The Missouri Miner: Editors-in-Chief: Doug Sobery

Research Project: 100 years of
The Missouri Miner 1915-2015

Est'd. 1915, Fred Grotts, Founder

Doug Sobery
EIC 1996-1997

The following questions and responses were the result of an e-mail interview conducted October 11-16, 2007. -RB

RB: From when to when were you Editor-in-Chief of the Missouri Miner? Who proceeded and followed you in that position? Share your memories of these individuals.

DS: Andy [Dooley] was my predecessor. I don't remember the name of the person who followed me. I almost want to say it was Amy [Jones].

RB: What other positions did you hold on the Missouri Miner staff. How were elections held? How did you become involved with the newspaper?

DS: Prior to becoming EIC, I worked as a staff photographer, photo editor, and news editor. Elections were held at the end of each school year for the following year's staff. Positions were selected by popular vote.

I originally became involved with the Miner while I was working on the yearbook. We had adjoining offices in Norwood Hall and the staffs from both regularly mixed. At some point, one of their photographers convinced me that I would have more fun working for the Miner.

RB: What were the biggest challenges you faced as Editor-in-Chief of the Missouri Miner?

DS: The biggest problem we faced during my year as EIC involved finances. The Miner had significant debt when I took over, so we were always being very cautious about spending money. The downside of this was we were often forced to use older and less reliable equipment (I remember something about a printer we would regularly threaten to throw out a window because it was jammed.) Also, we had to scale back on sending people to conferences and our annual banquet became a BBQ at a nearby park.

RB: Why was the Missouri Miner in debt? How does a student organization such as the Miner acquire debt?

DS: We were spending more on printing and supplies than we were bring in from ad revenue and student fees. There were a number of large trips to conventions in years prior to my tenure and that hurt us.

I should mention that we were in debt to the University and not a financial institution. The University continued to pay our vendors, but there was a great deal of oversight with regards to our spending.

RB: What were your greatest accomplishments as Editor-in-Chief of the Missouri Miner? What issues were most important to you?

DS: Our greatest accomplishment is not mine to claim. Andy, my predecessor, remained on the staff as Business Manager and, both of our years as EIC, we were able to convince Student Council to help with our debt issue. By addressing that issue, both of us hoped to leave a better Miner for those who followed.

RB: What were the arrangements made with Student Council involving the Missouri Miner's finances?

DS: StuCo gave us a one time infusion of funds to cover the majority of our debt. Andy would likely be able to give you more specific details. This was really his baby.

RB: What "big" stories are most memorable to you and why?

DS: I don't remember if this happened the year I was EIC or news editor, but my favorite story was Collin Powell's visit to campus. I attended the press conference prior to his speech and was able to get in several questions. It also gave me a chance to meet and talk with a number of other reporters from St. Louis, Kansas City, AP, etc.

RB: What effect did major national events (i.e. wars, assassinations, etc.) have on the Missouri Miner's reporting? How did you handle these events?

DS: We regularly ran articles in our news section about national events, but I don't remember it being a priority. We focused more on local events that impacted the student body.

RB: How significant a role do you feel you and the Missouri Miner played in campus life during your tenure as Editor-in-Chief?

DS: I would say I personally had little impact on campus life. I was just the guy in the white ball cap. I liked it that way.

The Miner on the other hand had a great deal of impact. We were the voice of the students and took great care to keep the community informed about what the school was up to. I like to think we positively influenced our reader's view of UMR.

RB: You said that you think the Missouri Miner "positively influenced our reader's view of UMR." Did you see enhancing the image of UMR as the mission of the paper? Did you ever take more of an investigative, watchdog role, in your treatment of university news, or did you see the paper's role as mainly public relations?

DS: The Miner was one of many ways people outside the school remained informed about the school. It was not unusual for me to see copies of the paper in place around town like Hardees or the barber shop. I feel this wide distribution helped keep good lines of communication open between UMR and the surrounding community.

We did both. There were many times when we ran articles submitted from the public relations office. Often these were releases on events or issues that the students needed to know about and the Miner was one of the best ways to get that information out.

However, we also did do our share of investigative reporting. One story that I remember was the "used band-aid in the dinner" incident which uncovered a number of health violations in the Quad's cafeteria.

RB: How did your time as Editor-in-Chief of the Missouri Miner help prepare you for life after college? What lessons did you learn?

DS: The biggest thing I walked away with was practical experience managing a staff. Every position I've held since graduation has involved coordinating different groups to accomplish a common goal. My experience with the Miner really helped me prepare for the numerous hurdles any manager faces on a day-to-day basis.

RB: What was your staff like at the Miner? What memories do you have of specific staff members at the newspaper?

DS: I had a great staff and amazing editors.

Andy, whom I've already mentioned, was my right hand and I could not have survived without him. He kept me from doing stupid things like spending too much money or getting too upset when the printer broke.

Rachel Limbaugh also did a great job of keeping me sane and the paper running. She would always be around until the last minute each Monday when we were finishing up the paper.

Another person was our distribution manager Alex Laputz. I can still remember the look on his face when we told him he'd be allowed to drive his car down the middle of campus to deliver papers. We should have never let him do that.

RB: Rachel Limbaugh is somehow related to national talk-radio personality Rush Limbaugh is she not? Were you aware of the relation? What is the relationship? Did this "fame" affect how she acted or was treated on staff?

DS: They were either second or third cousins. She never mentioned him at all unless asked. I actually knew her for some time before I put 37 and 95 together and noticed the last name.

RB: Was there an incident involving Alex Luputz that would make you regret allowing him to drive his car on campus?

DS: No, I just thought it was funny and it became a bit of a joke between us. He would do things like wave to the somewhat stunned people looking at him while he was driving down the middle of the quad area, etc.

RB: Who was the Missouri Miner's faculty advisor? What kind of faculty support/advice/instruction did you receive from professors at the university?

DS: I believe Professor Cummins was our advisor, but I can't be completely sure about that. We didn't really have regular contact with our advisors during my years on staff. With the exception of "the cartoon" incident that happened several years before I became EIC, I don't remember significant contact with our advisors.

RB: Are you sure Dr. Carol Ann Smith was not the advisor for the paper? I know Dr. Elizabeth Cummins was the Department Chair of the English Department, but I never knew that she was possibly at one point the paper's advisor. Dr. Smith was a Philosophy professor and long time advisor of the paper. Does this help?

DS: You're right. It was Carol Ann Smith. I'm losing my memory in my old age.

RB: What was the cartoon incident?

DS: In either 1994 or 1995 there was a cartoon that ran in the paper which contained racial and sexual slurs. It was done as a "joke" between two of the editors. They planned to remove the cartoon from the layout sheets, but forgot and it ran in the paper, slurs and all. There were protests, student meetings, diversity sessions, etc. following the incident. The paper also took a large credibility hit.

RB: Where was the Missouri Miner's office? What equipment did you use to produce the newspaper every week? If you published at the Rolla Daily News (the local city paper), what was your relationship with Ed/Steve Sowers? If not, where did you publish the paper?

DS: We had prime office space on the first floor of Norwood Hall. I always had the feeling we were secretly hated for it. The University made a number of unsuccessful attempts to get us to move out during my time on staff.

We used the Rolla Daily News for our printing and I was a frequent visitor to complain about the quality of work we got from them. I explored a number of other options for printing, but since we were still using manual layouts, we didn't have many good options available.

RB: Did you have any other issues with Steve Sowers of the Rolla Daily News other than overall printing quality of the Missouri Miner?

DS: We had other small issues like not putting the movie schedules in for us. (I still don't understand why we didn't get them directly, but that's how the theater wanted it.) I also felt that we weren't afforded the level of respect we deserved as both a customer and as fellow journalists.

RB: How would you describe your management style?

DS: I tried to keep myself in the role of coordinator rather than manager. I had great section editors and I trusted them. Like all of the editors, I would read over every article going into the paper and make corrections/comments. However, unless I saw specific problems (or was pulled into an issue), I let the editors run their areas as they saw fit.

RB: Describe your relationship with the administration at MSM/UMR.

DS: The administration really left us to our own devices. We made honest attempts to keep a connection between them and the students and I feel they respected us for that.

RB: Describe your relationship with Student Council at MSM/UMR.

DS: Our relationship with StuCo was positive. I remember having a very good working relationship with the StuCo president at the time. We regularly ran articles and letters submitted to us and that helped keep us communicating and working together.

The only negative thing I remember happening was the bailout. They didn't like that they were giving us money, but gaining no influence.

RB: What kind of influence did the Student Council feel it deserved due to its "bailout" of the Missouri Miner?

DS: We felt like they were looking for a degree of editorial input. The Miner existed as an independent entity on campus and that made some member[s] uncomfortable. In the end, we made arrangements to let StuCo have a regular feature article in the paper where they could keep the student body informed on what they were up to.

RB: Did any group (Fraternity, Administration, Student Council, etc.) have what you felt to be undue influence over decisions affecting the newspaper? If so, which groups had this influence and what decisions did they affect?

DS: Amazingly, no. We had a very diverse staff which came from all sorts of backgrounds, majors, fraternities, and organizations.

I will add that I don't think this was always the case in the years leading up to my term as EIC. I think things reached a breaking point just before Andy became EIC.

RB: What was the breaking point regarding influence over the paper that you mentioned occurring prior to Andrew Dooley's tenure as EIC?

DS: When I first joined the paper, there was the definite feel of an "old boys network" in the office. Most of the editorial staff was a close group of friends and they did not always do what was in the best interest of the paper. The cartoon incident for example was a good example of this.

This period is where the paper went into serious debt with the University. I remember something about a large bar tab with Zeno's after one of our banquets.

After this group graduated, these financial and credibility issues began to surface and frustration built among the staff that they were left to fix the problems.

RB: Summarize your thoughts and feelings about your time as Editor-in-Chief of the Missouri Miner.

DS: I have nothing but good memories of my time at the Miner, as both an editor and staff member. I met many great people and came away with excellent practical experience. My biggest hope is that I left things better than I found them.

RB: Recent events on college campuses across the United States have led to a journalism student being tasered by police and a college newspaper editor facing possible termination for use of profanity in an editorial--all in the name of freedom of speech. The Missouri Miner staff has had several conflicts with administrators and the student government over what is printed in the paper and its overall quality, the latest of which may yet lead to a lawsuit. Where do you draw the line between exercising freedom of the press and being a responsible journalist? Have your views on 1st Amendment issues changed since being EIC of the Missouri Miner, and if so how and why?

DS: Being a responsible journalist often means you have to walk a fine line. I believe journalists should be firm, but respectful. While that doesn't mean they should necessarily pull punches in interviews, I do think they need to keep in mind the story they are covering and act accordingly.

RB: Explain how a journalist should "keep in mind the story they are covering and act accordingly."

DS: As part of the preparation process it is important to take what type of story is being written into account. Editorials and feature stories have a much different degree of flexibility than news stories. Specifically when it comes to injecting personal bias and opinion. Sometimes this is forgotten when reporting news and the result is a weaker story.