Q&A with Rockford's Linda Grist Cunningham

Well, let's see, how about a handful of the usual suspects? When I started back in the dark ages 40 years ago, we were just beginning to see the old Linotypes give way to the IBM Selectric and cold type. The AP wire went from phone lines to satellite to web. Oh, and girls (and we were always called girls) could do brides and engagements and maybe a feature story if the city desk were desperate. That girl could hope to become women’s editor; certainly not executive editor. Heck, I wore heels, hose and a three-piece suit as a copy editor on a shift that started at 4 a.m.

Seriously, though, there have been three big trend-style changes: (1) platforms – from twice a day, then once, in print to all day in digital; (2) ownership – from local families to large corporations; and (3) from specialists to journalists.

Those trends come packed with pros and cons. If we understand them and use them wisely, we’ll transform ourselves perfectly. If we don’t, well, let’s not go there.

No brainer prediction: Journalism will look exactly as it does today. Journalists gather, sort, analyze and deliver news and information. We’ve been doing that since the days of using a charred stick and deer’s blood to scratch a story on a cave wall. Humans are programmed to be nosy. We have to know stuff. Journalists like to share stuff. We will, of course, be doing it in holograms and other sorts of virtual reality. We might even still do “something” on paper, but our next life is most definitely the “untethered web world.”

You mean other than people returning my phone calls and emails, right? I’ll miss my newspaper family – the people of the News Tower.  As with other families, we’re sometimes dysfunctional, but we remain a family. We care about the Register Star, about its connections with its community, about serving the Rock River Valley since March 20, 1855. We care about each other. We’ve stood together through tornadoes, blizzards, both Iraq wars and Sept. 11, 2001. We watched the millennium fireworks from the top of the tower. We survived the Civil War, both world wars, the Great Depression and the Great Recession. It’s about the people and the cord that connects us over 15 decades.

The men and women in this newsroom. That includes the ones who swore at me and fought for what they believed in. If they’d stand up to me, they’d stand up to crooked politicians and slimy sources. That includes the ones who cried in my office, laughed in news meetings, bought the doughnuts, signed the cards, and shared their kids from before birth to children of their own. If they could share those moments with us, then they had the compassion to understand their readers and their sources.

Leaving; not retiring. Starting a new business called Key West Watch. Began working on the business plan in late 2007 with the hope that I could get it launched in 2012. If our house sells and a handful of things fall into place, that calendar could work.

You’ll be sorry you asked. … KWW “is a fully integrated, multimedia service that provides news, information and resources designed for non-resident Key West homeowners. Its combination of digital, web and print products, including the innovative ‘home watch’ multimedia program, keeps non-resident homeowners connected to the Key West political and governmental issues and decisions most likely to affect their property investments and future quality of life.”

Do the right thing.