Dennis Anderson's first day as executive editor of the Journal Star in Peoria, Ill., was July 16, hired for the position after spending seven years in Lawrence, Kan., as the managing editor of the Journal-World.
Before Lawrence, Anderson spent 10 years with Gannett newspapers, including the Norwich Bulletin in Connecticut from 1999 to 2005 and the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin in New York from 1996-1999. He also served as bureau chief at the Daily Herald in Arlington Heights in 1990.
Under Anderson's leadership, the Journal-World won The Associated Press Media Editors Digital Storytelling Awards in 2007, 2008 and 2009. He was named one of Gannett's top 10 supervisors in 2000, won the Kansas Press Association's award for best column writing in 2006 and was elected to the Associated Press Managing Editors board of directors in 2009.
Anderson and his wife, Julie, have two sons; Eric, 20, is a student at the University of Missouri-Kansas City; and Thomas, 16, is a junior in high school.
Q: What motivated you to choose journalism as a career?
My brother and I were big baseball fans when we were teenagers. We scraped together our nickels, dimes and quarters and got a subscription to the Chicago Sun-Times and followed the Cubs and White Sox. Soon I turned the tabloid over to the front page and started reading the news as well as sports. I was hooked on newspapers from then on.
While I’m one of the biggest proponents of digital news, I still need to feel newsprint in my hands every morning. If you want to share that love with people, try this trick when you go out for breakfast or lunch in a crowded restaurant: find an article that you particularly enjoy or want to save and make a lot of noise as you tear it out of the paper. People will stop to look at what you are doing, some will be intrigued. I’m always happy to see people pick up a paper on their way out of the restaurant.
Q: You helped lead the Lawrence Journal-World to numerous awards in digital storytelling. What most excites you about the digital platform?
Because of digital journalism, we have more people reading our content than ever before. The overlap of those who read print and online is only about 30 percent, so digital opens the door to so many more readers and we need to capture that audience and keep them coming back.
Dennis Anderson's first day as executive editor of the Journal Star in Peoria, Ill., was July 16, hired for the position after spending seven years in Lawrence, Kan., as the managing editor of the Journal-World.
Before Lawrence, Anderson spent 10 years with Gannett newspapers, including the Norwich Bulletin in Connecticut from 1999 to 2005 and the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin in New York from 1996-1999. He also served as bureau chief at the Daily Herald in Arlington Heights in 1990.
Under Anderson's leadership, the Journal-World won The Associated Press Media Editors Digital Storytelling Awards in 2007, 2008 and 2009. He was named one of Gannett's top 10 supervisors in 2000, won the Kansas Press Association's award for best column writing in 2006 and was elected to the Associated Press Managing Editors board of directors in 2009.
Anderson and his wife, Julie, have two sons; Eric, 20, is a student at the University of Missouri-Kansas City; and Thomas, 16, is a junior in high school.
Q: What motivated you to choose journalism as a career?
My brother and I were big baseball fans when we were teenagers. We scraped together our nickels, dimes and quarters and got a subscription to the Chicago Sun-Times and followed the Cubs and White Sox. Soon I turned the tabloid over to the front page and started reading the news as well as sports. I was hooked on newspapers from then on.
While I’m one of the biggest proponents of digital news, I still need to feel newsprint in my hands every morning. If you want to share that love with people, try this trick when you go out for breakfast or lunch in a crowded restaurant: find an article that you particularly enjoy or want to save and make a lot of noise as you tear it out of the paper. People will stop to look at what you are doing, some will be intrigued. I’m always happy to see people pick up a paper on their way out of the restaurant.
Q: You helped lead the Lawrence Journal-World to numerous awards in digital storytelling. What most excites you about the digital platform?
Because of digital journalism, we have more people reading our content than ever before. The overlap of those who read print and online is only about 30 percent, so digital opens the door to so many more readers and we need to capture that audience and keep them coming back.
I also look at our website as a blog, not just a place to post our news. Consider your favorite blog – whether it’s politics, sports, a hobby, Perez Hilton – and what brings you back to read it every day. It’s fresh and engaging content that interests you. Most importantly, it regularly provides you a surprise. That’s what I get excited about as a journalist, telling people something they don’t know and enriching their lives.
Like all good blogs, we also share a connection with people who are regular visitors to our site. That connection is our community, and as journalists we are all community bloggers. We need to provide the content our audience wants and when they are most likely going to see it. For us, it’s during the day when people are at work and check news sites. If we aren’t posting a story between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m., we are going to miss prime traffic opportunities.
Q: What interests do you have outside of the newsroom?
No. 1 is my family. My wife and I have spent a lot of our free time at ballparks and ice rinks watching our sons play. I also like to read and take our two dachshunds on walks.
And I plan to become part of the Peoria community, working on civic and youth projects. I’ve been a Big Brother for the past 10 years.
Q: What has caught your eye in the Peoria community since becoming executive editor?
Peoria, home of Caterpillar and Bradley University, is a melting pot of experts, technicians and really smart people from around the world. I want to get to know as many of them as possible.
Q: What is the most interesting comment or piece of advice you have received since moving to central Illinois?
Central Illinois is baseball’s no-man’s land. You are either a Cubs, White Sox or Cardinals fan, and you can’t be all three. I try to squeak by as just a baseball fan. I don’t think it is working.
