opinion

New editor: We’ll fight for quality journalism

Peter Bhatia is The Enquirer’s editor and vice president of audience engagement. Don’t hesitate to reach out to him at pbhatia@enquirer.com and follow him on Twitter @peterbhatia.

It is hard to adequately say how happy I am to be in Cincinnati and to join The Enquirer as editor. But words are my business, so here goes:

Everything I have seen, heard and experienced so far suggests what you already know – this is a special place. That applies to the region and to my new colleagues at Enquirer Media. It is an honor to lead a distinguished group of journalists in bringing you the news in digital form at Cincinnati.com and in print in The Enquirer.

My pledge to you is an outstanding news report that takes advantage of the speed, visual and interactive capabilities of the Web and that continues the rich journalistic tradition of The Enquirer. My passion is watchdog and investigative journalism. We will continue to hold accountable civic, governmental and educational institutions for the work they do on your behalf and will do so aggressively.

I’ve told the staff how impressed I was with their coverage of the DuBose shooting. It was a perfect mix of using the Web for developments as they played out, especially on the day of the indictment and including Prosecutor Joe Deters’ remarkable press conference, followed by comprehensive coverage and analysis in print. This is the kind of quality journalism that you expect from us.

The obituaries for the newspaper business and for journalism in general have been written over and over. I don’t buy it. Journalism has never been stronger because of the myriad ways it can now be delivered to desktops, tablets and, growing day-by-day, to smartphones and mobile devices. If you’re not checking Cincinnati.com or our mobile apps throughout the day, you’re missing a lot of news. I still believe in a future (admittedly not indefinite) for the printed newspaper.

I told my students at Arizona State University, where I taught last year, not to worry about the future of journalism. It will continue to evolve and grow with the wonderful gifts technology gives us – apps, social media, video, interactivity, access to data, etc. And those of us who work in the mainstream press will continue to embrace those tools and apply the traditional newspaper values that define us – accuracy, fairness and completeness.

I have long subscribed to a fundamental belief that as reporters and editors we are guests in your homes. That means we must balance our journalistic passion with the fact that we are part of the community. Sometimes that will temper the tone and tenor of our work. It means we keep in mind the values that define our lives. Always, it means that as journalists working in the raucous digital age we work to find the truth.

I’ve been in the newspaper and, more recently, Web journalism business for 40 years. I spent two decades at The Oregonian in Portland, where I was editor of the paper and its website before going to ASU, where I taught journalism ethics. I also have worked at newspapers in (chronologically) Spokane, Wash.; San Francisco, Dallas; York, Penn.; Sacramento; and Fresno, Calif.

My degree is in history, and I passed up graduate school to take a job as a reporter in Spokane. I was drafted into management early on, serving in leadership positions from San Francisco on.

I grew up in the Pacific Northwest (the college town of Pullman, Wash. ) and can’t claim many connections to the Midwest, although we used to summer in my Mom’s hometown of Iowa City, Iowa, so I know something of humidity. My wife of 34 years and I have two grown children who live in Portland and San Francisco. She and our dogs will be here soon.

And I am a National League baseball fan. Though the Giants are my team, there already is a Reds hat in my office, and long before being considered for this job I believed Pete Rose should be in the Hall of Fame. Still do.