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Every year on this date I pause to reflect upon my arrival at the @latimes on June 18, 1990. Thirty years on, I remain grateful that I ended up spending my career there. But I’ll skip the easy sentiment this time and point to this sobering @NPR report: https://www.npr.org/2020/06/15/874530954/rancor-erupts-in-la-times-newsroom-over-race-equity-and-protest-coverage
In particular, I am thinking about Metpro, the Minority Editorial Training Program, which was established in 1984 in Los Angeles by Times Mirror Co. Metpro made all the difference for me but, sadly, is at the center of the turmoil that NPR documents. A thread: 2/10
In 1990, I was 33, a late bloomer, still learning the ways of the news industry. I had trained for a year at @Newsday in the first class of Metpro copy editors, an extension of the original reporting program. In Year 2, I was sent to L.A., my classmates to other papers. 3/10
The editor who recruited me to L.A., Jim White, helped me navigate that big, intimidating newsroom. He placed me in my first few jobs and found mentors to look out for me, notably Gail Tagashira and David Shear in the Calendar section. Jim was 100% invested in my success. 4/10
About six or seven years in, eager to move up, I started to apply for newsroom jobs on my own, without success. It took a department leader who was willing to take a chance—to foresee a future version of me—and hire me in 1998 for a job I would have to grow into. 5/10
That was Bill Sing, editor of @latimesbiz and, not incidentally, a founder of @AAJA, through which we had first met. Truth be told, I was in over my head and often struggled. Bill didn’t say it—that was not his style—but he believed in me and kept me in big assignments. 6/10
I eventually found my bearings and gained confidence, and was recruited by other leaders who could envision me in bigger roles even before I could: Melissa McCoy, founding AME of the copy desk department, and Russ Stanton, a future @latimes editor. Each hired me twice. 7/10
That’s how I had such a long and rewarding career, ending with my retirement in December 2015 as a member of the @latimes masthead and the head of my original department, the copy desk. Before we called it “allyship,” I was guided all along by bosses who advocated for me. 8/10
I have no brilliant cures for what ails my old newsroom. The cleanup may take years, but change can start now. Top @latimes leaders must become 100% invested in the success of every member of the staff, the way Jim White was in mine way back when. That, really, is the job. 9/10
For the record: Here is that first Metpro editing class, 1989-90, and my subsequent career in the form of my business cards.
Key fact: I was the first graduate of Metpro to be promoted to the level of department head at @latimes. We are still waiting for the second. 10/10
Key fact: I was the first graduate of Metpro to be promoted to the level of department head at @latimes. We are still waiting for the second. 10/10
