ASNE: Getting all aTwitter makes a difference in disaster
Steve Buttry
This column was written for the ASNE magazine The American Editor and appeared on its web site on Aug. 18, 2008.
By now, most journalists know the story about Steve Buttry: New guy comes to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to take over as editor of The Gazette on June 10. Two days later, floodwaters plunge a staff he’s barely met into the story of the year.
What they might not know is why Buttry left the American Press Institute, where he had been director of tailored programs for the past three years. Why would he move to the middle of the country to run a newspaper newsroom in the midst of a well-documented slump in the newspaper industry?
The answer, Buttry said, is that the Gazette’s owners, independent Gazette Communications, believe as he does that digital is the future, and they were willing to invest in it. “I thought it was a great opportunity to see if I could really make it work,” Buttry said. Read more