It’s rare that we write about ourselves. Like most newspapers, we believe a publication should report the news and not make the news. But in this instance, we will deviate from that practice.
As you can see from a story in j. this week, managing editor Sherwood L. Weingarten, better known as Woody, is leaving the paper after nearly 24 years.
That’s a long time to be at one job, especially in this era when people barely stay anywhere for more than a few years. Longevity is especially unusual in journalism, a field known for transients in search of a better beat, a better boss or a promotion.
We can say without a doubt that it wasn’t the nonprofit pay scale that kept Woody here. He could have done much better at a privately owned paper.
It was something much more personal that kept him here. He’d be the first to tell you it wasn’t religious beliefs either, although his spirituality had a lot to do with it.
It was his love for the paper and what it represents — its importance to the Jewish community. As Woody learned from the very start, when you edit a Jewish newspaper your readers will let you know how you are doing much more so than at a daily or secular weekly paper. Twenty thousand Jewish subscribers means 60,000 opinions — at least.
What does a managing editor do, you might be wondering?
Woody was responsible for almost everything related to the news and features in each week’s paper, working alongside our editor and publisher, Marc S. Klein.
He supervised our three reporters and freelancers. He took phone calls from people who wanted stories in the paper. If he felt the ideas warranted it, he assigned the stories to be written.
Woody worked as a team with our copy-editors to get the stories ready for print. And he laid out the paper, determining which stories went where.
Not only was Woody the gatekeeper in terms of how many stories our three reporters could do in any given week, he also stood guard against any undue pressure on the paper.
Woody understood that we can only be a community paper if we serve the entire community — from the right to the left, from secular to Orthodox.
It will be much more difficult putting out the paper each week without Woody on board. You can’t replace someone who has 50 years of experience in the newspaper business. Someone who understands the Jewish community as well as he does will be sorely missed.
Our staff certainly knows that as they bid farewell to him today. Woody, thanks for everything you’ve done for us and for the community.
CopyrightJ, the Jewish news weekly of Northern California