When suburban news carries the day, it's a great day
Actual memo from me to the DuPage/Fox Valley staffs, edited for space:
DuPagers, Foxes,
I consider our day a success when the importance of the local news and/or the excellence of our local enterprise stories knock all wire copy off the front page. And, my buttons just burst with pride when that all-local front is the work of the DuPage and Fox staffs. Such was the case today.
Let me note the individual components:
• Part 2 of Katlyn Smith's Q&A with Geneva Reed-Veal, mother of Sandra Bland, the ex-Naperville resident who died under mysterious circumstances in a Texas jail. Katlyn was doggedly persistent in getting Reed-Veal to sit down for an interview. A Q&A looks easy, but if you look at the questions and the follow-ups - and the thoroughness of the interview - you can see how well-prepared Katlyn was.
• Susan Sarkauskas' coverage of Michael Szot's talk to Geneva High School students on how one terrible decision about driving while drunk and high ended two lives and pretty much destroyed his. Susan did a masterful job of putting together a gripping narrative. Judicious use of quotes. Excellent pacing through use of varied sentence lengths. A well-placed sentence fragment. And I love the way she segued from an ending passage to the next breakhead. Here are the latter two examples:
"I definitely was drunk. I definitely was not awake," he said. And so when Boddupalli told him to turn right at an intersection, he turned too late and drove off the road, at 30 mph, through some trees.
And into 45-foot-deep Quarry Lake.
Szot managed to undo his seat belt and float out through his open window as the car filled with water. He swam to shore, where someone pulled him out. Police arrived and began asking him: 'Why did you make this decision?'
Why indeed
The question haunts him today.
This is us at our best - a terrific combination of outstanding enterprise, great writing and exceptionally solid beat coverage. Now go out and do it all over again today!
I should hasten to add that I personally delight in an all-local front, and I love saluting the troops when they produce such captivating stories as the ones mentioned earlier. But the all-local Page 1 of Friday, May 13, simply isn't going to happen every day. The world is a big place, and we try to reflect that in our slogan, Big Picture/Local Focus. You may have noticed the phrase appears prominently across the top of Pages 2 and 3 every day. Indeed, on another day, we might very well have put stories about the Trump-Ryan meeting and the Obama administration's order on transgender student bathroom use on the front page. Both appeared at the top of Page 2.
Something else well worth mentioning: It's nice to celebrate such success, but we also can't rest on our laurels; each day is a new challenge. But I also want you to know that we continue to hone our craft.
There's much talk these days of news media becoming increasingly superficial scrounges for easy "click-bait" - finding stories, often with the lowest common denominator, that lead to the most online traffic. Yes, we study those metrics, too, and we are ever-mindful of sharing stories on social media, writing attention-getting headlines and all the necessities of the digital age.
But amid all these metrics, one thing also comes up repeatedly - and, frankly, it's one thing that keeps me going: We also hear there truly is reader interest in good writing, good reporting and stories that make a difference or are important in people's lives. One of the editorial department's goals this year is to improve our writing craft. "The Year of Strong Writing" is what we're calling it.
I hope that Thursday edition gave a taste of even better things to come.
jdavis@dailyherald.com