Veteran publisher eyes changes in media
by Rhina Guidos, Outpost staff
Warren
Lerude
Warren Lerude was born in Reno, graduated from the
local journalism school, got his first job at the local
newspaper, became its editor and later its publisher, and in
1977, along with two other journalists, won Nevada's first
Pulitzer prize. He gave up his reins at the newspaper and
began teaching at Reynolds School of Journalism, where his
long ride in newspapering started.
OCCUPATION: Journalism professor.
RENO NATIVE
He was editor of the Reno Evening Gazette in the 1970s, when Reno was a two-newspaper town. Lerude helped the Reno Evening Gazette and the Nevada State Journal merge to become the Reno Gazette-Journal.
It is a much different world nowadays with only one newspaper in town, he said.
"You had a certain vibrancy that you don't have now (with one newspaper)," Lerude said. "There was some vivaciousness. We were extremely competitive. (But) now instead of sending two reporters to the same event, you can free up that second person to do investigative reporting."
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Life is much quieter in academia than in the
boiling world of the newsroom. |
The world inside the newsroom also has changed since he was an editor almost 20 years ago.
"People today have vastly better tools," he said. "We didn't use computers. Everything has changed. Everything was much more intuitive then than today. Editors used to make more solitary decisions. They got paid to edit. But today they get more people involved in the decision making process."
But the basics are still the same, Lerude concluded.
"When it comes to dedication and devotion, those things don't change. Great editors are always good editors, good journalists are always good journalists."
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Ranchers |
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Journalists |
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Bookstore owners |
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Posted Dec. 16,
1999
Copyright 1999, Nevada Outpost
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