Juliana

Thill Schacherer: Copy Editor at Litchfield Independent Review

This interview was conducted on Jan. 28, 2011. Jon Collins: Thank you very much, Juliana, for talking to me, I appreciate it. Juliana Thill Schacherer: Not a problem. Collins: We should probably start at the beginning and you can tell me what your name is and what you do. Schacherer: Ok, my name is Juliana Thill Scahcherer. My married name is Schacherer. I am a copyeditor and page designer at the Litchfield Independent Review. So I edit stories, I write a few stories, and then I lay them out and design the pages. Collins: Where did you start in journalism? Schacherer: I started at the Red Wing Republican Eagle as a reporter and worked there for about 4 years and then went to the Rochester Post Bulletin and worked there for about 3 years. Went to Gillette Childrens Hospital, worked there for 1 year in public relations. Went to Good Age, which was a senior citizen publication that was in the Twin Cities. I was there about a year and then we moved to Woodbury. I worked at the St. Cloud Times for about 2 years, and Ive been at the Litchfield Independent Review. Collins: What, around what time did you start? Schacherer: I started in 1990 in Red Wing. Collins: When you started in Red Wing, what was the paper like? Schacherer: We were still downtown then. The offices were downtown and we worked on computers, on their big old computers, but the pages were pasted up in the back and it was a different time than it is now. Collins: Red Wings a smaller paper too. Schacherer: It was a daily, it was a six day a week, came out Mon-Sat. Its now changed to being coming out twice a week, but it was a town of about 13,000, didnt have any of the big box stores then or anything like it does now, so its changed a lot since Ive left. Collins: And how many staff were there when you starter out? Schacherer: Oh gosh, we had a sports reporter, a sports editor. There was myself, I covered City Hall. There was another woman who covered issues. Another woman who

covered county, a man who covered Wisconsin news, and then another one who covered sports and, or I mean Im sorry, like county government and schools. Collins: Were there older colleagues who were there who had been there beforehand? Schacherer: Yes, the woman who had been covering city council, her name was Ruth Near Haugen and she used to cover the city council and then she kind of trained me in, but she just retired this year, so shed been there for a while before Id even started and then we had a copyeditor, Jim Torvald and then our editor Jim Parvelo and so theyd been there a while too. Erin Albrecht whos the owner, hes still involved, and then Phil Duff, hes since passed. Collins: What was the other paper? Schacherer: The Rochester Post Bulletin and that was a larger staff, larger paper, I couldnt, I guess Id really have to think to tell you how big the staff was there, but at that point we became more specialized in what we covered and toward the end of the time when I was working there is when the internet was just coming on, where we were just starting to get emails and that was a new thing. Collins: Is there a difference between the culture of Red Wing and Rochester, in the newsroom there? Schacherer: Yes. I dont know how much I want to go into it, but it was a different culture. There were more people so there were more people to interact with, good and bad. There was a different process for how your stories were edited and more layers to go through than there was in Red Wing. Collins: Was there any old school print or journalist? Schacherer: Not so much, there were probably 30s, 40s, it was a pretty younger group for the most part that was dealing with your copy and that. And there was a woman that was a little bit older that did lifestyles, but she was pretty hip, so she handled it well. Collins: You went into some other professions for a while. Schacherer: Went into PR for one year, and then got back into journalism because I missed the writing and Collins: How did you feel about PR and crossing over to the dark side? Schacherer: It was really hard at first because I felt like when we had stories to tell, I wanted to be the one to tell it but I couldnt I had to share it with everyone else who got to tell it and break the news. But it gave me a new perspective as to how they deal with

the media. I dont think I could do PR for just anybody. Working at a childrens hospital there wasnt much bad. It was good stories that we told. It was children with disabilities who overcame that, so to me it was more positive stories that we dealt with. Collins: even since 1990 since you started working, how has PR become more prominent? Schacherer: I think its still the same, I think people see the value too, in using PR in terms of getting their message across, both large and small markets, and theres just more ways to do that with Facebook and Twitter, types of different avenues now. And with email that you can send out a press release so many more different ways than you can with just sending it to a newspaper or calling them. Collins: What do you do right now at the paper? What is your role? Schacherer: I work part time, I edit the stories. We have one reporter and then one sports editor and I dont handle the sports copy; he handles that with along our editor and general manager. He edits the sports stuff. But then so I edit the stories both that are from columnists that we have to just our reporter and then our editor and then I lay them out, I lay out the B section first, I also place all the ads on all the pages because we have such a small staff w dont have a separate advertising department that would do that, so I decide where the ads go. I just write the headlines, I write the subheads, all of that. Collins: Do you miss doing more reporting? Schacherer: there are times I do. Theres times when I see a really good story and its hard to let a reporter do it because Id really like to write that story, but at the same time, now Im a mom with kids and its ok that Im not at the forefront of everything, its kind of nice to just sit in the office and do the work and not be running around all the time. Collins: how has your workload changed? Schacherer: I was busy as a reporter when I was in Red Wing and Rochester and I loved that part, I wouldnt change that. Im glad I had that opportunity. When I was in St. Cloud I did copyediting and page design there and I really felt like I probably worked the hardest there almost because it was so intense and it was a daily and so the turnaround was so much faster, where was being at a weekly paper theres still turnaround and you still need to do stories even though youve got a week to do it. You just write more stories, you know youve got a week to do them, but youre still writing as many stories as if you were at a daily and so I dont feel, sometimes the pressures as great as it was when I was at St. cloud but at the same time, Tuesday nights when Im trying to get the paper done, if people dont have their stories to me by 5. I work all day and now I work all night so Im there until 2 in the morning sometimes laying out the paper and editing.

 Collins: So the approach that you take towards the journalism at a weekly, does it kind of contrast? Schacherer: Theres more of an immediacy sometimes at being at a daily. The news is obviously changing rapidly all the time and so at a daily youre trying to keep up with that. We didnt have as much of an online presence. We didnt have a website when I was there, but its definitely evolved more. You get stories out immediately now more so and youre more focused on that than we were 9 years ago when I was there. And it was a fun pace. Some people who have only worked in weeklies cant believe you can turn out a story in a day but you can. You can get things done and its an exciting environment to be in. at a weekly, the things, and when I was at Good Age, it was a monthly publication, and so its just a long time, but youre still working all that time to produce all that copy that would fill that too, but its a slower pace in a sense, but youre still working hard, I guess. Collins: Did you go to journalism school Schacherer: I did. I graduated from St. Cloud State University with a journalism. Collins: What attracted you to journalism in the fist place? Schacherer: I started when I was a senior in high school I was sports editor of our high school newspaper and my mom at the time was trying to help me find my niche. I knew sports wasnt it, and so she knew I liked writing, and did well in English and so I went into the newspaper there, and thats when I really loved it. So I started taking classes. I took a few broadcasting classes because I thought that would be fun, but I felt like I could tell a story better in print than I could in 15 seconds on TV. So I just felt like thats the way youre going, I enjoyed writing. Collins: Throughout your career, how have you seen the industry change? Especially in the suburbs, because you worked for small weeklies and dailies. Schacherer: Overall you compete now 24/7 with everybody else and so theres that more immediacy in terms of getting the news out and kind of breaking the news and everything too, you cant just sit on a story and hope that youre the first one to break it later. You have to just kind of break it online. Like I said when I worked at Rochester, we were just getting internet and emailing and it was such a new thing then and then it got, as I worked in PR, and then back in journalism again, it changed so rapidly. I look back now and think, how nervous everyone in the news room was to send an email and not sure how to do it and how to get online and I just remember it was so slow to get online back in the late 90s and I thought, is this ever going to take off if you have to sit around and wait for it, and now youve got it on your iphone and you can check everything. So its everything, changed yeah in terms of how we get the news out.

 Collins: Were there any times during your career that youve seen thing, you know in newsrooms, things happen, sources, relationships with sources, and relationships with publisher that made you think oh, this is dangerous territory, Schacherer: no I dont think I had ethically problems. Having ethics was always a big thing for me. I used to be, I was president of the Minnesota Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, and we have a code that we follow, so that was always really important. I guess I cant think of anything where I questioned it. There were times obviously disagreed with decisions that are made by management, but in the end now looking back I can see why they made some of those too and sometimes being the young reporter and so ambitious and you think the whole world is covering something up and s you get a little older, some people still are, but not everybody is. Collins: From that position, do you think that some of impressions changed as its become more digital? Schacherer: Maybe with some people I think theressome of its hard with especially online I guess and that may be the journalist ethics but in terms of in a newspaper you had letters to the editor signed and now its all anonymous people that can spout off about anything and we allow that and its hard from a when you grew up where you had to believe in what you said and have that your name in the paper and now you can just let anyone say anything and thats hard. And its hard not to respond because some of it just sort of spirals out of control where youd like to clarify it all but you know theyre just not going to believe it or trust you re saying the right thing either. But I still feel like my colleagues still have ethics. Maybe theres some out there that dont, but I think for the most part theres still that ethics there that people want to follow. Collins: Theres still the news without opinion. Schacherer: I think so. I think fro a long time journalists have been accused of being too liberal but I think its hard for anybody to be completely unbiased about anything and yet I think the people that Ive always known have tried really hard to put their personal feelings aside, and I know Ive done it, and its not always easy, but you have to. Youre there to report the story and do your job and not write how you feel about the issue, or what youre covering. Collins: This is not the best-paid profession in the world. Where do people get their satisfaction from? Schacherer: Part of it was just to see your name in print. You get that front page and theres your name. I think for some theres sort of that celebrity status, especially in broadcast in other places where people know you. Ive questioned that, like why am I still here sometimes? But you feel like youre doing a service. You feel like youre

informing the public and helping people understand issues. That youre doing a good thing and its something you believe in. I think thats the same for a lot of people. They just enjoy getting out and meeting people and telling peoples stories who theyd never have it told otherwise, who maybe seems like your average Joe but theres maybe something special about them. Its fun to pull that out of people, and draw that out and write about it and share it with people but also just to cover things that in government or whatever, kind of be that watchdog and make sure the public understands whats really going on and not let government, no matter what level, cover things up or not be completely truthful with taxpayers and people. Collins: Do you think that the public understands this role of journalism in the public service role? Schacherer: Sometimes. I think theres always some that are very well educated and appreciate what we do. Theres others who still get the paper and theyll read it but theyre always against us and they always think were not telling the whole story, were in the county commissioners pocket or something and others who just dont know theres a paper in the town, which really surprises me. But I think some people understand it. I think some people still dont even today. Its sort of like they think they have a great story idea, and its like, well, yeah, and other times they sit on something thats like, why didnt you tell me that? It would have been great to know that. Both at a government level and personal stories. People, I think theyre still learning. I think its a profession that even though its out there and its for the public they dont always understand it. Collins: Local news operations, are you all more stretched than you were 20 years ago? Schacherer: I think so. Mostly the economy I guess. Because there have been so many cutbacks. And Ive seen that at a lot of different levels. Staff have been cut back and youre doing so much more. And especially with, youve got to be on the Internet, the Facebook, the Twitter, all that people want that information. Youre trying to do all of that on top of all your reporting, with fewer people. So think there is a little bit of stress there. Everyones expected to more than they used to. Sometimes its a good thing to reorganize and look at whether you really needed everybody, but sometimes its hard to keep up. Collins: Does this profession sometimes take its toll on people? Schacherer: I think so. Theres some people obviously that are in it until they die and others who whether its financially they just cant afford to be it in any longer, its hard. And sometimes, its the hours too. If you work at a paper thats a morning paper youre working late at night. Theres different reasons people get out and you have to respect that they decide to make a career change.

Collins: You said youre married to a journalist Schacherer: its worked well for us. I dated men who werent in the profession, most of them werent. They didnt understand the hours. I think the hours was a big thing. When they wanted to do something and all of a sudden a fire broke or something happened at 5, the job isnt a 9 to 5 job or 8 to 5. You cover things at night. You cover meetings. You work on the weekends and you feel like sometimes youre kind of always working cause youre always. When youre in the community youre always looking for stories, and looking for something. It has helped I think because I understand when hes working late hours why hes there late, and he understands when Im doing things, and so its been a good trade off. Its not always easy to be married and work with your partner too, but its worked for us. We both see the same thing, we both want the same product and care about accuracy and we both agree on how the design should be but its more personal when things arent going well at home and then youve got to be together and work with that person. Weve done it for at least 8 years now. Collins: Where do you see your trajectory? Youve been a number of different places. Schacherer: I dont know. Im surprised that weve been in Litchfield as long as we have. We kind of thought it would be sort of another stepping stone somewhere, but now that weve had kinds and have kind of settled into the community. I grew up in the Twin Cities, so this is a really small community for me to live in. I thought Red Wing was small, but now Litchfields smaller. But I see the value in children growing up in a small community too, and so I think were settled for a while, but its hard to say where we would go because of all the changes in the industry. Is there going to be a newspaper in 10 years or 20 years and what is it going to look like and are they going to need even as many people as we have even though we have such a small staff already. Is it going to be just online? I think small towns are a little different than the metro area because theres nowhere else to get the news that we cover. You cant turn on the Twin Cities station and find out what happened at the Litchfield city council meeting or the fire down the street. I think the farther we are away from the Cities the better. Right now for some of the smaller papers things are going to change and so its hard to know. We never would have thought 10 years ago that wed be in this situation now with the Internet and everything, and so that was hard to project I think for a lot of people. And so with free content. A lot of people now have thought that we made a mistake in terms of putting all our news online for free and do we look at scaling that back? And even though we let the horse out of the barn can we get it back in and say; now you need to pay for this. Because there is a value to what we do. People pay for a subscription and we have to pay the people to go out and find the news and write it and report it and edit and design it and all of that and we believe in what we do and so theres a value there. So to give it away for free doesnt seem right either and yet thats the way things have gone with the Internet but I dont think anyone could foresee all of that would change the way it has.

 Collins: Do you still give it away for free? Schacherer: We give some things away. We have our A section and our B section, and our B section front which is always kind of a community story, we never put that online. Well put obituaries, we put our a lot of our A stories on there but sometimes well put a shortened version of the full story and well say look at this weeks Independent Review for the full story. We still have people saying, I didnt see this story on your website and its because purposely we havent put it on there because we still see the value in people buying the paper rather than people downloading it and then sending it to all their relatives for free when they would be buying copies of the paper. So we dont put everything and there are some papers that do. They just put it all on there, and put all their breaking news and its just all there for everybody so weve been a little more conservative. I think we can get away with it. I think we can do that because people are willing to wait to find out what happened at the council meeting or school board meting. Collins: Well Juliana I want to thank you so much for talking to me Schacherer: thank you so much, good questions.