Last Updated: December 29, 2000
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An American Editor
Joe Distelheim
Birthday: Oct. 13
Hometown: Chicago
Marital status: Married, Dottie Distelheim
Children: None
Self-portrait in adjectives: Obsessive about my job. Hands-on.
Taciturn. Traditional.
My newspaper’s strength: Strong writers, photographers and designers
who have the freedom to stretch.
Worst part of job: Days we publish a dull newspaper.
Best part of job: Days we publish a good-reading, good-looking
newspaper, telling readers stuff they didn’t know, with plenty of enterprise.
Pet peeve: Misuse of the English language, particularly by people
who work for newspapers, PARTICULARLY MY NEWSPAPER.
Vacation spot: Long Beach, N.C., or anyplace else with an ocean.
Books at bedside: Who can find them? They’re covered up by the
newspapers and magazines.
Best advice I could give a 20-year-old: If you can’t be smarter
than other people in your business, outwork ’em. Worked for me.
My trademark expression: One of several that include the word
“readers.”
My best asset is: Knowing that you’re never too big in the business
to make the coffee.
Wish I were a leader like: Dave Lawrence and the late Jim Batten.
I had the privilege of being hired by and working for both. Each demonstrated
a sense of journalism’s best that anyone in this business should emulate;
each demonstrated a sense of fairness and caring about people that could
be a model for anyone in any endeavor. Years later, I continue to
ask myself what they would do in a given situation.
Most difficult decision as a leader: The daily decision of any
newspaper editor: How to mold the resources at the newspaper’s disposal
into a daily newspaper that is as complete as it can be, balanced, fair
and a mirror of the community and world we serve.
Worst decision as a leader: Letting bad personnel situations
go on too long.
Tips on leadership: Find and train good people to make good decisions,
and encourage them to do so. Have policies, but empower staff members
to break them when it makes sense. I borrow a line from former colleague
Carl Sessions Stepp, now of the University of Maryland: Sometimes you do
something that’s right, even though it breaks a rule and you know you’ll
get a note about it in the morning.
What I worry about the most: Tomorrow’s paper.
