La Jolla Light
A view of the business district of the La Jolla Village can be seen from the humble La Jolla Light/San Diego Suburban News office atop the three story building Pearl Plaza Building. With this a broad view of all that goes into the weekly newspaper can be seen by just looking out the window of the small office. The head of this local newspaper is Kathy Day, the La Jolla Light News Editor, the head honcho of the office, so to speak.
She sits at a large desk in the same room as the other editors, along with me, the intern, and the other occasional high school and college intern who would come in every so often. Her desk is positioned for her to see what all goes on in the room at all times, and the grand view of La Jolla Village. A few times every hour, a coworker would come in to ask a question or a small favor, to which she always had an answer or a response. She was the one person everybody would come in to talk to, and I usually the one asked where she was when she was absent. I ask to myself, and eventually to her, how she came to be in the trusted position she currently holds.
The climb up the ladder took more than just hard work. In order to be successful in her craft she occasionally had to be “bad cop” when it came to tough interview subjects and others she’d get her information from. Good relationships with people that she interviewed would be over in the drop of a dime if she was given the wrong information or lied to, from there a more assertive side of a news writer would emerge to get the correct story she needs. "You'd have to step back from being their friend for a moment," She told me. "Sometimes, you have to flat out say, 'You lied to me. Tell me the truth now.'" Even then, when all else failed, she would have to "go around the backdoor" for information for her stories.
SM: What made you interested in newswriting?
KD: I just started doing it in Junior High. I always liked it. It's a good way to get to know interesting people and talk to people, and you get to share interesting stories with readers and also give them information that helps them learn of the world around them.
SM: What'd you have to do in order to become where you are today?
KD: I had to have a degree in journalism. I had a summer internship that got my foot in the door during college and I got a job with it after I graduated. I was in public relations business, I've done freelance writing so I could great a broad view of the business. At first I was a copy editor, then a reporter, then a data reporter for a long time. Eventually, I worked my way up.
SM: Why are you interested in newswriting?
KD: I think it's important that people know more than what they get on a television, tv news, the internet, etc. In newspapers, you get to tell more of the story than tv news. It's always been my that people need to know what schools and government, etc. are doing. I really like being at the community level. Although I don't LIVE in La Jolla, I treat the readers like my neighbors. Readers and sources have to know about the readers to be on that level.
Sometimes, if you're working on a story and it's somebody you've known a long time and you have a good relationship with, but you find out they didn't tell the truth, perhaps broke the law, you've gotta step back from being nice to becoming the bad cop and wanting to push info out of them. Sometimes, you have to flat out say "you lied to me -- tell me the truth now." Sometimes you have to go around the backdoor in order to get information.
Sometimes you have to be hard nosed to get the story you need, you have to ask hard questions and the people you interview won't like it. But if you create a good relationship with your interviewees and they know you're just doing your job, then they're likely to open up to you more.
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