly for more than 40 years, I’m going to retire “Behind the News” after one more next week.
Recently I agreed to fill in as interim director of communications for the City of Jonesboro, and that job, whether it lasts two weeks or two months, could present conflicts of time and-or interest. For that reason and others this a good time to end the column.
Actually, I had been thinking about doing so for about six months. After retiring as editor of The Jonesboro Sun almost four years ago, I gladly took up the opportunity to continue writing the column for The Sun and other newspaper clients of the Arkansas News Bureau. When the Stephens Media Group made severe cuts in bureau services in 2014, including its regular columnists, I formed my own “syndicate” with six newspapers around the state and continued writing.
The column has served as a good transition from daily newspaper editing to the more sedate lifestyle of a retiree, whose goals included learning to play golf better. I’ve managed to shave 10 strokes off my average score, which is good until you consider where it started.
In retirement from editing, I also had hoped to do a book project or two. Almost three years ago I started one that would be a sort of family history as an experiment — just for family. But I needed to see if a writer who has always worked under the stress of a deadline could produce something with no deadline.
That experiment really has not worked well. I’ve managed only a few chapters.
Writing a regular editorial column on current events requires keeping up closely with current events — reading, research, attending public meetings and talking with newsmakers. There are always reasons to put book writing sessions aside.
I need to get more serious about that, and perhaps not writing a column will allow it. Of course, it will have to wait until this interim thing has ended.
I agreed to do that because Jonesboro Mayor Harold Perrin is an old friend and, more importantly, because he is a good mayor who has the best interests of his city at heart. As a consultant a year or so ago, I helped him create the position of communications director to help the city government get its message out to its citizens and for the citizens to utilize city government services.
Creating and defining a new position isn’t easy, and the first director left the job after less than a year. Now we hope to find someone who can take the ball and run with it. The sooner we find that person, the sooner I can get back to being mostly retired.
I started writing “Behind the News” in June 1975, after I left a journalism teaching job at Arkansas State University to become managing editor of The Batesville Guard.
The newspaper business was changing then, as now. Computers were starting to revolutionize newspapers, like most other businesses, and I knew nothing about them. I didn’t want to continue teaching reporting and editing if I couldn’t function in a newsroom. So I left the classroom and, except for one more stint of about five years of teaching, spent the rest of my career as a daily newspaper editor.
The Guard was a good country newspaper, but it needed a facelift and more aggressive reporting. I also wanted the newspaper to provide more leadership and a community forum by having a real Opinions page. Starting with a 3-person news staff, I did a lot of reporting and therefore few editorials. Unlike other media, newspapers try to keep news coverage and opinions separate. One person can’t do both without running into conflicts of interest.
I started “Behind the News” as a column more for explaining and analyzing than for criticizing and second-guessing. Rather than writing about what the City Council should do on a given issue, I might explain the council’s options and the possible impact of the various options.
The name came from the location of the Opinions page on which the column appeared — page 2, right after the main news page.
I continued as editor of The Guard for 13 years, then started teaching at what is now Lyon College in 1988. During those teaching years the Guard owners and managers allowed me to continue writing the column.
As much as I enjoyed teaching, I was ready to return to the newsroom within months. Signing a contract, though, complicates the mission of finding accepting an editor’s position. The timing has to be right.
In 1995 the right opportunity came along. The Courier at Russellville was to convert to a morning newspaper and needed a managing editor to lead the conversion. Further, the editor was to retire soon afterward, and I’d be able to move up. That’s what happened, and I took “Behind the News” with me.
When I moved up to editor, I also started writing editorials, which are considered the voice of a newspaper (whereas columns are only the voice of the writer). In 2000 The Courier’s parent company bought The Jonesboro Sun, for which I had worked in college. And six months later I was brought here as editor — in part, ironically, because I had become well versed in newsroom computer systems.
“Behind the News” came with me, as did the responsibility for editorial writing.
Roy Ockert is editor emeritus of The Jonesboro Sun. He may be reached by e-mail at royo@suddenlink.net.
Next week: This is 30.