Posted on April 28, 2010
ALAN SHEARER and JAMES HILL: For this month's interview we're going out West to chat with Dick Hughes, the editorial page editor of the Statesman Journal in Salem, Ore. You're at a small-market newspaper that has a large interest in Oregon government and politics, given that Salem is the state capital. What are the special opportunities this gives you, and what are some of the drawbacks?

Dick Hughes, at his desk at the Statesman Journal.

HUGHES: For starters, we on the West Coast have an extra three hours until deadline compared with the East Coast news cycle, which allows us to do live editorials on night events, such as the State of the Union, national election results, etc. (or to have an East Coast baseball game on in the background when we’re writing, not that I would ever do that, of course).

We on the upper Left Coast tend to be less formal in our dress (neckties, bad; running shoes or Birkenstocks, good) and our writing style. People also feel less connection to the District of Columbia. When we talk of Washington, we’re referring to our neighbor state to the north, not the nation’s capital.

Given our location, as well as newspaper size, we don’t editorialize a lot on national issues. President Obama or Speaker Pelosi are unlikely to be swayed by anything we say.

As for being in the Oregon capital, that certainly aids our state and regional influence. Policymakers read us – as do state employees around Oregon – to get a handle on what’s going on. We aim to be the source for state government opinion, just as the news side is the source for state government/worker news.

The disadvantage of our newspaper size is that “we” is “I.” Since January 2009, I’ve been a 1.3-person editorial shop. The other longtime editorial writer moved to a reporting position. Fortunately, we have an invaluable 15-hour-a-week editorial assistant, Nancy Harrington, who handles letters and supplies me with chocolate.

SHEARER and HILL: If you could change one thing about your job, what would it be?

HUGHES: That varies by the day, maybe the moment. I’m tempted to say I’d like to be at least a two-person editorial shop again. I miss having someone to bounce ideas off; and especially, I miss having someone to closely edit my stuff, word by word.

In addition, my schedule now is less flexible. (I suppose there’s a moral in not wanting something too much: Having worked at the Statesman Journal since 1981, I looked forward to the year when I finally would be eligible for five weeks’ vacation. Now that I’m there, it’s a hassle to arrange backup; I wind up giving up some vacation days.)

On the plus side, however, being a small shop has a huge advantage: less bureaucracy and fewer meetings (although we still have too many meetings).

SHEARER and HILL: In a given week, what do you see as your greatest reward?

HUGHES: It sounds schmaltzy but it’s when I can feel I’ve made a difference. That could be a column or an editorial that altered the community/capitol discussion.

SHEARER and HILL: How on top of the news do you feel you have to be in order to perform your job? Do you try for a mix of the topical and the offbeat?

HUGHES: Very on top of the news.

We run one editorial a day, having junked the second editorial, which too often was a thumbsucker. (Not only drink your milk but try not to spill! Celebrate International Clean-Your-Umbrella Week! Stay off the logs at the Oregon Coast because they’re dangerous suckers [which is true]!)

Most weeks I write five or six editorials, a column and a Monday where-do-you-stand opinion feature. (I also coordinate our Sunday business section.) We usually run Gannett/AP editorial roundup one day a week – more often if I’m on vacation.

For editorial topics, we look for issues where we can affect the outcome, as well as writing about “talkers.” In any given day, it’s a balance of what’s the biggest issue of the day/week … and what do I have time to research and write by deadline?

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?

Here’s how I look at multimedia: I can either be at the head of the train, determining my future, or I can be dragged along against my will.

I want to control my future (uh, at least somewhat). So I push online – push, push, push. As a result, I have less problem getting online resources. We get good placement on our home page. Our online/photo staff Livestreams our key editorial board meetings, as well as posting the video for people to watch later. (We don’t edit the videos, as there’s little return on investment for the time involved.) We’ve done online election-night shows and discussion roundtables. All of these are ways of extending our statewide influence.

Almost all our print opinion items go online, and I post everything I possibly can that we don’t have room for in print: columns, letters, columns, and editorial roundup. We only contract with syndicates that allow us to post everything online. We sometimes do breaking-news editorials and occasionally post other breaking-news commentary.

The result is that we have a robust online Opinion site, which is among the highest-ranked sections of StatesmanJournnal.com. And which means I get the online resources I need …

In print, we refer to online candidate questionnaires, other documents and special collections. However … we refer less from print to online than we used to. It just ticks subscribers off to be told they’re paying for the paper while people get more online for free. I actually want to do more print-only opinions.

SHEARER and HILL: So, what's on your extracurricular reading list?

HUGHES: Our house is cluttered with partially read books and magazines – to the point that my wife’s birthday present to me was an Excel spreadsheet of my writing/journalism/grammar books so I could keep track of them.

And the iPhone is pretty cool for downloading the Federalist Papers and other historic documents, as well as reading newspapers around the world.

SHEARER and HILL: How do you get your professional enrichment? We're aware that you are active with the National Conference of Editorial Writers, but are there other journalism organizations in which you have an association? Beyond networking, is there a particular value you find in belonging to professional organizations?

HUGHES: I participate in a couple of other listserves – such as for literary journalism and for newsroom trainers.

But NCEW is my lifeline. If I ever start to feel sorry for myself, there’s always someone with fewer resources or longer hours or more responsibilities, which puts my life in perspective. Example: On a Friday night last winter I received a late-night listserve message from an East Coast colleague. I had been feeling grumpy about still being at the office. But heck, it was three hours later for her; she was still at work … with a severe snowstorm moving in. Who was I to complain?

The great thing about NCEW is that we’re all equals. The size of one’s shop doesn’t matter. People are always willing to share ideas or give support. Even though I’m working at a small/medium-sized paper on the Left Coast, I’m not alone. The importance of that sense of support cannot be overstated.

SHEARER and HILL: As we recall, you've had a lot of experience in teaching future journalists. Are you still involved in such matters? How much value do you assign to a good journalism education, as opposed to on-the-job experience? And while we are on this question, tell us a bit about the volunteer work you and your wife do in the impoverished southern Mexican state of Chiapas? How does this affect your worldview and your journalism?

HUGHES: I hope that my legacy will be the young journalists I’ve helped guide (or at least failed to dissuade) over the years via internships, collegial relationships and teaching at Oregon State University and Willamette University. I love leading workshops and teaching.
The half-credit class I teach at Willamette is called Journalistic Writing, but we spend as much time on ethics as on writing.

Teaching is humbling. It’s also a form of continuing education: While teaching the basics to students, I’m also reminding myself of them.

Last year, two former students asked me to officiate their wedding. That was so cool (and now that I have an online ordination, let me know if you need me to do your wedding, the dedication of your new espresso stand, or other special event).

As far as a required degree: Journalism is storytelling. So anyone who comes out of a storytelling culture has an advantage, regardless of whether that person has a journalism degree. (My degree is in psychology and social anthropology, which I settled on three or four months before I graduated. Hey, it was the ’70s. ...)

Chiapas: It’s what centers me and reacquaints me with what’s important in life.

My wife and son started volunteering at Hogar Infantil, an orphanage in southern Mexico, through our church several years ago. At first, I didn’t get it. There are so many needs in Oregon, why go to Mexico? Then I went for the first time.

Hogar is addictive: By our standards, it’s spartan. Hot water is intermittent; geckos run across the walls; tadpoles came out of the showerhead on my daughter. What the orphanage possesses is vast love, care and hope for the 80 kids. As my son said upon returning from his first visit, “We have everything, yet we have nothing. They have nothing, yet they have everything.”

Last year we weren’t able to go, and my life has felt out of balance ever since.

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?

HUGHES: Absolutely. I still get all goose-bumpy when talking about the First Amendment or excitedly telling my students about a great editorial or story I’ve read.

On most days, that is.

On days when I’m stuck in meetings or adrift in newspaper bureaucracy, I may sometimes wish I’d inherited rich parents.

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?

HUGHES: I love the concept of citizen journalism because it’s getting back to the basics: keeping watch on government, asking the questions that no one wants answered and peeling back the layers of obfuscation. But we can’t leave it just to Joe and Jocelyn Twelvepack; we in the news media have an obligation to get back into tracking government much closer than we have in recent years.

Two examples from the past year:

It was our series of editorials that forced the Oregon secretary of state to launch an audit of a regional school district, which turned up possibly the worst financial mismanagement ever uncovered by state auditors.

I’ve been writing columns and editorials about domestic abuse and sexual assault. Those always result in a substantial increase in calls to a women’s crisis line. The indication – the hope – is that more people are getting help.