Last Updated: December 29, 2000
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An American Editor
Jay Harris
Birthday: Dec. 3, 1948
Hometown: Washington, D.C.
Married: Yes, to Christine Harris. 20 years on Oct. 25 this year.
Children: Three. A son, Taifa, and daughters Jamarah and Shala.
Self-portrait: Inquisitive, contemplative, introspective, value-centered,
journalistic traditionalist.
Pet peeve: Sloppy editing.
Most dangerous story: Investigation of “street level” drug trafficking
early in my career in Wilmington, Del. for the News Journal papers.
Best interview and why? A series of three conversations with
author and editor Willie Morris. He was on the faculty of the University
of Mississippi (Ole Miss) and I was doing a piece on the 20th anniversary
of James Meredith’s integration of that school. I learned more about the
intersection between the Old South and New South during those talks than
years of reading could have helped me understand.
My newspaper’s strength: Specifically, our coverage of high technology
and our increasingly diverse community. More generally, the ever-increasing
breadth, depth and sophistication of our daily report
Best part of job: The good we do for our community through our
journalism.
Vacation spot: Sea Ranch, a quiet, environmentally-protected
nine mile strip of the northern California coast about 90 minutes south
of Mendocino.
Books at bedside: Currently: From Dawn to Decadence by Jacques
Barzon. The Mabinogion, a collection of ancient Welsh tales edited in the
19th century by Lady Charlotte E. Guest. Knights of the Brush: The Hudson
River School and the Moral Landscape by James F. Cooper. The Book of Ecclesiastes
and The Canticle of Canticles, with a commentary by Roland E. Murphy, O.
Carm.
Best advice I could give a 20-year-old: Patience and perseverance
are prerequisites for success in most important things. Serious preparation
will increase your likelihood of success in all that you do. Have the courage
of your convictions (which requires knowing well both yourself and what
you truly believe in).
My trademark expression: “I love it!” Also, “O.K. Let’s do it.”
My best asset is: An analytic, values-centered approach to challenges
and opportunities that draws on my 30 years experience.
Behind my back, employees say: Whatever they want. (Mostly good,
I hope. And I hope they know that they can and should say it to my face
as I need and want to hear what they are thinking.)
I wish I were a leader like: Frederick Douglass. I greatly admire
what he did and what he accomplished under the most daunting of circumstances.
My most difficult decision as a leader: How to lead my paper
carefully and with integrity through the potential ethical and business
pitfalls associated with an auto dealer “boycott” of the paper early in
my tenure as publisher of the Mercury News.
My worst decision as a leader: No single decision stands out.
But what many of the worst ones have in common I suspect was my consciously
or unknowingly subordinating important values and/or strategic priorities
to less important short-term considerations.
