A little background. If you've never read the editorial pages of the DMN before, you have no idea just how eye-glazing a newspaper can be. Under Rena Pederson, the former editorial page editor, it was, despite Mong's protests to the contrary, a horrible example of what happens when socialites pose as journalists. It meandered, it never took tough positions, it was predictably conservative (and not in the interesting, let's-all-be-entertained-by-the-nutjob way that op-ed columnist William Murchison is predictably conservative).
When Pederson, now an editorial writer at large, stepped aside, Mong formed a one-man search committee for a replacement. He knew he had to make his mark on this section, one that would reverberate not only within the community but within the paper. He called friends and read other papers on the Internet. The Arizona Republic's Keven Ann Willey is who he found.
Mark Graham
Editor Bob Mong wants to be engaged with his staff, to the point that he's put a desk in the newsroom for himself. "I think it scares the hell out of the other editors," one reporter says.
Mark Graham
James Moroney III is a third-generation Dallas Morning News publisher. Weaned on broadcast principles, Moroney, says one reporter, "is the one pushing the paper north."
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What she has done in a few months' time is remarkable. She has breathed life into a cadaver. Editorials, always known for their wishy-washy Charlie Brown qualities ("On the one hand, we never much cared for the Holocaust..."), have become simple, forceful and direct, telling people, yes, we need this bond package. Or, in suggesting that the city clean up the convention and visitors bureau, saying that, "This proud city has much more to offer conventioneers than booze and strippers." I mean, she's dead wrong, but at least it's an opinion, something missing from the opinion pages for 20 years. She's done it with the same staff, and she hasn't let the paper's butt-kissing history deter her.
"I'm being asked to take what I did in Phoenix and do it bigger and better here," Willey says. "It's a challenge, yes, but I'm not reinventing myself. I want to infuse the pages with more energy, making arguments more crisp, stimulate debate, have people talk about the issues we bring up so we can make the community better."
And what about the fact that one reporter tried to bet me 20 bucks that she wouldn't last two years, because she steps on too many bigwig toes? "I've gotten nothing but positive feedback internally on what we're doing," she says.
"I'd be more than happy to take that bet with anybody," Moroney says. "Since she's been here, we've witnessed more clearly written, more cogent editorials than we've had in the past. We've stepped on toes. There is not one editorial we've not supported. The idea that Robert Decherd is running the editorial department--I see him regularly, and he's never said, 'Who is writing that damned editorial?' Robert has a tremendous amount of trust in me and Bob Mong...Let's put it this way: If she's going to be gone, they'll probably throw me and Bob out beforehand. We'll be the ones looking for jobs."
Remember, Mong says his challenge is "an exciting one."
Yeah, exciting. Wheee.
This is excitement? Seriously?
All the carping, the navel-gazing, the plaintive wailing about why we can't write great stories, all that isn't a tenth of what Mong has to deal with right now. He's got big national media buying away his best reporters. (CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, the Chicago Tribune and New York Newsday are recent destinations for former Metropolitan reporters.) He's got a Sports section that confuses being the biggest in the country with being the best. The average 8-year-old is more attuned to popular culture than its Texas Living section, which gave the stupid-fun of The Osbournes an "F" grade and the stupid-stupidness of Shanghai Knights a "B." He's got an increasingly young, media-savvy audience that knows it can find more sports columns on ESPN.com, more business insight in The Wall Street Journal, more humor in The Onion, more political analysis on Slate.com, more job ads and classified ads and real estate listings and Columbia disaster information and even timely news in the Morning News right there on its computer. (Which is why there are a million registered users of dallasnews.com, 750,000 of whom never read the hard copy.) And, don't forget, he's got 600-plus reporters and editors to bottle-feed, at a cost of more than $50 million a year. Hooray, it's a party.
"We are still important. We can still make a huge difference," Mong says. "Do we really have enough people who believe that we can get better? A lot better? We're a very good paper. Can we become great? What I'm betting on here is that's what most of them want. Most people come in here wanting to make a difference and be the best at what they do. We could sit back and roll along and put out a pretty good paper. But I don't think that's what anybody wants. It's not what I want.
"So I'm betting. I'm betting that the energy level is there and the aggressiveness is there, the collaboration is there, the willingness to do more is there. That's the big bet."
