May 17, 2007

Monroe was awarded a Distinguished Alumnus Award from the College of Arts & Sciences, one of four recipients of the prestigious honor.

Monroe regales journalism students with tales of covering Katrina

By Tim Watanabe
June 26, 2007

Imagine heading to work after one of the deadliest and most destructive storms in the nation’s history has decimated your hometown. There’s no running water, telephone, Internet or sewer service. The generator has just enough power to keep the lights on and the computers running. You sleep on the office floor and survive for days off cold cuts, Pop Tarts and peanut butter sandwiches.

If you were part of Bryan Monroe’s team from the Mississippi Sun-Herald covering Hurricane Katrina, this is what you experienced.

“I was in Biloxi, Miss., the day Katrina hit,” said Monroe, who graduated from the UW in 1987 with a bachelor’s degree in Communications. “I gathered up a team of reporters and photographers and we helped the paper continue to print through the storm. We never missed a day.”

Monroe’s work earned him and his team a Pulitzer Prize Gold Medal for Public Service in 2006.

Now president of the National Association for Black Journalists and vice president and editorial director for both EBONY and JET magazines, Monroe visited Karen Rathe’s Community News Lab in May, 2007. He was in town to accept a Distinguished Alumnus Award from the College of Arts & Sciences, one of four recipients of the prestigious honor.

A “Husky for life,” Monroe is quick to credit his successes in journalism to his experiences as a reporter and editor for The Daily.

“To write good, effective stories you need to have depth, and to have depth you need to know how to report,” Monroe said. “The best way to learn that is in a newspaper setting — you see the bigger picture.

“If it weren’t for the things I learned while I was at The Daily, I would not have won the Pulitzer.”

After graduating from the UW, Monroe spent 19 years working for newspapers, mainly for Knight Ridder, the news conglomerate responsible for publishing 32 daily papers. While there, he steadily climbed the corporate ladder and eventually became Assistant Vice President of News in San Jose, Calif., before the company was sold to McClatchy in June 2006. For Monroe, it represented the chance not only to start over, but to break new ground.

“The [layoff] created a chance for me to re-invent my career,” Monroe said. “You just never know what life is going to throw at you.”

Having already made a name for himself in the African-American journalism community, Monroe used the opportunity to make connections for his current magazine job and become more active in his role as president of NABJ, traveling around the world to attend meetings and give lectures. Monroe highly recommends that young journalists of color join similar groups to become more active in, and aware of, the issues surrounding their particular ethnic communities.

“Twenty percent of the NABJ membership is composed of college students, and it’s about the same with the AAJA (Asian-American Journalists Association),” cited Monroe. “As a student, you will learn and be exposed to so much … from people who are already out there getting it done.”

Monroe spent most of his editorial career with the San JoseMercury News, one of the most diverse newspapers in the world. During the time he was there, the percentage of non-Caucasian journalists on staff increased from 9 percent to 33 percent, double the industry standard.

His boss’ hiring precedent really meant a lot to him, as Monroe noted that one of the fundamental aspects of doing good journalism includes diversity. Additionally, he said it was important for the medium to accurately reflect the surrounding community.

“If a city’s population is 20 percent black, then the newspaper staff should be 20 percent black,” said Monroe. “Each paper needs to be representative of its community so everyone has a voice — it’s as significant as spelling the mayor’s name right.”

Monroe offered startling statistics concerning the lack of diversity in newsrooms today.

“Half of the [daily] newspapers in the U.S. today don’t have people of color on their staff,” said Monroe. “It’s human nature to surround ourselves with people we are comfortable with, and because of that, it’s left unchecked. We need to take an aggressive, active step to change that or it will never change.”

Though Monroe is currently at the pinnacle of his career, happily married with a wife and two young daughters, it wasn’t always easy. Monroe recalled all too well the arduous path he took as an UW undergraduate. It took him three tries to just get accepted into the then-School of Communications, but it was the first two experiences that taught him the most about character.

“Back then, I decided I wasn’t going to take ‘no’ for an answer,” said Monroe. “You’re going to be told ‘no’ a lot in this career. … I just kept pushing and pushing. Don’t let it get to you.”

Monroe’s words hit home with News Lab students, many of whom will shortly be out in the job market.

“ Bryan was by far the best speaker we’ve had in class,” said junior Kevin Grimes. “It’s great and really encouraging to see where fellow UW students can end up.”

TIM WATANABE is a student in the University of Washington Department of Communication News Laboratory.

Spring 2006 Activities and Awards

May 18, 2006

Bryan Monroe (BA, 1987), won a 2006 Pulitzer awarded for the team effort covering Katrina for the Biloxi Sun Herald (one of our papers that reports to him). He led the Knight Ridder team that was there the day the hurricane hit.

Mr. Monroe was also the recipient of a 2006 NAMME “Award of Valor for Courageous Leadership” for his leadership in Katrina.

Bryan Monroe also returned from Tanzania where he led a delegation of black journalists to cover malaria there. You can read their daily updates at www.nabj.org.

Spring 2005 Departmental Visit

May 2, 2005

Bryan Monroe, a 1987 graduate of the Department, visited campus on April 28 and spoke in 3 Communication courses: a course on graphics/design taught by Karen Rathe; beginning reporting taught by Mike Henderson; and a political communication course taught by Lance Bennett. Our communication students and faculty thoroughly enjoyed Bryan Monroe’s talks and were excited to hear his real-world experiences and advice.

Bryan Monroe also visited with Ernest Morris (VP of Student Affairs) who had been a mentor for him, and with the outgoing publisher of the Daily, Oren Campbell. Monroe also met with two Seattle Times editors – Editor Mike Fancher (’86, Business) and Managing Editor David Boardman (’83, Communication).