Marion editor receives international award
Bill Meyer, editor and publisher of the Marion County Record, Hillsboro Star-Journal, and Peabody Gazette-Bulletin, is this year's winner of the highest lifetime achievement award of the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors.
Meyer received the Eugene Cervi Award at a banquet at Missouri Southern State College in Joplin, Mo.
Only one other Kansas editor, the late McDill (Huck) Boyd of Phillipsburg, has won the award. The community journalism program at Kansas State University is named in Boyd's honor. Last year's winner was Margaret Hennigar of Lighthouse Publishing in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia.
According to its sponsor, the award is given annually for "a career of outstanding public service through community journalism and for adhering to the highest standards of the craft."
It recognizes editors who have "consistently acted in the conviction that good journalism begets good government" and who have produced "consistently aggressive reporting of government at the grassroots level and interpretation of local affairs." It also honors "deep reverence for the English language."
In his acceptance speech, Meyer termed the award "the pinnacle of my professional career" and expressed gratitude for its honoring of the press' role as "public watchdog."
Meyer then went on to debunk several myths about weekly newspapers:
"They are not second class to dailies. The writing, reporting, and graphic arts in better weeklies often is superior to that found in many dinky dailies.
"Putting out a weekly newspaper also is hard work, he said.
"I've never seen a good editor who also was a good golfer," he said. "There isn't time for both. Or, as former editor Michael Gartner is quoted as saying, 'Show me a beloved editor and I'll show you a sh — -y newspaper.'"
Meyer lauded editors who take strong stands on local issues.
"They write about the school board, county commission, and city hall. It takes guts," he said. "Unfortunately we also have weekly publishers who never take any stand. They run clipped editorials, if any editorial at all. Or they buy marshmallow impact columns from Goody Two Shoes that have the zest of tapioca pudding.
"One Kansas editor, getting along in years, was beloved by his community. To show their high regard, the community gave him and his wife round trip tickets to Hawaii. If Marion County were to give this editor such a trip, it would be a one-way ticket.
"We've had our tires slashed, twice last year; we've had our front windows shot out twice; we've had the building spray painted; we've had our house vandalized; and we've had people picket on the sidewalk in front of the newspaper office.
"In other words, we've been doing our job as an editor. We don't like the costly part of replacing windows, tires, and such. But we appreciate that our readers are showing an interest."
Meyer explained that editorials present opinions in order to make people think; not necessarily to think a certain way — but to think.
"By taking a stand, giving an opinion, editorials cause the reader to put some thought and logic into a solution," he said.
Weekly newspapers, like the communities they serve, have changed, he told the group of editors.
"Small towns have lost their retail trade center identity," Meyer said. "There are fewer local stores to advertise shoes, automobiles, and such. What do we do about it? To survive we must shift gears and do something different. Newspapers that don't adjust to the times won't be around long. The answer doesn't lie in e-mail or on the Internet. It comes to those who provide interesting feature stories about local issues and people."
As for Meyer's newspapers: "Our gross is up and our profit margin is low. But we now own three weekly newspapers and don't owe the bank."
"At this late stage of life I can honestly say I've never had more fun," said Meyer, who will turn 77 in August. "If a doctor told me, 'You've got two weeks to live,' I'd answer with, 'That gives me time for two more issues.'"
Meyer is a previous winner of all major lifetime achievement awards of the Kansas Press Association, including the Boyd Community Service Award (named for Cervi winner Huck Boyd), the Clyde M. Reed Master Editor Award and the Karl and Dorothy Gaston Mentoring Award.
He also is a past president of the Kansas Press Association and the William Allen White Foundation Trustees.
He and his wife Joan, have one son, Eric, who is a professor of journalism at the University of Illinois, and a grandson, Nate, who is a doctoral candidate in chemical engineering at Princeton University.
