By J.R. Labbe
jrlabbe@star-telegram.com
Put all the high-tech flat-screens and digital devices you want into a modern newsroom, the place will still smell like paper.
Clean, woody freshness.
For 20 years, I've been inhaling that smell courtesy of the
Star-Telegram. If mental accomplishment had an odor, that would be it.
There aren't many industries that produce an entirely new product -- not just reproductions of the same thing -- every 24 hours. It takes smart, focused, deadline-oriented people who thrive in such an environment. It's been my privilege to work for two decades with writers, editors, designers and photographers who every day committed damn good journalism.
The fruit of all that labor is a vital community asset that's often underappreciated by its detractors and roundly criticized by even its supporters: the local newspaper. Undeterred, my colleagues have continued to not only entertain and inform, but keep tabs on the powerful, give voice to the voiceless and hold government accountable.
Should a free press ever disappear, this community would be much the poorer.
On Friday, I will be leaving one valuable Fort Worth institution that was founded in 1906 to join another whose roots date back to the same year: JPS Health Network.
Every journalist who retires or moves on to something else thinks back on the stories that mattered. I never measured the impact of what I wrote by the number of awards I received from my peers. Those are nice, don't get me wrong. But it is more rewarding to know that my expressed thoughts helped bring about change, even if it was only in how readers thought about an issue.
It was an honor to be part of the effort that resulted in the city's adoption of the Directions Home plan to make chronic homelessness rare, short-term and non-recurring in our county.
I was thrilled the day John Purkey at Veterans Industries called to say a column generated requests from area companies interested in partnering with his agency to provide work for homeless veterans and those at risk of finding themselves that way.
After the Texas Legislature passed a bill in 2007 allowing cities to establish 1,000-foot alcohol-free zones around homeless shelters and substance-abuse centers, then-Fort Worth City Manager Dale Fisseler and City Homeless Coordinator Otis Thornton thanked me for the editorial and column on the topic with a 40-ounce Steel Reserve malt liquor. I kept the unopened bottle in the brown paper bag it came in and the $2.19 receipt on my office bookshelf for years until it turned cloudy.
The editorial and column campaign to energize North Texans into persuading then-U.S. Navy Secretary Donald Winter to name a ship after Fort Worth will pay off Sept. 22, when the USS Fort Worth is commissioned in the Port of Galveston.
I joined the
Star-Telegram in 1992, at the start of one of the last great American newspaper wars.
The Dallas Morning News' westward push into Tarrant County triggered a hiring spree to staff an Arlington newsroom. The four years that followed, until I moved downtown for a brief stint as city editor before going back to the Editorial Board, were magical. Beating the media empire to the east was the mission that fueled our competitive juices and an amazing collegiality. We played as hard as we worked and in the process developed bonds that remain strong, even when some of us move on to other pastures.
The last three years as editorial director have been a challenge, but not because of the incredibly gifted and compassionate writers it has been my privilege to lead. Linda Campbell, Mike Norman, Bob Ray Sanders and Bud Kennedy are the collective conscience of this newspaper, and I will miss them.
While my responsibilities as vice president of communications and community affairs at JPS will differ greatly from what I've been doing the past 20 years -- and the irony of going from inflicting pain on government employees to being a government employee is not lost -- my love for this community and the people who call it home will not.
I'm looking forward to using the skills God has so generously given me to continue to make a positive difference in their lives.
Jill "J.R." Labbe is editorial director of the Star-Telegram -- until Friday. 817-390-7599Twitter: @jrlabbe55
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