Wednesday, November 6, 2013

An anniversary and a retrospective

I received an e-mail from friend Robert Kirby who informed me that today is my third anniversary at the Salt Lake Tribune.  This, by the way, is a very Kirby thing to do.  Beneath the jester's mask, he has the soul of a serious and careful historian.

Anyway.

Some of you may remember me writing about jumping ship from the DN to its competitor, the Trib.  It was a terribly difficult thing for me to do at the time.  It was like I had to suddenly start cheering for the Utes after spending a lifetime of cheering for the Cougars, and I am not, by nature, a person who switches teams casually.

The transition was harder, too, than I let on.  Whereas I pretty much knew who all the subsets of DN readers were, I was unsure of who my audience was at the Trib.  Some of it looked like the DN audience, but there were more subsets of readers, some of whom felt actively hostile to my column.  I second-guessed myself a lot for awhile there, although I always felt like I'd made the right decision to leave the DN when I did.

(Just to be clear--for many years the DN was a good place for me.  The people I knew there--Susan Whitney, Chris Hicks, Carma Wadley, Katy Clayton, Dennis Lithgow, Brad Rock, Lee Benson, Doug Robinson and others--were terrific.)

I was especially grateful that first year at the Trib to my then-editor, Lisa Carricaburu, who called every week to check in with me.  And of course I was grateful to Kirby, too, for alerting Lisa to the fact that I wanted to make a move.

And now?  I'm happy.  And given the state of newspapers today, I'm so grateful to still be writing regularly.   The Trib has done a good job of promoting the column, and I like that the local readership represents a broad spectrum of individuals.

The take-away?  I don't know.  Maybe it's that while change is scary, it's often a good thing to make a leap.

4 comments:

radagast said...

Glad you're happy and writing for the real newspaper now, Ann! Hope it continues for many years. I shall take your advice about change under advisement.

Anna said...

I was so sad when you left the DN. Our family has had to make changes kind of like that and navigating those waters of allegiance switching (or feeling like one HAS to switch loyalties) is tricky. Glad you have settled in so well and so happy that you get to continue to write. Although I don't take the Trib, I follow your column still through the links you post here. Thanks for sharing them and bringing some of your DN readers with you!

Louise Plummer said...

It's been a GOOD thing. I hope you're there forever.

Lisa B. said...

I'm so glad you're still writing for a newspaper, and glad it's conveniently the paper I subscribe to. And good for Kirby for the congrats--and for making the early connection, too. But mostly good for you, for writing these great columns for so very very long, now. You are the bomb. Dot Com.