By Donald H. Harrison
EL CAJON, California –Visiting a journalism class Friday at Grossmont College, David Ogul, assistant metropolitan editor of the San Diego Union-Tribune, told of the day he almost quit the staff of another newspaper after he read the letters-to-the-editor.
It was back when he occupied a similar position for the Riverside Press-Enterprise, Ogul recalled. A letter writer had denounced homosexuals in the most scurrilous of terms, not only challenging the appropriateness of their life styles but blaming them in a hate-laden letter for many of the ills of the world.
Ogul said he was so appalled he went to his editor and told her that unless the letters policy was changed to prohibit ad hominem attacks, whether on gays, Muslims, Jews or any other group, he would quit the newspaper, explaining, “I’m Jewish. This is the same kind of things they said about Jews in Germany before the Holocaust.”
The editor, who hadn’t seen the letter before its publication, agreed it was well beyond the boundaries of acceptability, Ogul related. A policy prohibiting publication of letters with hate speech was adopted by the newspaper.
Some time later, Ogul left the Riverside newspaper to climb the career ladder – becoming assistant metropolitan editor on the larger San Diego Union-Tribune at a higher rate of pay.
Married to a Catholic woman, and with a daughter who just last weekend had her bat mitzvah, Ogul is passionate yet flexible about many things. While theirs is an interreligious household, he wears a kippah and tzit tzit, and attends minyan daily at Tifereth Israel Synagogue. He is a passionate fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers, and not even working in a city where the San Diego Padres are the local favorites, can shake his loyalty.
As the assistant metropolitan editor of the San Diego Union-Tribune, Ogul says newspapers have a responsibility to serve their readerships notwithstanding the economic stresses under which they are laboring.
To those who criticize the many changes made by the San Diego Union-Tribune after its change in ownership, Ogul has a rejoinder. Since Platinum Equity purchased the newspaper from the Copley family, the newspaper has stepped up its role as a community watchdog, covering stories that might not have received any attention under the previous owners, he said.
As an example, he told of reporters routinely checking expense accounts at a school district in the southern part of San Diego County and noticing that board meetings often were preceded by catered lunches. What was discussed at these lunches? reporters wanted to know. Could these lunches have been a time when agendas—and possibly decisions—were previewed by board members? Shouldn’t these luncheon meetings be monitored by the public under California’s open meetings law?
Another watchdog story concerned how, in various public agencies, employees are permitted to accumulate sick leave and then receive lump sum payments for that time which was unused. But the newspaper’s watchdog team decided to ask whether such a policy encourages employees to show up on the job when they are sick and possibly contagious
With newspapers under increasing competition from websites which provide instantaneous news, there is a shift in the role newspapers assign to themselves, Ogul said. If all goes according to theory, the San Diego Union-Tribune’s companion website—Sign On San Diego—gets the breaking news first, whereas analysis of that story is written for the columns of the next morning’s edition of the newspaper.
It doesn’t always work out that way, Ogul said. There are occasions when a busy staff doesn’t have the time to get the news onto the website before it gets into the newspaper.
Even though they make profits, newspapers don’t earn nearly as much as they did in previous days, Ogul observed. This has had its impact both on news coverage and news personnel. Bureaus such as the one the San Diego Union-Tribune in concert with other Copley Newspapers had maintained in Washington D.C. have closed. Senior reporters were laid off in favor of hiring newer reporters who would work for considerably less salary.
Two journalists who had worked at the Union-Tribune prior to the change in ownership, in fact, attended the seminar that Ogul gave. One was Jeff Ristine, a near-30-year veteran of the Union-Tribune, who now is engaged in a freelance writing project in connection with Grossmont College’s upcoming 50th anniversary. The other was Anne Krueger, who now is a communications specialist for the Grossmont-Cuyuamaca Community College District. Both had worked closely with Ogul prior to the change in ownership so the seminar had some nostalgic overtones. (My own experience as a Union-Tribune reporter, from 1972 to 1980, had long preceded both the change in ownership and Ogul’s tenure on that newspaper.)
The students in the Media Communications 132 class that I teach quite naturally were interested to learn how they can get jobs in journalism, with Ogul advising them that if they are willing to work for less than they might earn in other fields, they should build up portfolios as freelance writers.
Ogul also explained how journalistic “beat systems” work— someone who covers multiple school districts in the eastern and southern portions of the county, he said, needs to be familiar with what is coming up at each school board’s meeting. Over time, the beat reporter should get to know board members, administrators, staff members and student activists from each school district well enough that they will be willing to confide in him or her. In such manner, reporters can learn in advance when important stories might break, and arrange to be on hand to cover them.
Twitter also offers a good way for beat reporters to keep abreast of far-flung agencies, Ogul said. By watching what key contacts write on their Twitter accounts, one can also be tipped off to developing news stories.
Today, many newspapers have television partners—for example the San Diego Union-Tribune and KGTV, Channel 10, advise each other of the stories they are working on, and sometimes will quote each others’ reporters as those stories develop.
Many new organizations also are having reporters carry small video cameras on assignment in order to have accompanying video with the stories they put on the web.
However, there is debate in the industry over whether online video is such a good idea, Ogul said.
If people want to see video, he said, they probably will go to YouTube, rather than to a newspaper’s website. Ogul noted that editing and processing the video takes time – and if it doesn’t drive more viewers to the website – the question is whether video clips are worth the extra expenditure.
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Harrison is the editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted at donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com