National Association of Black Journalist

And so where this story is headed is that opportunity at Johnson's [Johnson Publishing Company, Chicago, Illinois] it came really quick, really quick. So that's a good thing, and it's a bad thing because if you're young and you get all of that all at once, then I've seen all of this, what else is there? You're not really striving to have a bunch of experiences that it takes people at mainstream newspapers years to get to. And I'm getting it all in these concentrated bursts, so that's--$$So you become managing editor in what year? Do you remember? How long had you been there?$$It wasn't--not long. It was--so I, I'm fairly certain the copy editor was '76 [1976]. So this would have been '77 [1977] or '78 [1978].$$Right, because I have you returning back to The Pittsburgh Press in '77 [1977]. So you're managing editor before you go back to The Pittsburgh Press. That's hu- do you think because you were anointed by your, you know your father [George Brown] and, and people? And then the other was you probably were working hard.$$Oh, yeah, it was working, yeah. Yeah you worked hard.$$Like how?$$Late hours. The--the amount of work--$$Give a typical day or week. I mean what was involved with even putting that publication together?$$So let's say leaving aside original stories that you did yourself. Well we had a box of clips from other newspapers 'cause Jet is a digest, first and foremost. So you'd rewrite these clips and lots of them. And then you'd make them--you know you'd make them fit in the design and--so just a lot of work every day and a lot of stress because you, you're trying to do what's right. Then you've got to do original work. So you know you'd do some travel and, and, and all that other work would be waiting for you. No one else would do your work for you while you were gone. So just--it was intense. But it wasn't, it wasn't fulfilling. That, that kind of work wasn't fulfilling me, so I needed--$$Now why was that? Because it's so short, the writing is so short?$$Yeah. It was, it was--once you master that. I mean once the game, the game is to be as much fun with it unless it's again, a tragedy or something, to have as much fun with it as you can. But it had to be dignified. So once you master that thing and what's there for you, okay to do longer form journalism. But I didn't want to be a reporter ultimately. I like writing, didn't like reporting. And I'm a very introspective person. And so I--rather than deny it and deny it, I just embraced it and said, okay I--$$So how long--so the format--'cause you know they have the--what is the play girl, play, play--the Beauty of the Week, the Beauty of the Week. They still have the Beauty of the Week.$$Yes they do.$$Even it, you know today.$$Right, back from the [HistoryMaker] Lamonte McLemore, who was the 'Up, Up and Away.'$$The 5th Dimension.$$Yeah, 5th Dimension. You know he used to shoot most of them.$$He did?$$For a long time. Yeah matter of fact, once I picked up a Jet after not having seen it a while, I said, "Oh, oh it's a new name in the Jet centerfold."$$I see, I never knew that. He did the--he shot them?$$Yes he did.$So when you, when you come--become the national foreign news editor, that seems like--that's a big deal.$$Right, and so, so what that is was a, was a heavy duty quality control. I wasn't, I wasn't determining what was going to go in the paper. News editor was sort of a you know I had to, I had to schedule people and I had to, you know I was responsible for accuracy and I was responsible for evaluations of the production side, the, the, the assigning editors and the--but the correspondence, they all reported to the national editor and the foreign editor. So you know we--and, and we had to get the newspaper in on time, so I was a--I had to crack the whip on deadlines and stuff like that. That's what that job was, not, not determining what went in the paper. That comes later.$$Comes later, okay. So tell, tell your, tell the rest of the things, 'cause I have you metro chief for Rosemont [Illinois], national foreign copy editor, overnight page editor. You know and in this time I think Jack Fuller takes, I mean--and he's, he's probably--I mean his name became somewhat legendary. I remember his--$$Yeah, he, he's a, he's a novelist too, right. So yeah it's about this time, to answer your question you asked a long time ago, so who's looking out for Geoff [HistoryMaker Geoff Brown]? So Howard Tyner who was the foreign editor, he took a liking to me because again, conscientious sense of humor and all that kind of stuff. And he was one of those kind of people who would actually take an interest in how things worked. So he wanted to know how the copy desk worked. So I told him, you know, and he'd praise our headlines when they were good and slam them when they were bad. But for the most part, I didn't take it personally. That's what derails a lot of people, that they can't take criticism so they you know, they bite back and whatnot. It's like, "Okay you didn't like it, tell me what you didn't like about it, okay." And you and--you don't repeat the, the--your mistake. Well he--and then he start--so he's sitting off like the side saying, "We ought to do something with this guy." Bless his heart. So one day he gets to be--I think he runs--he, he winds up going over to features because that was the, the track. So Jack Fuller had been executive editor of features, and then he became the editor and they were trying to groom Howard for the same thing. So he went over to features. Meanwhile, I'm out--they decide now I, I've gone to--when I was a news editor, they said, "Okay well we wanna see you become a manager and you know, to man the troops. So we're gone put you in Rosemont." That was--they cooked up that scheme for Geoff and so I wound up being a bureau chief, which is where I meet Jerry Thomas. And, and while I hated every single moment of it, I have to say that that experience was probably the most important in my development because as a bureau chief, you have to chase fire engines and you have to deploy the troops and you have to stay there all night until the story gets done. And, and if it's not done right, it's on you. Now what I didn't like about it was chasing fire engines. All the rest of it, I dug it, right. So I managed to talk myself into returning back downtown where national, I'm just on the national foreign desk. And then Howard says, "Why don't you come work in features?" And there was this thing called the overnight page, and that was the entertainment page. And funny moment, he says, "So I, I don't know if you're into this stuff." I said, "Well, you haven't seen my resume, but that's pretty much all I did before I came to the Tribune [Chicago Tribune]." So I had an affinity for it. So that's how I got--and I wasn't--here's the thing. I wasn't too ashamed to say I really--I'm getting depressed from doing this job. I hate this so much. So can I please be relieved of it? So they were able to do it without the--but you know a lot of people asked me, "Well then didn't you think that would derail your career?" Well when you hate something that much, you don't care. I wasn't a careerist, so I got, I keep getting promoted anyway.