PASSION & WORK

Got to Minneapolis last Saturday, in time for the Minnesota Daily's annual awards and alumni dinner.  I cut my journalism teeth at the Daily in the '70s, at the height of Watergate, when everyone wanted to be a journalist. We watched Nixon resign, all huddled over the lone TV in the newsroom.

I actually got my foot in the door at the Daily as a rock and roll reviewer. Jon Bream, then Arts & Entertainment editor, hired me because he thought it would be novel for a girl to cover rock, and the rest, as they say, is history. I ultimatley succeeded JB as A&E editor, did some rock and roll radio before going to law school, and then landed at San Francisco's The Recorder -- beginning my 23-year stint at ALM. Bream's been at the StarTribune for more than 30 years now, as its authoritative music critic.  (Here's his review of the eclectic Nellie McKay concert at Dakota April 6.)

The keynote speaker for the Daily's event was the venerable, veteran Jim Ragsdale, who heads up the St. Paul Pioneer Press' editorial pages. He gave a thoughtful, guarded, warm speech encouraging the young journalists to be flexible as print media morphs into digital, and advised them that they, unlike their elders, probably will NOT find their careers dominated by a single employer. It was timely, and appropriate.

As awards were given out to the year's top staffers, I was struck at how almost all the presentations were stressing the business side of the Daily, and especially on new media "forms of content" (the emergence of digital, etc.). The word "employee" was mentioned frequently, as the plaques honoring hard work were handed out. The top editorial award went to a production staffer, but there was no statement made about why she won it, other than she worked hard.

Afterwards, I was puzzled by my reaction to the evening, until it struck me. During the entire event, no one REALLY talked about journalism. About the passion and drive you need to get the story, report it carefully and right, quickly make corrections; not be afraid to take on established entities. The whole important, vital role of the "fourth estate" -- to monitor power: the government, the agencies, the people who have it, to protect the rights of all.

Granted, I, too, have been obsessed with the forms of content, as Law Technology News quickly evolves into a multi-media enterprise with podcasts, webinars, blogs, etc. And as I recently said on Kevin O'Keefe's Real Lawyers Have Blogs Q&A, journalists are not the only sources of important content.

But it does trouble me that the youngsters in Minnesota, traditionally a nurturing ground of world-class journalists, seem more concerned with running a business than generating excellent journalism. When JB and I paced the worn concrete floors of Murphy Hall, we would have been appalled at being called employees. We were reporters and editors. (Nor did our meager wages hardly qualify us to be employees).

Hopefully that's just a glitch, and at next year's awards session, we'll hear more about the STORIES they produced and less about the mechanics of story production.

(No slight intended to the important business-side folks.)