Editor with an Edge

Houston Chronicle editor Jeff Cohen, BJ ’76, has led the newspaper through one of the toughest periods in media history and in the process become a model for the modern newspaper editor by Michael Hardy photos by Jay B. Sauceda

60 The Alcalde January|February 2011 January|February 2011 The Alcalde 00 Jeff Cohen gets mail.

“‘I SAW YOUR EDITORIAL ABOUT THE GULF SPILL,” Since 2002, Cohen has been the edi- Like many daily newspapers, the he reads aloud from a handwritten note he tor and executive vice president of the Chronicle has lost circulation and adver- just received. “It looked like a page of U.S. Chronicle, the seventh-largest daily news- tising revenue over the past decade. But government propaganda. You need to re- paper in the country by circulation. In that despite the diffi cult times, the Chronicle consider your role as a journalist…’” time, the Chronicle has redesigned its print has remained profi table by streamlining its The elderly writer had hand-deliv- edition, added a Spanish-language supple- operations and aggressively expanding its ered the letter earlier in the morning to ment (La Voz), and expanded into social online presence. During his tenure as edi- the Houston Chronicle. She even called media like Facebook and Twitter. Cohen tor, Cohen has led the paper’s coverage of up to Cohen’s offi ce from the lobby to also redesigned and bulked up the pa- the Enron collapse, hurricanes Katrina and make sure he had received it. “I get about per’s website, which draws close to 8 mil- Rita, the space shuttle Columbia disaster, fi ve of these a day,” Cohen says ruefully. lion visitors a month. More than 2 million problems with the Houston police depart- “Here’s one that came yesterday.” He Houstonians read the Chronicle online or ment’s crime lab, and the 2005 explosion hands over a full-page, single-spaced rant in print each week, making it second only at BP’s Texas City refi nery. The Chronicle’s about the Chronicle’s coverage of Mexi- to the Washington Post in market penetra- investigation of the Texas City explosion, can immigration. tion among the country’s top 10 markets. which killed 15 workers and injured al- “These people have no right to be in Cohen’s success has not gone unno- most 200 more, provided early evidence of our country and have not [sic] legal rights!” ticed. In 2007 the National Press Founda- BP’s poor safety record. the letter reads. “I am tired of the Mexicans tion awarded him the Benjamin Bradlee “I don’t think anybody covered the that I see in the streets, in stores, and in Editor of the Year award, calling him “a Texas City disaster with the intensity of the businesses waving the Mexican fl ag and model for the modern newspaper edi- Chronicle, from the explosion to the reso- chanting, ‘Viva Mexico, hurray Mexico.’” tor.” In 2008 the Chronicle was named the lution in the courts,” Cohen says. “That ob- Cohen, BJ ’76, responds to many of the state’s top metropolitan newspaper by the viously set us up to have a knowledge base letters personally. The one about illegal im- Texas Associated Press Managing Editors. to cover the catastrophe that was Deepwa- migration, though, is sitting in his inbox. “I’m And this October, the University of Texas ter Horizon.” not really sure how to respond until I calm College of Communication presented Throughout his career, Cohen has down,” he says. “Anyway, that gives you an him with its prestigious Robert C. Jeffrey put into practice the old journalism mantra idea of the kind of people who write in.” Benefactor Award. about comforting the affl icted and affl icting

In 2007 the National Press Foundation award- ed him the Benjamin Bradlee Editor of the Year award, calling him “a model for the modern newspaper editor.”

62 The Alcalde January|February 2011 Whether it’s investigating BP, taking a controversial early stand against the Iraq War, or endorsing Barack Obama for president — the fi rst time the Chronicle had endorsed a Democrat since Lyndon Johnson — Cohen likes to shake things up. the comfortable. Whether it’s investigat- Antonio Light. newspaper, the Houston Post, and folded ing BP, taking a controversial early stand “Mike’s classes were so good that it into the Chronicle.) against the Iraq War, or endorsing Barack even though you’d been out drinking beer After fi nishing up in San Antonio, Obama for president — the fi rst time the the night before you would show up for an Cohen moved to New York City to take Chronicle had endorsed a Democrat since 8 o’clock class,” Cohen says. “He was the a corporate position with Hearst. At the Lyndon Johnson — Cohen likes to shake guy who taught you right from wrong. You time, Hearst was experimenting with a lit- things up. That hasn’t always gone over learned certain rules: you don’t bury your tle-known medium called the Internet. To well in Houston, which is demographically lead, you don’t split your infi nitives, you someone who had started his career us- divided between largely white, Fox News- don’t misplace your modifi ers. He taught ing a typewriter, this was heady stuff. But watching suburbanites and an increas- me that, and it stuck with me. Then, he was Cohen was intrigued, and when Hearst ingly diverse and liberal urban population. always there on the end of the telephone dispatched him to Albany, N.Y., to be the Hence the nasty letters. But the way Cohen when I needed advice in my early years as editor of the Albany Times-Union, he sees it, if he isn’t making someone mad, he a reporter and editor.” decided to try something new. In 1994 a isn’t doing his job. At the Light, Cohen spent his fi rst massive outdoor music festival was held “Houston is a target-rich environ- three years covering the San Antonio in Saugerties, N.Y., to commemorate the ment,” Cohen says, grinning like a hunter Spurs. During the off-season, beat report- 25th anniversary of Woodstock. As the surveying a game preserve. “There are a ers like Cohen would rotate through others closest major daily newspaper to the lot of stories here, whether it’s the energy positions at the paper. He worked on the event, the Times-Union sent a team of sector, the medical center, NASA, immigra- copy desk, laid out the paper, and volun- reporters and photographers. It was Co- tion, or the drug cartels. There are people teered to write news and feature stories, hen’s idea to set up a website featuring the who fi nd us too conservative and those experiences that became useful during his paper’s coverage. As one of the fi rst news- who fi nd us too liberal. You just have to eventual ascent to upper management. papers in the country to venture onto the look at the issues.” Over the next 15 years, Cohen slowly Internet, the Times-Union was planting a climbed the editorial ladder, from reporter, fl ag on virgin soil. to assistant managing editor for sports and “The people interested in Woodstock Cultivating an Editor features, to managing editor, the number were tech-savvy, so it seemed like a natu- two position at the newspaper. In 1992 ral thing to do,” Cohen says. “Our traffi c Cohen fi rst became interested in jour- the Hearst Corporation, which owned the was low, at best, because there weren’t nalism as an undergraduate at UT in the Light, announced that it had purchased many people who had the bandwidth to mid-1970s, when a friend on the staff the paper’s local rival, the San Antonio accept what we were pushing out. But it of the Daily Texan asked him to write Express-News, from Rupert Murdoch. was still an important experiment because an article about the men’s golf team. After Hearst failed to fi nd a buyer for the it dabbed our toe into the water.” Although he didn’t have any reporting Light, it decided to close the paper, laying Cohen gained a reputation in the experience, he felt confi dent enough to off hundreds of journalists. Cohen was giv- newspaper industry as a technological in- accept the assignment. en the thankless job of winding down the novator, and he brought his new-media “I played golf, and I knew golf,” Co- Light’s operations. savvy to Houston when Hearst appointed hen explains. “When my byline appeared “It was an extremely diffi cult period him editor of the Chronicle in 2002. For over that story, my parents were so proud in my career,” Cohen says. “It’s tough to Cohen, it was a homecoming. Although of that, and I thought that maybe this is have to shut a newspaper down. So many he was born in Cheyenne, Wyo., Cohen something I should pursue.” of my good friends had lost their jobs or moved with his parents to Houston when Cohen majored in journalism and left San Antonio. But there are reasons he was a child and graduated from Bellaire rose to become the Daily Texan’s manag- these things happen. The economy in the High School. ing editor. His favorite professor was Mike early ’90s just could not support more than At the Chronicle Cohen began to re- Quinn, who became a mentor to Cohen and one newspaper in a market.” (This was engineer what had become, to many crit- helped him get his fi rst post-college job, as true across the country. Three years later, ics, a newspaper that was too deferential a sports reporter for the now-defunct San Hearst bought Houston’s second daily to city offi cials and too complacent in its

January|February 2011 The Alcalde 63 “Jeff backed me up without batting an eye and without giving it a second thought. He stood up to the powers that be, and I’ve seen that on a couple of occasions.”

64 The Alcalde January|February 2011 “Now I have this wonderful bronze Bevo,” Cohen says, laughing as he proudly hoists the statue. “I often take it home and spoon with it in bed.”

monopoly as the city’s only daily newspa- fi re alarm by opening the emergency exit allowed Michaels to temporarily step per. Cohen replaced many of the paper’s door, a prank he continued to play at the down as city editor in the wake of 9/11 to top editors with new recruits from around San Antonio Light, where both of them cover the impending war in Afghanistan. the country. He made high-profi le hires of ended up after graduating. Then there was Throughout his career, Cohen has been Nick Anderson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning Cohen’s coiffure. known as a writer’s editor, willing to take editorial cartoonist, and veteran reporter “He had this gigantic cloud of curly a chance on a journalist or a story he be- Joe Holley. More importantly, though, Co- hair around his head in college that he lieves in when other editors might be ner- hen set a new tone for the paper. called the Jewfro,” says Tumulty, now a vously eyeing the bottom line. “There was “He really doesn’t take any crap,” says political reporter for the Washington Post. almost no reason for Jeff to let me go [to deputy managing editor Kyrie O’Connor, He later became something of a dan- Afghanistan], because he would lose a city whom Cohen lured away from the Hart- dy. Cohen shops at M. Penner, Houston’s editor, and wouldn’t get much in return,” ford Courant to revamp the Chronicle’s fi nest men’s clothier, and has his Jewfro Michaels says. “Again, he didn’t hesitate to arts and entertainment section. “And I groomed alongside River Oaks heiresses allow me to do it.” think for this newspaper that was exactly at Cerón salon. In college, though, Cohen Returning to Texas to edit the Chron- the right approach. I wasn’t here under the blended into the crowd. Tumulty recalls icle gave Cohen an opportunity to recon- previous management, but I have a feeling him wearing “the same raggedy jeans as nect with UT. He became a member of the it was a little laid-back. It isn’t laid-back everybody else.” In San Antonio, he of- College of Communication advisory coun- any more.” Using a metaphor appropriate ten hosted staff parties at his apartment, cil, serving as chair from 2006 to 2008. Co- for somebody who got his start as a sports where cheap beer was more likely to be hen still drives to Austin once or twice a reporter, O’Connor says that Cohen has found than fi ne wine. “He’s one of the last month to participate in council meetings. “really upped the game here.” people I would have tagged to become a In his expansive corner offi ce on the fi fth powerful newspaper editor,” Tumulty says. fl oor of the Chronicle building, next to a But a powerful newspaper editor photograph of himself with Dan Rather, Details Make the Man is exactly what Cohen became, winning another member of the advisory council, numerous admirers along the way. Jim Cohen keeps the Longhorn statuette he Cohen wasn’t always known as an exact- Michaels, now a military reporter for USA was given for his service to the University. ing, by-the-books personality. As an un- Today, worked with Cohen at the Light “Now I have this wonderful bronze dergraduate at UT, he was more interested and the Albany Times-Union. Michaels Bevo,” Cohen says, laughing as he proudly in parties and sports than academics. In a recalls Cohen as a fearless managing hoists the statue. “I often take it home and commencement address he delivered to editor at the Light. Michaels covered the spoon with it in bed.” the College of Communication’s class of military and, after writing some critical When asked what advice he would 2003, Cohen admitted that if the Top Ten stories about a local Air Force base, was give to today’s journalism students, who Percent law had been in effect in 1972 he called into a meeting with the base’s pub- are entering the most challenging job probably wouldn’t have been accepted to lic affairs representative, Cohen, and the market in recent memory, Cohen didn’t the University. Light’s editor. hesitate. “I remember when I showed [my “I thought I was in trouble,” Mi- “Do it,” he said. “Because you can mother] my brand new UT diploma, and chaels says. “Jeff backed me up without change the world. You can make your I looked at her face and saw amazement,” batting an eye, and without giving it a sec- community a better place. You walk by Cohen joked in the speech. ond thought. He stood up to the powers the UT Tower and inscribed near the Karen Tumulty, who worked with that be, and I’ve seen that on a couple of base is ‘Ye shall know the truth and the Cohen on the Daily Texan, remembers occasions.” truth shall make you free.’ That is what that Cohen liked to set off the building’s Later, at the Times-Union, Cohen we do here.”

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