Brian Mittge: Farewell to the old newsroom — and long live the news

Today marks a major milestone for Lewis County’s hometown newspaper: a big move down the block to a new building for The Chronicle.

CT Publishing, which bought The Chronicle’s business four years ago, has been leasing the old building since then. This summer, CT bought the former Sterling Savings Bank building just a few dozen yards to the south of its longtime home. After a flurry of renovations and moving, they’ll be fully operating out of the new building come the first of September.

It’s a momentous move. The Daily Chronicle settled into that old building in 1947. It’s a unique structure, built over the top of China Creek. There are expansive rooms built for the massive press equipment of the day that was decommissioned and removed about 15 years ago. According to lore, in the old days, the pressmen would use pitchforks to catch salmon out of the creek during down times.

While it’s been more than a decade since I’ve worked in the old “world headquarters,” as we sometimes jokingly called it, my mind is swirling with memories of my dozen years of showing up every day to that old gold-colored brick building.

I can still remember taking my seat at my desk as a cub reporter in 2000. We put out the newspaper in a flurry of quiet but intense activity every day, sending the last page out by mid-morning and watching the first papers churn off the presses less than an hour later.

That morning schedule allowed us to get news onto the front page in almost real-time. When the big 2001 Nisqually earthquake rock-and-rolled our region (it actually jolted our presses to a stop in the early moments of printing that day’s paper), we quickly wrote up a story, remade the front page, and became the first newspaper anywhere to report in print on the region’s biggest quake in 35 years.

As the temblor was roiling our building, a lot of us stood up and wondered what was happening. Linda Stewart, a longtime aide in the newsroom, jolted us out of our confusion, hollering out “Earthquake! Everyone under your desks.”

Oh yeah. Good idea.

That was just one of many practical life tips — and journalistic tenets — I learned from the mentors around me in that building.

Chris Thomas, now a Centralia College trustee, was our lead page designer. At one point early in my tenure, he questioned a detail in one of my stories. I was pretty sure and told him it was correct.

“Are you 100% sure?” he said. “If you’re wrong, you’re dead to me.”

I was confident.

And, it turns out, I was wrong.

“You’re dead to me,” Chris called out as he fixed on screen what I had gotten wrong. Yikes. He was (mostly) teasing, but it was a good reminder that facts and accuracy matter.

I took that pillar of journalism forward as I was promoted to assistant editor and then editor-in-chief. Along with accuracy, I emphasized to new reporters something else that was crucial — that we need to be fair, honest and keep our opinions out of news stories.

It’s hard. I look back and know that I failed at times. Making factual mistakes is bad. So is allowing your politics or beliefs to slant your stories. I can point to times I failed, and I know that doing this corrodes trust in an institution that is battered nationally from just that problem.

While no reporter is perfect, I know that The Chronicle aims to be a trustworthy institution in our community. With experienced editors overseeing the reporters and dedicated local owners, it has a system to try to keep stories fair. While there is always room to improve and always new cub reporters to mentor, I know they try and that they listen when their subscribers, readers and sources hold them accountable.

Our local newspaper is a valuable institution. And this move to a newly renovated building is a sign that this 136-year-old newspaper is healthy and strong. Few towns or cities can say that about their papers, if they even have one left.
In fact, I think Lewis County has one of the best newspapers in the state, of any size. I’m heartened and thankful to see my hometown newspaper thriving in a difficult time.

The Chronicle was born in 1889, even before Washington became a state. The newspaper operated out of a basement, then it was printed in a building with salmon swimming underneath, and now it’s moving into a new home with a team ready and eager to document our shared life in this great corner of the world.

I’ll miss the old building, but I’m thankful that the newspaper it housed has emerged from its time there strong and ready for a future still unwritten.

There is fresh news to report and fascinating stories to Chronicle.

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Dad joke of the week:
Q: What do you call a former newsroom?
A: An oldsroom.

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Brian Mittge is a community enthusiast who has written for The Chronicle since 2000 as a reporter, editor and columnist. He can be reached at brianmittge@hotmail.com.