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Column: We at the Tampa Tribune made a difference

 
Rosemary O'Hara as a young Tribune reporter interviewing an Air Force doctor at MacDill Air Force Base.
Rosemary O'Hara as a young Tribune reporter interviewing an Air Force doctor at MacDill Air Force Base.
Published May 9, 2016

I remember when I started my first reporting job at the Tampa Tribune in 1978, the city editor told me I smiled too much.

I remember the managing editor offered me $175 a week, but offered a fellow UF graduate $200 a week because he would have a family to support.

I remember my first front-page story said 90 percent of the overdue books at the USF Library were checked out to faculty. I remember reporters Susan Taylor Martin, Donna Newsome and Kevin Kalwary writing four stories a day.

I remember city editor Joe Registrato sending me to a hotel to investigate a charter boat captain's help-wanted ad for "friendly women," and frantically calling my home when I later failed to check in.

I remember deskmate Charlie Reid critiquing my phone interviews and making me call people back if I didn't ask the right questions. I remember a series Charlie and I wrote about Hillsborough Community College that led to eight people losing their jobs for inflating resumes or taking their secretaries to Hawaii.

I remember playing second base on the Tribune softball team and celebrating our wins and losses with drinks at The Paddock. I remember covering stories of malpractice and malfeasance at Tampa General Hospital, which led to my career as a medical writer.

I remember a driving rainstorm during which I hauled a month's worth of supplies onto a freighter headed for Cuba's Mariel Harbor, only to hear that during that same rainstorm, another freighter had run into the Skyway Bridge, killing 35 people. I remember snagging the final edition of the Tampa Times when it folded in 1982, like so many afternoon newspapers.

I remember wanting to spread my wings and make more money by moving to other newspapers, and how excited I was years later when publisher Gil Thelen invited me back to be the Tribune's editorial page editor.

I remember the skepticism this center-left editor faced from a team of conservative editorial writers, but how they rallied and grew readership with interesting, important work. I remember a series of editorials that Jeff Stidham and I wrote about the long waits in hospital emergency rooms that led to real change. I remember watching Joe Guidry cement his legacy as Florida's best editorial writer on the environment. I remember Jim Beamguard gracefully writing editorials on transportation and Social Security in ways that made people care.

I remember writing a full-page non-endorsement of George W. Bush's re-election, which led Media General's owner, Stewart Bryan, to get up in front of the Tampa Chamber of Commerce's annual luncheon and proclaim that Tribune editors who didn't ascribe to Tribune values would no longer be Tribune editors. I remember getting a major-league hot flash at the start of Mitt Romney's editorial board endorsement interview. I remember when we ran the wrong editorial after the Tampa Bay Lightning won the Stanley Cup.

I remember our slogan: Life. Printed Daily. I remember how awful it felt to lay people off and how awful it felt to get laid off in November 2008. I remember thinking that the St. Petersburg Times should buy the Tribune before its new hedge fund owners could inflict too much damage. I remember wondering if the sale of the Times' building and the sale of the Tribune's building would finally make the numbers work.

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After reading so many Facebook posts about the death of the Tribune, I feel enormously sad. It's heartbreaking to see so many people lose their jobs, even though the Times' purchase will help preserve jobs and journalism for many.

I will always be grateful to the Tribune, whose people and life's story helped write my own. We were scrappy, but powerful; candid, but caring; and most of all, we made a difference. Farewell, my Tampa Tribune. It was a great run.

Rosemary O'Hara, now editorial page editor of the Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale, was Rosemary Goudreau when she edited the Tribune's editorial page.