Bob Mong loves news. He loves news so much that the Executive Editor of The Dallas Morning News was willing to share his knowledge about the industry on a Saturday morning in Dallas.
Mong is full of passion, know-how and wisdom when it comes to running one of the largest newspapers in the country. He’s been the newspaper’s Executive Editor for the past 10 years. Mong’s also honest about the Dallas Morning News when it comes to its shrinking revenue, shrinking staff and even its lack of diversity in leadership roles.
On August 20, Mong shared much of his experience with the members of the Hispanic Communicators DFW. That’s the local chapter of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. Mong was only supposed to talk to us for 30 minutes, but he stayed for almost an hour and a half.
Mong’s insight was interesting, his honesty refreshing and his advice inspirational. Here’s a video glimpse of Bob Mong’s visit with the Hispanic Communicators DFW.
An Inside Look into The Dallas Morning News from Rebecca Aguilar on Vimeo.
I hope other news executives can take a thing or two from Mong’s insight. He knows the Dallas Morning News lacks in diversity in leadership roles, and he knows he needs to change that at the newspaper. Kudos to him for hiring a veteran Latino journalist for the Editorial Board. Mong is right, he could have left that position empty and saved money, but he didn’t.
I also applaud Mong for being committed to Al Dia, the Spanish Language counterpart to the Dallas Morning News. He realized the Spanish language community in North Texas needed a newspaper, and he made it happen. He’s given it time to grow in readers and now it’s bringing in revenue. Why several other major newspapers in the U.S. don’t have their Spanish language spin-off baffles me.
Mong also gives us journalist’s hope that jobs are still out there. He says we just have to find them and make sure that we’re on top of our game. We have to learn all the latest multimedia tools and keep our journalism interesting. As Mong put it “manage yourself to success.”
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I know that many companies don’t give journalists time off to go to conferences and conventions. That perk is gone for most of us. Some of you now have to decide whether to take days off for a family vacation or Unity 2012. I say combine the two.
