"The newspaper of the future won't be printed or delivered; it will be interactive and customizable." — David Carlson, 1990
So who is this guy?
I am not what most people would consider a typical UF professor. I came to the university in 1993 not from an academic background but from a professional one. I spent better than 20 years working at newspapers of all sizes in all manner of jobs, from reporter-
photographer to city editor, design editor,
executive editor and new media director.
I am the former new media columnist for American Journalism Review magazine. I'm also a past national president of the Society of Professional Journalists and a director of the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation.
Probably the only reason I was recruited to teach here is that I am what you might call a pioneer in the field of interactive newspapers. I got my first modem in 1981. I logged on to CompuServe and The Source back when they had 4,000 users apiece. The first time I saw the AP wire scroll across my eight-line by 40-character screen, I knew I had seen the future of newspapers.
My wife, my colleagues and my friends thought I was nuts. My colleagues even stopped inviting me out for beers because they didn't want to hear about it anymore. (Some people still think I'm nuts.)
Then came The Albuquerque Tribune. In 1989, an insightful managing editor named Jack McElroy decided The Trib should start an online newspaper. He posted a notice on the bulletin board that said: "Wanted: Trib Staffer to work 10 hours a week creating a computerized version of The Tribune." I was design editor at the time but immediately applied for the job. The rest is history. McElroy gave me 10 hours a week and a budget of $5,000, and The Electronic Trib was born in 1990. It was one of two newspaper-operated electronic systems in the world when it was launched, and it is believed to have been the first interactive newspaper in the world housed on a personal computer (a 286-12!).
When I'm not designing new on-line services or being adviser to the college's chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, I like to drive sports cars, play golf, travel the world, drink good wines and work in my wood shop. I fancy myself a gourmet chef and an audiophile. I have about 4,000 record albums and 1,000 CDs ranging from bluegrass and classical to rock, jazz and reggae.
I live on a tree-covered acre in Gainesville with my wife, Jeanne, my best friend and most trusted colleague. She, too, is a journalist and recently retired from The Gainesville Sun. We have a dog, a Golden Retriever named Pooka. (Jeanne wouldn't let me name her Pixel.) Our three children are grown.
Among some rather bizarre things I've done over the years:
- Got kicked out of altar boy classes at my Catholic grade school in Bedford, Ind.
- Became the youngest Eagle Scout in Indiana history and attended the World Jamboree in 1967.
- Got a license to fly an airplane solo before I could legally get a driver's license. My Mom had to drive me to the airport so I could go flying.
- Rode on the handlebars of a 1927 Indian motorcycle while a county-fair daredevil steered the thing around the inside of a huge cylinder called the "Wall of Death." I did it for a newspaper story. The lede was: "Daredevil John Roberts stood next to his motorcycle smoking 100-millimeter Salems one after the other. "I have no death wish," he said."
- Spent the 30th year of my life living in an Indian tipi (it's not spelled teepee) on a 10-acre lake in Northern Indiana. I did this while regional editor of the Chronicle-Tribune in Marion where I had about 15 people working for me. I had to have a snowmobile and a four-wheel-drive to get to work.
- Worked on a project that won a Pulitzer Prize for The Albuquerque Tribune and staffer Eileen Welsome.
- Lived for two years in a mountain cabin in Western New Mexico that was heated entirely with wood and coal -- including the water heater and kitchen stove.
- Got my pocket picked on a packed trolley car in Ekaterinburg, Russia, during one of the five trips I made to that country between 1994 and 1997.
- Created the first journalism site anywhere on the World Wide Web in October, 1993, with two UF grad students, Gary Ritzenthaler and Steve Brown. Yes, that Gary Ritzenthaler.
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