My college journalism mentor, the late L.W. “Tex” Plunkett, father of the outstanding journalism program at Arkansas State University, reached his decision to retire on the first day of school in the fall of 1973.
By then I had returned to my alma mater to teach journalism and advise the student newspaper, and I got to share an office with Tex for his last four years of teaching. That day was the first faculty meeting for the new College of Communications. Among other things the new dean, who had taught only a handful of courses at that point, told us there would be no more breaks during 90-minute classes.
Now Tex, who had spent 36 years in the classroom, had long since come to the stage of life where he needed a break in those long classes. So when we got back to the office, a flustered Tex said, “Roy, that’s it. I’m hanging it up.”
And he did — the following spring — leaving his legend as the foundation of the college.
A year later, I also left teaching to become a newspaper editor, and except for another short break for teaching, that’s what I’ve been doing since then. Now I’ve reached the same decision Tex did, though not as suddenly or for the same reason. Next month I will step down as editor of The Sun and retire as a newspaper editor.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
I announced this decision to my publisher of the past 15 years, David Mosesso, and to my staff a couple of months ago, and a national search has been under way, slowed by the year-end budget crunch and the holidays. But I didn’t set an absolute end date and pledged to help the new editor in his or her transition.
Understand that I’m not retiring as a journalist. Since January of 1958, my seventh-grade year at Hot Springs Junior High School, journalism has been a part of my life and will continue to be — whether it’s writing a weekly column, working on a book or doing some occasional free-lance writing and photography.
But I’m ready not to have a deadline every day. The best description of daily newspaper work is that it’s relentless — which brings both great excitement and pressure to those of us who work in the field. Every day we start fresh, and every day the news is different; at the end of the day we have something to show for our work.
Sometimes we cover heart-warming stories, like the time I was able to call a mother and tell her that her son, a soldier, had survived a plane crash in good shape. Sometimes we cover heart-breaking stories, such as a traffic accident I covered years ago in which a couple, on their way to a niece’s wedding with the cake, was killed when a drunk driver crossed the center line and crashed head-on into their vehicle a mile from the church.
Most importantly, a good newspaper reflects its community — the good and the bad, the beautiful and the ugly. We make mistakes just like everyone else, but our batting average is pretty high, and we keep our readers well-informed.
Newspapers have done this since the early days of our country and always will — in some form. Our industry is changing, and that’s nothing new.
When I started working for the Hot Springs daily newspapers after my junior year in high school, each page was composed in lead, so heavy that our printers had to be pretty stout to lift one. At one point the process changed to pages “pasted” together with photographic paper and wax. Now our pages are all done digitally on computers, to be transmitted to a huge computer that pairs them together on aluminum plates to be mounted directly on the press.
The editors of our Searcy and Paragould newspapers will do the same thing, remotely, so their editions can be printed on our press.
The only paper we use in the process, other than for page proofing, is the newsprint used when the press starts rolling, and there is no film. Eventually, that process will change, too. I know many of you, like me, prefer to have a newspaper in your hands, but I also like getting Cardinals news from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on my iPad.
The thing is, though, that newspapers will always deliver solid journalism in some form. Our communities, our state, our national democracy depend on it.
During my newspaper career I’ve had the privilege of working with many outstanding journalists — Edna Howe, Bob Dean, John Longinotti and Maurice Moore at Hot Springs; Larry O’Dell, Frank Fellone, Bill Darling and Jeff Porter at the Batesville Guard; Bill Newsom and Laura Shull at the Russellville Courier; Rick Fahr at Russellville and here; Keith Inman at all three newspapers I’ve edited, Carol Griffee as The Sun’s capital correspondent, John Robert Starr and Bill Simmons when they were with The Associated Press; columnists John Brummett, Steve Barnes, Robert McCord and Ernie Dumas; and other members of my current staff too numerous to mention.
I’ve also been honored to serve as president of three great organizations of journalists and newspaper folks — the Arkansas AP Managing Editors Association, the Arkansas Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and the Arkansas Press Association — and with each got to work with many more dedicated people.
All shared at least one thing in common — serving people through good journalism. I’m proud to have had a chance to work with them.
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Roy Ockert is editor of The Jonesboro Sun. He may be reached by e-mail at royo@jonesborosun.com.