WSU Professor’s Book Offers A View Through An Editor’s Eyes

PULLMAN, Wash. — “Kill The Editor – The Often Bizarre Relationship With Readers” is a soon-to-be-released book which reflects on the often tumultuous world of a newsroom editor written by long-time professional journalist and Washington State University Associate Professor John R. Irby.

In the foreword to the book, which is scheduled to be released July 1, Peter Bhatia, executive editor of The Oregonian and 2003-04 president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, writes, “Newspaper journalism is a wild, often wonderful, often frustrating, often amazing career.

“Newspaper journalism also brings you into contact with society in all its good and bad, from the stunningly reasonable to the sadly insane,” he said. “Kill the Editor is a reflection of that … Some of what you read will amuse you, some will depress you. But it accurately represents a big part of the wild, wonderful world of editing a newspaper.”

Irby joined the WSU journalism faculty in the fall of 1999 after more than 25 years experience in newspapers. He began his career in community journalism as a reporter and photographer at a 4,000-circulation weekly in Southern California and later worked as an editor at the 450,000-circulation San Francisco Chronicle. He has also held the publisher’s job at small and medium-sized daily newspapers and was editor in chief of two newspaper groups with more than 100,000 subscribers.

As a faculty member in the Edward R. Murrow School of Communication at WSU in Pullman, Irby regularly teaches news writing and reporting, news editing and public affairs reporting. As opportunity arises, he also teaches newspaper management, media ethics, sports reporting and public relations techniques and media usage.

Irby received a journalism degree from Pepperdine University in Los Angeles, where he also did some graduate work. He is a past president of the California Society of Newspaper Editors and has been a member of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, Associated Press Managing Editors, Toastmasters and Rotary International.

Since his arrival at WSU, Irby has revived and served as adviser to the student chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. He also serves as the School of Communication print media representative with the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association and Pacific Northwest Newspaper Association, and served for five years on WSU’s Board of Student Publications. He is a board member of the Washington News Council and past board member of the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association.

Irby writes a twice-a-month column for The Moscow-Pullman Daily News, and has two additional book writing projects underway. “Kill the Kids,” is an account of life with his young children as a 50-plus-year-old parent and surrogate for many of his college-aged students. “Reporting That Matters – A Look at Public Affairs Coverage from a New but Grounded Perspective,” is a journalism textbook due out January 2005, to be published by Allyn and Bacon (co-authored with assistant professor Kenton Bird of the University of Idaho).

His recent research includes a 56-page booklet, “Generation Y – Back to the Future (Again),” detailing a yearlong program and grant that looked at the newspaper-reading habits of Generation Y students. He also wrote a research paper, “Front-Page ads: The good, the bad and the ugly,” and presented it at the National Newspaper Association annual meeting in September 2002. The paper followed a survey of 900 newspaper publishers, editors and advertising directors concerning front-page newspaper ads.

Irby and his wife, Lisa, live in Pullman, and have four sons, Derren (18) Dustin (14), Noah (8) and Hank Aaron Irby (5). His personal interests include writing, family, religion, the Internet, reading, films, art, music, sports and travel.

Note to Editors: Irby will make himself available for media interviews to discuss the specifics of his book – or the changes taking place today in newspapers and the converging media, including the ever-broadening concerns of credibility and ethics. He can be contacted at (509) 335-1547 or (509) 332-6067, or via e-mail at jirby@wsu.edu, irby@turbonet.com or ljmedia@turbonet.com, or via mail at 910 S.E. Derby St., Pullman, WA 99163.