Regrets, I’ve had a few…
By: Ron Wayne
Tags: Freedom Of The Press, Journalism, Career Advice, Retirement

Me proofing a sports agate page in the composing room of the Griffin newspaper before pages were created entirely on computers.

…..but not a decision at 16 to become a journalist.

Retirement gives you time to ask yourself, did you make the right choices? Sometimes seemingly unimportant decisions result in surprises, both good and bad.

I’ve never regretted a decision that had a big impact on my life: to become a newspaper journalist when I was in 11th grade. Despite all the downsides of newspaper work, especially as the industry started to struggle in the 1980s, I loved my work for 26 years. I was doing something important.

I was one of just three juniors in the English class that produced the student newspaper for our junior-senior high school. I had to pass a tryout exercise to get on the paper. It wasn’t an automatic option.

I already knew our teacher, Suzanne Anderson, from 10th grade. I liked her from the moment I met her. She had praised a report I did on Gandhi and the civil rights movement. I always did better with teachers who seemed to like me, and she did. Mrs. Anderson had returned to teaching after her kids had grown older. She resembled Maude on television at the time, and even wore those long cardigan sweater vests.

The class produced the newspaper, but we also had a regular curriculum learning the basics of journalism. We also had to find advertisers, and we sold the paper to the students. So the experience gave us a taste of every aspect of newspaper publishing at the time.

I became co-editor in my senior year. Beyond the actual work of reporting and writing that I enjoyed, I became seriously interested in the First Amendment, its history and impact on the nation. I recall adding quotes about the importance of a free press to a page in the student paper. For me, journalism was a calling. Why else would you deal with relatively poor pay, awful hours and high expectations from readers?

But I endured all that and more for many years. It was especially challenging as the top editor to produce the news content with limited resources. I was in charge of news at two weekly newspapers and two dailies during my career. Finding and keeping good people was tough because we couldn’t pay as much as metro papers.

And yet I managed to hire some incredible reporters, photographers and editors. Many went on to important roles at bigger newspapers, wire services and digital media. Thanks to Facebook, I stay in contact with some of them. It has given me huge pleasure when they have complimented me for what they learned from me. Big secret…I was learning along the way!

I perceived my newspapers as organic, so every person on my staff was important. It truly takes a village to produce the news content for a daily paper. Essentially, you’re creating words and images that would fill a book, and changing it every day. We would make mistakes about the smallest thing like the wrong crossword, and I would hear about it from subscribers. But we admitted our mistakes, corrected them and apologized.

We were always pressured to print on time and to sell papers. Way too often, the publisher and ad people would try to influence our news decisions. It was hard to stand our ground, but I developed some excellent arguments on the need for the newsroom’s independence.

As the top editor, I often wrote columns explaining our decisions and the newspaper business to readers, like why I insisted letters to the editor be signed and be original. Seems quaint now in the anonymous world of social media. I also pressed my reporters to never forget the “why” when they wrote stories. The who, what, when and where were the easy ones.

When I was named editor of one paper, my boss wrote this: “During his years with us, Ron has displayed a consistent concern for uncovering the motivation behind the public actions of elected officials.” As journalists, we represent not just subscribers and readers, but the public at large. Elected and appointed officials owe all of us the truth and explanations, but it’s up to journalists to get the answers.

My staffs and I won awards in state competitions numerous times, and I’m proudest of the Freedom of Information awards from the Associated Press that I shared with reporters at the Griffin Daily News and the Valdosta Daily Times.

In a biography I had to write for a job application in 1993, I wrote: “I believe I have helped to perform a fundamentally important function for thousands of readers: providing them with the truths by which they might guide their lives.”

Sadly, newspapers of all sizes have lost influence in civic discourse because social media allows people to create their own truths. The internet also decimated classified ad sales for houses, cars and jobs. Even a medium size daily would bring in hefty revenue from those ads.

But those were great days with great people, and I hope I made a positive difference in readers’ lives.