Rob Curley: Finding inspiration in vibrant, dedicated newsroom

The world is filled with constant change and consistent chaos, so there are times when you can’t help but feel thankful for tradition. Something reliable. And with substance.

Today’s nearly 3-pound edition of The Spokesman-Review is filled with long-standing legacies for Turkey Day papers, as well as a few more contemporary customs.

It wouldn’t be a Thanksgiving Day newspaper if it wasn’t stuffed with ads featuring deeply discounted goods aimed at our holiday gift-giving needs. For the fourth year in a row, we’ve jumped back in time to make the front pages of all of our different sections reminiscent of newspapers from another era. The paper also is packed with lots of local stories loaded with gratitude, heart, history and inspiration.

While working on today’s edition, our newsroom also began preparing for one of our other more recent traditions – the 10 Difference Maker stories we run on our front page to end the year. Putting together that list of uplifting people and organizations who have made our community a better place over the past year is one of the most important things we do.

We’re here to document the living history of this region, both the good and the bad. It’s just that the way news historically works; it’s much easier for newspapers to fill their front pages with the bad. That’s how news has traditionally been defined. The more awful the story is, the bigger the headline.

And those stories are hugely important for a reason and need to be told. Now more than ever.

It’s just that our world isn’t completely filled with badness. If you don’t believe me, then watch a young family go skating at Riverfront Park for the first time. Or watch how our region comes together behind our beloved Bulldog basketball teams. Or watch a local group pack gift baskets to send to our troops overseas.

Front pages ought to look like our hometown, which means maybe they shouldn’t just be filled solely with bureaucracy, body bags and lawbreakers. Our Difference Makers series gives us an opportunity to focus on generosity, grace and goodwill.

These stories are not only important for the region, but for our newsroom as well. When you write about a lot of unsavory things, it’s critical to remember there is a lot of good in the world.

I get to see many of these sorts of difference makers everyday, without even leaving my desk in the middle of the newsroom.

Journalists totally make a difference in their communities.

Journalism, especially local journalism, is hard work with little job security. The feedback reporters receive for telling their neighbors what has happened each day is almost always negative. You should listen to their voicemails. Now you know why the annual surveys of the worst jobs in the nation always list reporter as among the worst jobs.

Despite all of that, I watch how our journalists inspire me nearly every day. They are the reason that at a time when local newspapers around the country are watching subscriptions plummet, our readership numbers look very different. It’s no accident that Editor & Publisher magazine recently named The Spokesman-Review one of the 10 newspapers that “do it right.”

If I listed all of the stories, photos, graphics and page designs that warmed my heart in the past year or so, it would take up more space than the owners of this newspaper are going to allow me on the biggest advertising day of the year. Then there’s all of the fantastic work that our completely overworked copy desk does every night. On deadline.

So, instead, let me tell you about all of those in our newsroom who were honored by their peers across the nation.

As our managing editor Joe Palmquist noted, our newspaper didn’t enter very many contests this year. We had our fewest entries in years, which is understandable when you’re so darn busy. Contests don’t seem like a huge priority, because they’re simply not. Even considering that, The Spokesman-Review punched way above its weight class in this year’s newspaper honors.

If you’ve visited the Newseum in Washington, D.C., over the past few years, you’ve likely seen one of our front pages lined across the front of the museum focused on the importance of media and the First Amendment.

The reason why you see our front pages so often at a museum that stands next to the Smithsonian Institute buildings on the National Mall is because our photographers and designers are so talented. We stand out in a crowd.

The Best of the West is one of the most prestigious news contests in the nation. With nearly 1,000 entries a year from the largest and smallest newspapers in the 14 states west of the Rockies, even placing in the Best of the West can be a career-defining moment for most journalists.

For her incredible images from “Overnight at the Hope House,” Kathy Plonka won third place in the Best of the West news photo gallery category. The photographers ahead of her were both from newspapers in two of the nation’s Top 30 markets.

The judges immediately understood the nuanced nature of Kathy’s photos, as they vibrantly showed all of the intimate details and difficulties encountered every night by the homeless as they try to find a safe place to sleep.

“The series starts where the story starts, in line waiting for the overnight facility to open,” judges wrote. “We meet Heather Thomas-Taylor, director of the facility, as a crowd of women begins to congregate in front of the shelter. From this moment, we move throughout the facility as night falls and are introduced to different women, braiding their hair, sharing a laugh and a smoke, or eating leftovers.

“We are reminded that homelessness is a complex issue that is often reduced into a choice, or a bad decision someone made in their life. One of the strengths of Plonka’s piece is that it shows humanity and personality and reveals each individual’s story, which are elements often overlooked when reporting about homelessness.”

She won for the very reason we all love seeing her photos in our newspaper every day – they show what real life looks like in our community. And Kathy does it at the highest level.

Spokesman-Review photographer Tyler Tjomsland also placed third in Best of the West in the feature photography category for his images for our story about fire Capt. Maeve Griffith, who is transgender.

We know how much our readers love those huge puzzle sections that we publish a couple of times a year. We just didn’t know the Best of the West judges would love them, too. Our newspaper’s assistant managing editor for design, Chris Soprych, won third place for best use of informational graphics for the full-page word search puzzle he designed and built for the cover of one of our special puzzle sections.

“This is a really neat way to start off the section,” the judge wrote about Chris’ work, which is how we feel about his incredibly creative work on our front pages as well.

The Associated Press has a special regional contest for all newspapers in Utah, Idaho … and Spokane. Maybe we should all lobby that Seattle is likely good enough to be included in the future.

Regardless, our design and photo folks dominated in the multistate contest, with The Spokesman-Review’s legendary illustrator Molly Quinn getting the top award for graphic artists, Soprych getting first for best photo illustration and Dan Pelle getting the top spot for best news portrait of the year.

The Associated Press Sports Editors love their national polls. Case in point, the Gonzaga men’s team is currently ranked No. 8, while the GU women are ranked No. 22. But did you know the organization even ranks the best sports sections and sports stories in the nation?

Our annual basketball section – which in 2018 included a hand-drawn poster of the all-time Zags team … by height – was named one of the 10 best special sections of the year for newspapers of any size. Quinn’s illustration for that poster was named one of the 10 best sports illustrations of the year by the APSE.

Theo Lawson has quickly established himself as one of the best young college football writers in the nation. Theo’s powerful story surrounding the suicide of Washington State quarterback Tyler Hilinski was named one of the 10 best breaking news stories of the year.

The Blethen Awards are given annually to reward the best acts of journalism committed across all of the states that make up the Pacific Northwest. And in this year’s awards, Chad Sokol finished second in two categories – deadline reporting and investigative reporting.

For Chad’s story about a Liberty state fundraiser that included a silent protest by former backers of Matt Shea, judges called the story “great” and “told in a compelling way” – all done on deadline to make sure it made it into our newspaper’s print edition, not just our website.

Chad’s stories on suicides at the Spokane County Jail placed second in the investigative category.

“This was excellent reporting,” the judges wrote. “The personal family stories really tied this together. It illustrates not only the issues the person being jailed faces, but also the issues the family left behind has to deal with, as well as the jail guards. If there’s a will, there’s a way and this story illustrates that in a very personal, tragic way.”

Just as important, Chad’s reporting made a difference as officials worked to make significant changes at the jail.

This is what our newsroom does everyday. We want to inform, entertain and enlighten. We want to make a difference, and that’s what I’m thankful for today.