Community has long been focus

Telling the story of my tenure as publisher of The Dalles Chronicle from September 1996 to December 2015 begins with the awareness that, at one time, this small daily represented both competition and loyalty for me.

I was publisher of The Dalles Reminder until the doors closed Sept. 30, 1996, and I walked through the doors of the daily to begin a co-publisher relationship with Harold Steininger, who was the publisher of the Chronicle under the Pulitzer Corporation.

I wish it was possible for me to say those were easy years as the staff and myself strived to become one under the banner of Eagle Newspapers, but they were not. Some people remained at the newspaper, and other good people left. So it goes with mergers.

Closing the doors of the weekly, however, was the right decision. With combined staff and little competition, the Chronicle grew strong financially and editorially. Most publishers seem to be predisposed to frugality so, for 10 years, the newspaper branched out editorially by developing more special sections to tell Wasco County’s story.

In June 2001, the employees of the Chronicle moved into their new building at 315 Federal Street. With the economy booming, and staff squeezed into small quarters at the old building at Fourth and Federal, the new airy space became a wonderful place to work.

For the first time, we had to close window blinds to keep the sun out. With extra room, I hoped we would fill the empty cubicles allocated for growth. However, the culture was shifting to online even as we moved into our new space, so those work stations remained empty.

Change is often subtle. While I knew that online websites would change the news industry, I had no idea it would happen so quickly. As a group we worked harder. We downsized to keep the financials in good standing but continued to stay focused on journalism.

I started a phone book called the Mid-Columbia Directory, or “The Little Red Book that is Blue,” to help grow revenue. Editor Dan Spatz, and Rodger Nichols, associate editor, wrote a history book that sold out over a few years, along with other beautiful special sections that told the story of Wasco and Sherman County.

But it is the daily news, or “daily grind,” that most writers will say lays the foundation for citizen accountability.

I was privileged to have ethical and hardworking editors during my tenure. Spatz was editor of The Dalles Chronicle from January 1997 to August 2006. Kathy Ursprung followed Dan as editor until 2014. RaeLynn Ricarte is currently at the helm, and of the three editors she has experienced the most cultural change facing newspapers in the 21st Century.

Editors and journalists in general carry the following character traits: A strong sense of responsibility; curiosity, looking for the real story behind the storyline presented; and the strength to face opposition. Journalism is not a career for the faint hearted. It is a career where prophet and investigator walk hand-in-hand, along with a compassionate heart to tell stories of injustice.

These three editors, along with their editorial staff, produced award-winning stories at the state level and, though I can’t recall how many General Excellence Awards the Chronicle received during my 19 years, the number was impressive for a newspaper of that size.

A newspaper receives a General Excellence Award when the writing and photography is judged to be excellent in all categories, as well as providing a strong advertising presence.

Here are a few of the strong writers and photographers who contributed to the newspaper under my years of leadership: Neita Cecil, Rodger Nichols, Dan Spatz, Kathy Ursprung, RaeLynn Ricarte, Jodi Nofziger-Rich, Ray Rodriguez, Mark Gibson, Tom Peterson and last but not least, long time reporter Elroy King, who died in 2011.

There were other writers who came and went, but these journalists made a difference in our community, and some continue to make a difference.

They wrote stories of economic enterprise when the citizens of The Dalles voted a bond to support a new vision for the port. They covered the ‘double-o story’ when leaders of The Dalles tried to hide Google’s pending presence by an acronym.

Murders, sadness, love, rape, good cops gone bad … That’s the life of a reporter, and more. What is the more? … It is sitting in countless city, county, government and school meetings to keep leaders accountable to their constituents and to sustain a public record of what it is like to live in Wasco County. Without ethical reporting, our democracy becomes a little weaker each time a newspaper closes its doors. Telling stories, though, costs money so, without strong advertising dollars, no stories get told or printed. I was blessed with a good advertising staff. Under the leadership of Skip Tschanz, Chelsea Marr (current publisher of The Dalles Chronicle and Hood River News), Ray Swift, Tom Peterson, Tonya Flory, and others who stayed a short time, they became top-notch at what they did.

The newspaper world is in flux, but it will survive in some form. However, a community must be aware that a newspaper is only as strong as its most loyal reader. There is a cultural expectation now that news should be written to tickle the editorial fancy of each reader, but that is not a newspaper’s role in a community.

There is a reason behind sustaining an editorial page, and it is to provide a variety of ideas and commentary representing our town and country. Good editorial commentary should sharpen our sense of community and build upon a disparity of ideas to express our freedoms under the Constitution of the United States. While we all might like to read only those writers we agree with, doing so will weaken your ability to build bridges with your neighbors.

I was an employee of Eagle Newspapers for 32 years, from 1983-2015. I worked hard to provide our readers with news and advertising to tell the stories of countless people throughout Wasco and Sherman County. In Dick Nafsinger’s words, I became what all publishers become, “caretakers of information.” So, the number of days for printing the Chronicle may be reduced, but stories of this community will continue to be told through a variety of platforms.

The current decision to shift more news to an online platform is a sign of our changing culture and the newspaper industry must make the change. As a reader myself now, I want to receive the news anyway I can get it.

I hope you do, too.

— Marilyn Roth