As Managing Editor for Administration and Opinion, Jim Slusher oversees editorial writing, selection of syndicated columns and cartoons and letters to the editor for the Daily Herald Opinion Page. Working with an editorial board made up of top editors in the Daily Herald newsroom, he helps shape the newspaper's voice on subjects of interest to suburban readers, while seeking to present an engaging mix of opinions on broad social and political topics along with a forum for local residents to present their views on whatever topics they consider important.
Slusher took over leadership of the Opinion section in 2010. Previously, he had worked since 2003 as Metro Editor, helping supervise the most advanced reporting staff at the Daily Herald, developing investigative projects, cultural issues stories, coverage of major breaking news and enterprise stories on virtually all topics. Prior to assuming these duties, he produced and supervised programs promoting an atmosphere of learning at all levels in the Daily Herald's newsroom. His efforts ranged from regular critiques and one-on-one editing to a slate of specifically targeted workshops scheduled throughout the year.
Since 1999, Slusher has written a weekly column called "Letter to Readers" to help readers understand newsroom decisions and get to know the people who make them. The column won recognition for numerous awards over the years, and on the 25th anniversary in 2024, a topics-oriented selection was compiled and published in a book titled "To Nudge the World: Conversation, Community and the Role of the Local Newspaper." The Chicago Writers Association honored the book as its Indie Publishing Book of the Year for 2025.
Slusher has led workshops on journalism and newsroom leadership for various regional and national organizations, including the Inland Press Association, the American Newspaper Publishers Association, the Illinois Press Association, Northern Illinois Newspaper Association and the American Copy Editors Society., and he teaches a community education course in autobiographical writing at William Rainey Harper Community College.
When Slusher joined the Daily Herald as news editor in charge of the copy desk in 1989, it was a homecoming of sorts to his professional roots in Illinois. He and his wife Patty left San Diego, where he had worked three years as managing editor of an award-winning suburban daily, to return to the Midwest and start a family that would eventually include three boys, all of whom have now graduated from Prospect High School, achieved college degrees and gone on to pursue their own careers..
A 1974 graduate of Western Illinois University, Slusher taught high school English and journalism in western Illinois before taking a job as news director of a small Iowa radio station, followed by three years as a reporter and editor in Sterling, Ill., and seven years as a copy editor, reporter and assigning editor in Saginaw, Mich. His writing and projects he has overseen have been recognized with awards in Michigan, California and Illinois. In 2025, he also was honored with the Illinois Press Association's James C. Craven Freedom of the Press Award, honoring a journalist for a lifelong commitment to the principles of a free and open press.