IWMF Live

Narda Zacchino, San Francisco Chronicle

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Welcome to IWMF Live. Today's host is Narda Zacchino. She is an IWMF board member and associate executive editor of the San Francisco Chronicle.

Sept. 23, 2002

Sizarina Hamis: With the pressure of modern news rooms and i, as a woman, find it very humiliating sometimes, when i'm being denied to cover, let's say riots or police cases just simply because i'm "woman" and women are not supposed to cover those "tough" assigments. How can i correct this impression to my bosses who according to them "women are supposed to be taken softly", it's really putting not me only down, but the entire women in my newspaper.

Narda Zacchino: It is very important to correct this situation. It actually happened to me when I first started at the Los Angeles Times, when I was told I could not be assigned to the police beat--the usual starting point for entry-level journalists--because I was a woman and the cops would be "uncomfortable" having a woman in such a place. I also was once held back from covering a massive wildfire--a sure page one story-- because I was "dressed too nice." In the first instance I suggested it was not up to the police to tell The Times who to assign to their beat. And in the second I asked the city editor not to worry about my dress since he did not worry about the man he assigned messing up his clothes. He saw the light and the next big disaster, a flood--he assigned to me. I found in both cases it was better not to hit the editor over the head complaining about discrimination; he just needed to be educated. You could do the same. You can explain that sometimes women can do a better job in a "tough" assignment, that some cops will tell women things when they won't talk to men, and that the number of women covering the Afghan war and the Gulf war and the Mideast conflict should be a good example for what women can do in tough situations.

Paula Kelley: After spending so much of your career with one company, how did you adjust to a new work culture at the Chronicle? Do you feel you had to earn the respect of the staff?

Narda Zacchino: I had several opportunities to leave the Los Angeles Times in my 31 years there, but the time never felt "right" until I was asked to come to The Chronicle. What moved me was the challenge of trying to make a good newspaper into a great one. It did not hurt that it happened to be in one of the most beautiful cities in the world. When I come across the Bay Bridge every day I am totally awestruck, after 16 months, with the sheer beauty of the place. The culture of the newsroom is different in many respects from The Times, but it is a newspaper after all, and a good story is a good story. I actually came into this job with the respect earned from my years at The Times, which is a respected newspaper in this newsroom and in the industry. When people here asked: "Why would you leave The Los Angeles Times to come to The Chronicle?" I answered "to help make this a world-class newspaper." That's a goal that everyone here shares, and I haven't regretted for a second making the move.

Lori Grimm: What is your typical workday like?

Narda Zacchino: My typical workday is 9-10 hours in the office and more time at home, reading stories, trying to catch up on email, taking calls about late-breaking news, etc. I run the three page-one meetings, around which my day is built. We--top editors and section heads-- conceive stories in the morning, work them throughout the day and then make decisions in the early evening about where to place them in the newspaper. The hardest decisions come when there are more stories worth the front page than we have slots for (6) and when there are not enough stories worth the front page. I'll take a lot of news anytime! Throughout the day I attend meetings as a top editor with people from my department as well as other departments, make personnel decisions, meet with members of the public. I serve on three paperwide "strategic" committees involving planning for future initiatives. And of course, breaking news takes precedence over everything.

Shelly Jones: What was the biggest sacrifice you had to make for your career?

Narda Zacchino: The sacrifice one usually refers to involves family. I was very lucky because I have a husband who is a journalist who understood the demands of the profession--and the thrills and woes--and who was able to take on many of the childcare duties when I was rising through the editor ranks. He actually quit his job at The Times to freelance at home as our two sons reached pre-teen years. All of my leisure time was spent with family--still is--so I can't really name anything that I feel I sacrificed.

Patricia Newambo: Does your paper cover news differently because you, as a woman, are in its leadership?

Narda Zacchino: I feel strongly that women bring a different perspective to news coverage. Gone are the days when male-run newsrooms did not see stories about health, education, childcare, poverty, domestic violence as page one stories. Women in newsrooms helped change the definition of what page one news is. We do pursue stories that affect people's lives more than when I got into this business and coverage was much more institutional. (Try to see a documentary--just won an Emmy--called "She Said: Women in News" that answers this really well.)

Monica Wilkerson: How did you create the position of reader's representative at the LA Times? And what did you do in this position?

Narda Zacchino: I polled hundreds of editors across the nation to see what they were doing to become better connected to readers. I took the best of the models and crafted a department that best served The Times. I have since created a 3-persons readers' rep department at the Chronicle. At The Times, I wrote an occasional column. My staff also answered all phone calls, email and letters. (The column was discontined when I left the paper to come to The Chronicle.) We wrote a weekly report to the staff and to the top management of the paper. And we oversaw implementation of the corrections policy (which I wrote). The Chronicle's department is very similar. I would be happy to help anyone set up such a department anywhere else.

Marie Bonner: I am a student and want to know what the best preparation for a career in journalism is. I am currently attending a good school, but it has no journalism department. Should I transfer to a school with a good journalism department? Some people I've talked to say that I should get a good, general undergraduate education and then go to a graduate school of journalism. What did you do? What do you think?

Narda Zacchino: I was an English major, and I would suggest majoring in something other than journalism and working on your school paper for the journalism experience. I feel strongly that a broader general education background is a really good way to go, especially if you go to journalism graduate school. Work on you school paper, weekly papers in your community, etc...for the practical experience. Most of all, read the paper, take a writing course and keep yourself informed. Go online and read how different papers cover the big stories of the day. Good luck!

Eliza Sanchez: I supervise a department where most of the staff are men. I have not yet found the way to earn their respect. After a year in the job, they continue to treat me as though I were a colleague and do not take me seriously. How have you handled this kind of situation?

Narda Zacchino: This is tough when it happens. In my case, I worked harder than anybody who worked for me. That meant working long hours, including some holidays that I could have taken off, but I wanted to indicate that I appreciated their being there. I worked hard to offer creative ideas for stories that excited reporters and helped them "raise the bar" by challenging them to do better so that when they succeeded, they were appreciative. One huge key was that I treat everyone with respect and always give people credit publicly for doing things that made me, or our department, look good. This is very big with me. So is not pretending that I have all the answers because no one does. And I admit when I am wrong when that's the case. There is nothing so empowering for a subordinate than to be told by his or her boss that they are right. And don't forget to thank them for it.

Justine Allen: Did you ever have times when you doubted whether you were "cut out" for the career? Or, more accurately, moments when you questioned if your strengths could carry you as far as they have now? I'm amazed by women in your position who have beat the odds and moved ahead; I'm still new to the field and am trying to determine if I have what it takes to go as far as I'd like to go.

Narda Zacchino: I never considered that I was not "cut out" for this position, or career. For women my age, coming through the women's movement, entering an all-male or male-dominated business, you had to be tough to survive. I was not that way at first, but I got there fast.

Thanks so much to Narda Zacchino for joining us online today.

Please join us again tomorrow when we'll be chatting with Akwe Amosu, executive editor/producer of allAfrica.com.