In his first week as editor of
The (Cedar Rapids, Iowa) Gazette, Steve Buttry quickly learned how the paper's newsroom works when forced to cover a natural disaster. He also learned the power of journalists helping journalists.
As journalists in Iowa struggle to cover the floods while balancing the flood's toll on their personal lives, they are seeking -- and finding -- help from other journalists who understand their plights and want to help them cope.
We've tracked five journalists who are all connected through their efforts to help one another. The "pay-it-forward" chain ends with Steve Buttry, editor of
The Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Gazette, and starts with Susan Kille, editor of content development for
The New York Times regional media group.
Several journalists, such as Dan Shea, managing editor/news at
The Times-Picayune, have sent e-mails of encouragement, congratulating the newsroom on their efforts. Some, like Jennifer Brown, metro zone layout editor at
The Times-Picayune, have coordinated efforts to send care packages to the
Gazette, while others have donated money through the
Iowa Newspaper Employees Disaster Relief Fund, organized by the Iowa Newspaper Foundation. The need is great, Buttry said, as 23
out of 616
Gazette employees company-wide have been displaced from their homes.
"I didn't know how much a simple e-mail or phone call means until now," Buttry said. "I'm not a weepy guy, but I’ve had some moist eyes and a choked throat for a time or two reading the things that people have sent."
The care packages and the e-mails, at least one of which Buttry has read aloud to the whole newsroom, have given journalists at the
Gazette a sense that they belong to a community that understands the difficulty of covering natural disasters that can damage, or completely ruin, the place you call home.
Ann Maloney, arts and entertainment editor at
The Times-Picayune, who received help from members of the
American Association of Sunday and Feature Editors during Hurricane Katrina, asked her colleagues in the paper's Living section to gather toiletries, gift cards, baked goods, etc., for journalists in the features departments at the
Globe Gazette and the
Gazette. Boxes are filling up now and scheduled to go out on Monday to Iowa.
The aerial photos of the flooding in Iowa, Maloney said, filled her with a sense of dread. "The feeling of deja vu is pretty intense, and you just know what they're going through. It's very upsetting because you know it's not going to be a matter of cleaning out your basement and moving on when you have a little street flooding."
Receiving help from other journalists is especially gratifying, Maloney said, because journalists seem genuinely interested in hearing people's stories.
Journalists she met at conventions and writing contests wanted to hear her Katrina story, and still do, even years later. "The thing that meant a lot to me was that journalists tried to understand what we were going through. We really seemed to want to hear the impact. I guess because they're journalists, they wanted the facts. Where did you go? What did you do? They wanted to hear your story, and they wanted to take the time to really listen."
It was her friend Suzy Leonard, who Maloney said helped her the most. Leonard, features editor at
Florida Today in Melbourne, Fla., visited Maloney after Katrina to help rebuild her house, which had been flooded with more than five feet of water. Maloney helped put up Sheetrock in the house, and did some spackling and painting. The two friends, who met in 1990 while working at
The Daily Comet in Thibodaux, La., said they share a mutual understanding of what it means to have to cover a tragedy while living through it.
Helping other journalists during times of need, Leonard said, can lead to greater possibilities for localizing stories about natural disasters.
Upon returning from New Orleans, Leonard wrote about her experiences in a
Florida Today column, "New Orleans Maintaining Tough Spirit After Katrina Beating."
"As a journalist, there's an overwhelming desire to have your small part in being involved in this huge news story," Leonard said.
When she was in need of help, Maloney returned the favor by helping Leonard think of story ideas and by giving her moral support during the 2004 hurricane season in Florida.
"We were lucky. We didn't have much damage to our home, and were only without power for a couple of hours during all three storms that came over us," said Leonard. "But she called regularly and checked on me and we bounced story ideas around. Being in an emergency situation changes the way you do features. Instead of turning in stories several days before publication, you have to switch mindset and write on deadline to get relevant stories into the paper as quickly as possible. It helps to have someone to kick ideas around with so you don't miss anything."
Maloney said she also received help from former colleague Susan Kille, who sent her a suitcase filled with chocolate chip cookies, a white cotton nightgown and a bottle of white wine and red wine, among other goods.
"It's one of those cases where you say, 'I'll do whatever I can do to help,' and you're so happy when someone actually gives you an assignment," Kille said.
The fact that many journalists make low salaries is an additional incentive to want to help. "Nobody gets into journalism to get a lot of money, and if suddenly they lose their house or they lose all their belongings, it's going to hit you hard."
The Gazette and other news organizations in Iowa have been hit hard, but journalists' efforts to support them have softened the blow for some. Though journalists like Maloney may not have sent care packages directly to Buttry, by helping the newsroom they helped remind him of the camaraderie that the journalism profession can breed in times of need.
"I think in some ways journalism is just one big small town," Buttry said. "... When somebody else is doing the big story, you're almost simultaneously jealous that you didn't get a piece of the action, but you're also sympathetic to the personal and professional challenges that it presents. There's something about the big story that touches the heart and the nerve of any journalist."
[Click here to share your stories about how fellow journalists have helped you.]
