Kudos to Al Neuharth, who preached media diversity

Al Neuharth has passed away. He was 89.

Neuharth was a giant of a newsman. He was also a self-described SOB who wrote a book --  "Confessions of an S.O.B." -- to prove it.

Neuharth, who is known as the founder of USA TODAY and who wrote a column for that newspaper until the end of his life, was one of the reasons I went to work at USA TODAY and Gannett 27 years ago.

Whenever  Neuharth, also at the time Gannett's CEO, and a few other senior Gannett officials would give an interview or speak to industry leaders about any topic, he would always find a way to weave into his talk the value Gannett placed on having women and people of color hold positions on every level in the company. Neuharth's position spoke to the very core of my own belief, that staff diversity is a way to ensure that journalists report with accuracy.

He was the venerable example of someone who didn't just talk about diversity, but he made sure his company's managers were held accountable for diversity. For a long time, that  culture filtered down through the organization. And he took that culture with him when he later became chairman of the Freedom Forum, which asked me to become the founding executive director of the Freedom Forum Diversity Institute at Vanderbilt University in 2000.

Gannett's current CEO, Gracia Matore said this of Neuharth in a statement: "Al was many things -- a journalist, a leader, a serial entrepreneur, and a pioneer in advancing opportunities for women and minorities."

He was that and so much more.

Obituary of Al Neuharth: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/04/19/al-neuharth-newspaper-founder-dies-at-89/2097995/

As editors: Oh, the places we have been and the stories we have been able to tell

Ronnie Agnew and Wanda Lloyd at Jackson State University's Media Day 2013

What happens when two former newspaper editors get together?

A lot of war stories are told.

That was the case this week when I traveled to Mississippi to be the keynote speaker for Mass Communications Day at Jackson State University. The highlight, of course, was the ability to spend time with the students and impart whatever knowledge and advice I could share in about 30 minutes.

But a personal highlight, for me was reconnecting with Ronnie Agnew, former executive editor of the Jackson Clarion Ledger. A member of the university's mass comm program's advisory board, Ronnie was there to introduce me.

Ronnie is now executive director of Mississippi Public Broadcasting. He was executive editor of the Jackson newspaper for nine years, and managing editor there before that. 

When we sat at the luncheon table and looked at the printed program and my bio on page two, I mentioned to Ronnie that I hoped he was not planning to read that entire bio. He said "I didn't even see that bio until I got here today. I won't use any of it."

When the time came, Ronnie made the best intro of me that I've ever had. It was personal, professional and warmly presented. One thing he shared was that he was present when I won two major awards for media diversity, awards presented with a decade between them. I had no memory that Ronnie was present for either of them -- the Ida G. Wells award or the Robert G. McGruder award.

Now that we've both left daily newspaper newsrooms, Ronnie and I had a great old time talking about some of the highlights and low lights of our days as editors -- two of very few African Americans who have held these positions. Who knows, we may need to collaborate someday and speak together. Younger generations of journalists need to understand what it takes to get to be a top editor, how to keep those jobs and how to make a difference in communities.

More about Ronnie Agnew: http://mpbonline.org/About/executive_management

Forever friends -- in writing and in life

Tina McElroy Ansa (left) and Wanda Lloyd -- in our younger years

Do you have a close friend that you don't hear from for a long, long time, and then when you do get on the phone together, it is almost like it was yesterday when you last spoke?

I had that experience this week when I got a call from my college roommate, Tina McElroy Ansa. We talked for more than an hour.

Tina and I were assigned as roommates our freshman year at Spelman College. The college housing office paired us back in the day when there was no Facebook, no Internet and most of us didn't even use "long distance" to touch base on the phone. We wrote a few letters over the summer after we got our room assignment but met for the first time on the day we moved into the dorm.

Tina and I had a lot in common. We both came from middle-income families in Georgia -- me from Savannah and Tina from Macon. We both had families who instilled strong moral values in us and we both had family members who had been Spelman women before us.. We were both planning to major in English and we both liked to read.

But that's about where the similarities ended. Tina was charming and willing to try new experiences in life. My personality was more serious and stilted and I thrived on planning and organization. Tina showed up with just her clothes and personal items, but she figured we would probably go shopping for room stuff like bedspreads for our twin beds. I showed up with matching bedspreads and, if memory serves me, curtains or something like that for the room (like anybody needs curtains in a dorm room).

Tina enjoyed a good card game at night down the hall; I stayed behind in our room to work on long-term assignments that were not even due for another week or two. Tina pulled some midnight oil to study; I was usually asleep by 9 p.m. I made up my bed every morning; Tina didn't, asking "why, when I'm just going to get back in it tonight?"

Despite our differences, we both found our way to journalism and writing as career choices. Our rooming days ended after the first year but we are closer than ever today. Tina and I both worked for the Cox Atlanta papers back in the 1970s. For a short time we were even apartment next-door neighbors in Atlanta.

These days our conversations are about writing and changes in the media and publishing industries. I stayed with journalism, having worked for seven daily newspapers over my career. Tina left the newspaper business because she wanted to wrote novels. She has been extremely successful at it. ("Baby of the Family," "Ugly Ways" and "Taking After Mudear" are three of her literary jewels).

These days we talk about good writing and bad manners. We laugh and cry on the phone, depending on whether we are mourning the loss of our youth (arthritis is a popular new topic for us) or the funny antics of our husbands, who tend to make us laugh uncontrollably when we all get together.

Now as we face our golden years, we sometimes find ourselves having to remind each other of names or circumstances, memory not being what it was when we were 18 years old with almost all of our futures ahead of us. But we are mighty proud of each other's personal and professional accomplishments, and we constantly remind ourselves of the value of this long-term friendship.

To learn more about Tina McElroy Ansa and her writing, go to http://www.tinamcelroyansa.com/