From the editor’s desk
Published 8:00 am Saturday, September 30, 2023
- Jason Hogge pauses to talk about his mural project on Friday, Sept. 8, 2023, outside the main entrance to Cook Memorial Library, La Grande.
The hours can be long, and at any time of the day or night. The pay is not that good. The skill set this work takes for that pay? You could argue sane people would walk.
So what keeps reporters in this job?
The stories, the thrill of the hunt for a good one, and the people we report on and work with, that’s all part of it.
But often good reporters are introverts, the person who would rather sit in the back of the room and listen, gather information and ask questions after sussing out what someone said.
And good reporters have a little Sherlock Holmes in them. They see the details others don’t or take for granted.
Most reporters are not debonair, many need fashion help, they are not going to the party to be the life of it but to see the lives taking place there. And they know all those around them have something worth reporting on.
With election-filing season here, reporters are going to apply those skills and characteristics to reveal to you who candidates are, and not just what party they belong to or platform positions they hold. We’ll have plenty of those stories in the weeks ahead.
The Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association just held its annual conference and celebrated the best of what we do. Our newspaper did pretty well. And you’ll read about that on our website and in print.
But you probably won’t hear a reporter say much about it.
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Finally, let me take this opportunity to once again thank The Observer’s subscribers: We simply would be unable to do this vital work without your support.
Andrew Cutler is the interim editor of The Observer.
