Denise M. (Robbins) Mize, 75, of Mendon, Mass., died May 7 in her home.
Mize was a reporter and columnist at the Milford (Mass.) Daily News.
She leaves two sons, Robert and Derek; six grandchildren, Andrew, Tyler, Curtis, Brett, Alec and Colby; a half-brother.
The obituaries were written, at least in part, from published reports by Bulletin correspondent Nimra Aziz, an undergraduate student in the Northeastern University School of Journalism.
Robert F. Kirk, 84, of Santa Barbara, Calif., died May 30 in Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital.
For 33 years, he was a reporter and later wire editor for the company that owned the former Evening Gazette and its successor, combined newspaper, the Telegram & Gazette of Worcester, Mass. He retired in 1994.
Kirk leaves his wife, Maureen; three sons, Robert Jr., Richard and John; a daughter, Anne.
The obituaries were written, at least in part, from published reports by Bulletin correspondent Nimra Aziz, an undergraduate student in the Northeastern University School of Journalism.
James Gregory Robertson, 74, died June 4.
He was a journalist for 20 years, beginning in Arizona. He was a general assignment reporter, travel editor, rock reviewer, and assistant night editor in his 18 years with The Hartford (Conn.) Courant.
He also had been press secretary and chief of staff for then-Hartford Mayor Carrie Saxon Perry.
According to the Courant’s obituary on Roberston: “Tragedy struck in 2007 when a home invasion and miscarriage of justice landed our dear Greg in prison.”
He was tried for murder in 2008, a trial that ended in a hung jury. In 2009, a jury convicted Robertson of first-degree manslaughter with a firearm, and he was sentenced to 12 years in prison. The charges stemmed from an incident in which Robertson shot and killed a man Robertson said entered his kitchen and punched him before the shots were fired.
Robertson leaves a daughter, grandchildren, and a brother.
The obituaries were written, at least in part, from published reports by Bulletin correspondent Nimra Aziz, an undergraduate student in the Northeastern University School of Journalism.
Doris “Dee” Maggiori, 94, of Trumbull, Conn., died June 2 in St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Bridgeport, Conn.
She wrote feature stories for the Catholic Transcript of New Haven, Conn. and for the former Bridgeport Sunday Post for 12 years.
In 1984, Maggiori became one of the co-founders of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bridgeport’s Fairfield County Catholic, based in Bridgeport. For 13 years, she was assistant editor there before retiring to become a columnist in 1997.
Maggiori’s column, In the Spirit, appeared in the Fairfield County Catholic and the Catholic Journal of Edgewater, Fla., for more than 10 years. She was also a freelance reporter for the Catholic News Service of Washington, D.C.
Maggiori was on the board of directors of the Fairfield County Branch of the National League of American Pen Women, a group of writers, artists and composers, and was its membership chairwoman. She co-produced and was a frequent host of a television program, “Creative Women, Today.”
She leaves two nieces, Michele and Sharon; a grandniece, Nina; a godchild, Lisa; several members of her adopted families.
The obituaries were written, at least in part, from published reports by Bulletin correspondent Nimra Aziz, an undergraduate student in the Northeastern University School of Journalism.
Mary E. “Betty” Letoile, 91, of Providence, R.I., died June 1 at The Little Sisters of the Poor in Washington, D.C., a Roman Catholic religious institute for women.
Her first job after business school was as a bookkeeper at The Standard-Times of New Bedford, Mass.
Letoile leaves a son, The Very Rev. Kenneth; four daughters, Susan, Nancy, Corinne and Marilyn; seven grandchildren; 11 great-grandchildren.
The obituaries were written, at least in part, from published reports by Bulletin correspondent Nimra Aziz, an undergraduate student in the Northeastern University School of Journalism.
Steve Szkotak, 65, of Richmond, Va., died May 31 in his home.
He was an editor for 13 years at the Daily Hampshire Gazette of Northampton, Mass. Previously, he was a reporter for a decade with the United Press International in New Hampshire and Rhode Island.
In 2002, Szkotak became a journalist with The Associated Press.
Szkotak leaves his wife, Mandy; a daughter, Molly; a son, Frederick; a brother; two sisters.
The obituaries were written, at least in part, from published reports by Bulletin correspondent Nimra Aziz, an undergraduate student in the Northeastern University School of Journalism.
Michael Whitmer will become director of external communications at Travelers insurance company in Hartford, Conn., after covering his last sports event for The Boston Globe, the U.S. Open golf tournament June 16 to June 19.
As a sportswriter at the Globe, Whitmer has covered golf, the New England Patriots, and other sports assignments. Before becoming a sportswriter, he was a copy and layout editor at the Globe, and a sportswriter at The Charlotte (N.C.) Observer.
The Transitions were written, at least in part, from published reports by Bulletin correspondent Nimra Aziz, an undergraduate student in the Northeastern University School of Journalism.
Bruno Giordano, 86, of Stamford, Conn., died May 27 in Voorhees, N.J.
He was the founder, publisher, and co-editor of the Stamford (Conn.) Forum, a free weekly newspaper, from 1970 to 1973.
He was elected mayor of Stamford in 1967 for one two-year term.
He leaves two daughters, Esther-Marie and Vera-Lynn; two sons, Vincent and Angelo; six grandchildren; three brothers.
The obituaries were written, at least in part, from published reports by Bulletin correspondent Nimra Aziz, an undergraduate student in the Northeastern University School of Journalism.
Kevin Slimp is director of the Institute of Newspaper Technology.
Email questions to him at
kevin@kevinslimp.com
If a man hangs around long enough, he’s bound to get noticed. That’s my theory anyway.
When asked why I receive so many requests for help from newspapers, I simply mark it down to longevity. I’ve been around the business long enough for most publishers, and others, to know me.
I recently received requests to visit five newspapers in four states. For some, the most pressing need is
training. A few seek advice concerning the overall structure of their operations. Still others are hoping I can find the solution to problems that have plagued their newspapers for too long.
Ten or 15 years ago, I would worry a bit before boarding a plane to make a consulting visit. Concerned there might be bigger problems than I could solve, it was always a relief to get on the flight back home.
Those days are past. I don’t stress or worry about upcoming trips. One reason is there’s simply no time for worry while visiting two or three papers each week. A more likely explanation is there’s not much I haven’t seen after 20 years of consulting, so issues that might be huge in the eyes of a client often have simple solutions when seen through the eyes of experience.
Here are some of the most common questions I’m asked while on site at newspapers:
Question 1: Is there a better way to produce my newspaper?
The topic of production comes up a lot during my visits. That particular question is one of the most difficult,
because there’s almost always someone who doesn’t like my answer.
Ponder this: How often do you visit a business and think, “There’s got to be a better way.”
That’s what makes that a difficult question. It’s not that I don’t know the answer. Usually, within just a few minutes I’ve noticed several potential improvements to the workflow. It’s natural for people to resist change. So I tread that question gently, hoping to gain the trust of most everyone on staff before sharing my thoughts.
For instance, most people enjoy designing pages. The truth, however, is it’s important to have good designers working on pages and good writers writing stories. Sure, photographers sometimes like having total control of their photos, but there’s often someone on staff who is particularly skilled at color editing, leaving the photographer more time for what they do best — shooting photos.
As an adviser, I use experience to guide me in knowing when to advise changes, and when to realize, for the time being, things might work better as they are.
Question 2: Why are we having so many problems with ads clogging up the system or printing incorrectly?
I don’t like bringing up issues with PDF files. Sometimes it seems like I’ve spent my life dealing with them. But the truth is I haven’t visited a paper in a long time that didn’t have issues with PDF files.
Most people don’t realize their trouble is coming from PDF files. A pressman might ask, “Why do files coming from advertising cause errors when going through the RIP (raster image processor)?”
A publisher might ask, “Why are we losing so much money because ads aren’t printing right in our paper?”
A page designer might ask, “Why are quotation marks turning to strange symbols?” or “Why are boxes
appearing on the page where letters should be?”
As much as the good folks at Adobe want you to believe otherwise, the answer is almost always found in the method used to create the PDF files.
One of the most common messages I receive after visiting a client is, “We’ve already covered your cost in
savings from ads printing correctly.”
It’s not rocket science. Ensuring that those PDF files are error-free before sending them to the RIP will make everyone sleep better.
Question 3: Will we increase profits and produce better papers by centralizing production?
I’ve found that, when approached with the idea of moving the production of multiple newspapers to a central office, it’s wise to do more listening than talking.
Most clients are already hoping I will say, “Yes, that’s a good idea,” before I arrive.
I figure, however, they’re paying me good money and want objective answers, rather than having me placate their egos – improving my chances of being invited back.
Sometimes the answer is “yes.” If they own three papers in one county with a total circulation of 1,600, it
probably doesn’t take three full-time design staffs to lay out the pages.
Often the answer is “not so fast,” however.
Research indicates that the best way to produce long-term growth often is improving the quality of the
products. Moving to a central production center often has more to do with reaching short-term cost reduction goals than achieving long-term growth.
As often as not, when faced with that question, I will have serious discussion with a publisher, chief executive officer or other manager, resulting in a decision to use current resources to improve the quality and profits of their newspapers, rather than cutting to grow, which rarely works in the long run.
I could write a column titled, “The 100 most often asked questions during on-site visits,” but the editor of this publication might not be pleased with such a topic. So, for now, let’s stick with those three.
John Tlumacki’s photo of the aftermath of the bomb that exploded near the Boston Marathon finish line became an iconic scene from the terrorist tragedy.
John Tlumacki kept seeing the photographs he took in the grisly aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings playing like a slideshow in his head over and over, images of people crying for help and helping each other deal with their injuries. Those nightmares began almost a month after the bombings.
“The camera became my enemy,” said Tlumacki, a longtime Boston Globe photojournalist. “I didn’t even want to pick it up anymore … ”
Tlumacki said he became angry as he was taking photographs of all the carnage, figuring that it was the result of an act of terrorism.
As much as Tlumacki tried to deny it, he said he knew he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Three people died and nearly 270 were injured in the April 2013 bombings near the Boston Marathon’s finish line on Boylston Street.
The Marathon bombings were among the latest instances in which reporters covered scenes of multiple deaths and destruction. New England has experienced others in the not-too-distant past.
In December 2012, 20 children and six adult staff members were shot to death at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. And in February 2003, 100 people were killed and 230 people were injured during The Station nightclub fire in West Warwick, R.I.
Part of being a journalist is covering traumatic events like those. According to experts interviewed by the Bulletin, reporters should treat such events not only as professionals, but also as human beings.
George Everly Jr., an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, said the more preparation journalists can have in dealing with stressful or traumatic events, the more they will understand what they could confront on the job.
“Before someone goes into this career, that’s when you prepare,” Everly said. “That should be an obligation that schools of journalism should have. We have to do a better job setting appropriate expectations, because this kind of work is not for everyone. Some people are just not suited for it. And they should know that upfront.”
According to “Covering Trauma: Impact on Journalists,” an overview of current research on the danger for journalists focusing on traumatic events, most journalists exhibit resilience in the face of traumatic events. But a significant minority might be at risk of having long-term psychological problems.
For some journalists, the more they are exposed to such events during their career, the more resilient they become, experts interviewed said. Still, there are other journalists who become more traumatized the more they are exposed to trauma.
“For many reasons, some people prove to be more resilient in the face of trauma than others,” said Jim MacMillan, program manager at the Center for Public Interest Journalism at Temple University.
Cait McMahon, an Australian psychologist and managing director at the Dart Center Asia Pacific, said in an email that the different reactions to trauma can be traced to many factors. Those factors include the journalist’s trauma history and mental health history, and the severity of the traumatic exposure and isolation the journalist experienced.
The Dart Center, which focuses on informed, innovative and ethical reporting on violence, conflict and tragedy, has tip sheets available for reporters on how to cope with different traumas, such as losing a colleague or managing the stress of a long investigation.
McMahon said social support is one of the factors that can help build resilience. Journalists who can count on a colleague, friend or family member for support after covering a traumatic event seem to cope much better than those who are isolated and don’t have such support.
Matthew Kauffman covered suicides among soldiers during war and the Sandy Hook school shootings for The Hartford (Conn.) Courant. He spoke to relatives of soldiers who killed themselves in Iraq and Afghanistan and was in the newsroom collecting information about the Newtown shootings.
Kauffman found that talking to people after a traumatic event helped him process the difficult information on which he was reporting.
“It’s not about forgetting. It’s about making it easier to remember,” Kauffman said. “It’s about making it less emotional or painful to remember. Each time, I felt less uncomfortable to talk about it.”
Some journalists think that the responsibility for them to cover events and accurately report on them to readers helps safeguard them from being affected psychologically.
“I don’t feel like I am psychologically affected by … traumatic events,” said Mark Arsenault, a Boston Globe reporter who covered the Station nightclub fire in Rhode Island.
He witnessed the rescue and recovery operation at the scene.
“Sometimes it’s sad, but I don’t feel like it’s a lasting thing. Because I am the representative of the readers, and the readers need people who are the best, people who can do things without becoming personally affected. And becoming personally affected compromises your ability to do a fair and accurate job of telling,” Arsenault said.
Sometimes, however, even journalists who at the time of a traumatic incident focus first on their professional obligation to report on the incident might suffer post-traumatic stress disorder, as happened to Tlumacki.
“I think I totally took it all in. I became a part of it,” Tlumacki said of his feelings while photographing the Boston Marathon bombing scene.
He was standing on the finish line, about 40 feet from the first bomb and photographed Krystle Campbell, one of the three people killed in the bombing, through the smoke.
“My emotion ranged from being very angry to being persistent and doing my job, worrying about whether I was going to be kicked out before I had any photos. When you have that thought in your head, you resign (yourself) to the fact that maybe something is going to happen to you. I just want to keep doing my job. I realize it was my responsibility to show the world what happened. The consequence is to deal with trauma and live with it,” Tlumacki said.
Other than professional help from psychologists, journalists might choose some self-help strategies to cope with problems caused by traumatic events, Everly, the John Hopkins psychiatry professor, said.
To cope with his stress, Tlumacki went to Sedona, Ariz., with his wife seven months after the bombings.
He said of the trip: “It was visually exciting, and it’s beautiful. I needed to get away from work and to see something beautiful and be in nature.”
Tlumacki said the beauty in Sedona prompted him to capture that beauty with his camera.
“I had to take some beautiful photos,” Tlumacki said. The camera “became my friend again.”
–John Tlumacki
–John Tlumacki, Photojournalist
Boston Globe
–Matthew Kauffman, Reporter
Hartford (Conn.) Courant
–Jim MacMillan, Program manager
Center for Public Interest Journalism, Temple University
–Mark Arsenault, Reporter
Boston Globe
–George Everly Jr., Associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences
John Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore MD
