Memories of a Newspaper Man

Newspapers close. Newspapers start.


Newspapers are a special case in the "creative destruction" of progress and the march of history.

Newspapers are a business, but they are more than a business. A newspaper shapes a reality for its readers. It is one's eyes and ears. Newspapers are a big part of the glue that connects a community. Newspapers aren't just something one purchases. They are a partnership between a business and its customers.

Jack Mullen's Guest Post has a mix of objectivity and sentiment. Newspapering was a job for him. Newspapers also shaped his identity, starting with the Sports Section, as it did for many young boys who are part of the Boomer generation. Mullen grew up in Medford. He was a star athlete in high school and a common subject of articles and photos in the Mail Tribune back when newspapers were how everyone knew what was going on.

Guest Post by Jack Mullen

Mullen, in D.C. in 2023

I spent twenty-five hectic years in the newspaper business working for seven different newspapers. Most of those papers either went out of business, or fell prey to corporate raiders.

Corporate raiders talk a good game in the newspaper business. The new owners hire an out-of-town publisher who swoops into the paper’s executive office which causes an initial excitement on Wall Street. The publisher quickly shrinks the size of the paper. He cuts the local staff and writers and uses mostly wire services. Greater savings even occur by using less ink, less newsprint, and eventually fewer workers. There may be no stopping the process of newspapers going digital, but even then, a digital paper like the Medford Mail Tribune, folded.

Many of the Northern California newspapers where I worked forbode what happened in my old home town of Medford.

The newspaper that employed me the longest was the Oakland Tribune. Oakland is considered the most integrated city in the country and the Oakland Tribune won a Pulitzer in 1989 for its in-depth reporting, as did my hometown Medford Mail Tribune in 1934, won for its fearless editorials exposing corruption in local government.

In an effort to integrate more into the local community, the Oakland Tribune hired me to run its Newspaper in Education program. Teachers throughout the East Bay incorporated the Tribune in ways to hone lower grade students’ literacy and language arts skills. The Tribune assisted secondary grade level teachers to meet the California State Standards on developing critical thinking skills. The Oakland Tribune’s Newspaper in Education program accounted for 2% of its total circulation when tragedy struck with the passing of owner and publisher Robert Maynard.

The Oakland Tribune was the only major metropolitan newspaper since the Civil War to be owned by an African American. When owner Bob Maynard died, MediaNews Group, a national newspaper conglomerate, swooped in and quickly purchased it and incorporated it with other bay area newspapers. Most Oakland Tribune employees were let out the door. MediaNews Group now owns the former Contra Costa Times, the San Jose Mercury, the Marin Independent Journal, and is adding other newspapers when it can. You can look across the country to find MediaNews centered in other metropolitan centers areas such as Denver, where it purchased the Denver Post.

While it is not easy losing one’s job at a major metropolitan paper, I did manage to land work at a couple of truck stop weekly and monthly papers. I worked for a couple of short-lived national papers including Figs Form, a newspaper devoted to horse racing, and the National Sports Daily, a newspaper started by former Sports Illustrated writer Dan Jenkins. The latter two were journalistic masterpieces, but lacked the resources to score big on a national scale.

Mullen, Medford, 1965*

Nothing, not even the demise of the Oakland Tribune, smacked me harder than the death of the Medford Mail Tribune. This is the paper that I hurried home from Roosevelt grade school to read before my father could. I wanted to read about those big bad Black Tornado teams, read about my beloved St. Louis Cardinals so that I argue with my Dodger and Yankee friends. Soon I found myself reading about the Medford City Council and the Oregon presidential primaries. In short, the Medford Mail Tribune was all a local newspaper should and could be.

I now live in Washington D.C., but a big part of my heart lies in Medford. I understand both the Grants Pass Daily Courier and Rogue Valley Tribune (wish it could claim the name Mail Tribune) have big plans for my hometown. Who knows, maybe Medford can reclaim its reputation as a great newspaper town, as it was in the salad days when Eric Allen was the editor and Dick Jewett’s sports page mesmerized kids like me. I wish both papers the best.

[*The photo is from a high school basketball game where Mullen jumped to catch a pass from fellow-senior Bill Enyart. Bill went on to be known as Earthquake Enyart, an All American fullback for Oregon State. OSU beat USC in an historic game that pitted OJ Simpson's team against OSU. Oregon State won. A fellow member of that high school class is Richard Fosbury. Notwithstanding discouragement by the Medford High coaches, Fosbury experimented with an unconventional back-down style, the Fosbury Flop. Fosbury went on to win an Olympic gold medal. He revolutionized high jumping. The Fosbury Flop is now the standard high jumping technique for elite jumpers.]

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