Interview with Dave Olson

Dave Olson, Editor of The Salem News

Dave Olson has spent the past three-and-a-half years as the editor-in-chief at The Salem News, a local paper with a print readership of 28,000. He was an English and journalism major at the University of New Hampshire and started his journalism career as an intern at The Gloucester Daily Times, a sister paper of The Salem News.


What ethical challenges do you face?

Letters to the editor are always challenging. We try to verify all letters before we print them. We don’t use anonymous sources, when someone has to put their name on something you know they stand behind it.

What’s the biggest challenge you’ve ever faced?

There is nothing too dramatic that I can think of off the top of my head. The real challenge is the daily ethical challenges. Those are the ones that resonate the most. The big ethical choices are easy to make. One of the hardest things I’ve faced in the day-to-day is when someone asks ‘can you not put that in the paper?’ These are human beings we are writing about, but you can’t make exceptions—this is when making unethical choices becomes the most tempting. You can’t say yes to one person and no to another, there has to be a standard.

How do you stay true to the fundamental elements and ethics of journalism when there is so much easily accessible, yet often unverified information on the Internet?

The Internet has made things a little more difficult—before the Web, you had a day to get stuff ready for print and time to verify, now news can go up almost immediately. To avoid issues, we might put up less than we think we know. Take the ‘Balloon Boy Incident’ for example, it all happened in one day and nobody knew what was actually going on. People were tweeting and blogging and getting all worked up about it. You have to learn to wait until you have a little more information. I always step back and wait and see—there’s always another shoe to drop.

The process for verifying news is the same for print as it is for online news. I have two editors who work with the reporters and literally sit down with them and work through every story before I even read it. Each story is usually read three times before it goes to print. I typically stick to the rule that I can’t use it if I can’t verify it somewhere else on the record.

Do you think the new wave of immediate information is a positive or negative for journalism?

I think it’s a positive. Journalism itself is what’s valuable—the reporting and writing and building of trust with readers. Quality writing and quality journalism will find its niche wherever. Online journalism also exposes readers to a wider range of writing which should make for better citizenry.

How does one stay competitive and ethical on the job?

I would rather be a step slower than another outlet and be right. I think that’s what is correct ethically. When you’re dealing locally you know a lot of people. In the end, you’ll be remembered for being right or for being wrong.

How do you verify facts? What happens if there are mistakes?

As an editor, if mistakes are made it is my responsibility to run corrections as fast and accurately as possible. We’re not perfect—if you make mistakes own up to them quickly and transparently. Being able to put up corrections quickly is another positive of the Web.

I see more mistakes among younger reporters, but they have to make those couple of mistakes to learn. It’s not the big stories that the mistakes get made on—it’s more the middle-of-the-road stories where things tend to get lost or forgotten. Editors are guilty of this, too.

Where do you see journalism going in the future? Do you think journalism could possibly “die out” in the future?

There is no other industry in the world that enjoys covering bad things more than newspapers. Yes, there are serious challenges for big newspapers, but we [The Salem News] report on things you can’t get anywhere else—we’re so local, we’re still essentially the only game in town. Small local papers have a really solid niche.

Anyone that tells you they know where journalism is going is lying to you. People need to catch up to technology in their homes; online news sources need to learn how to make money from their product. I see newspapers going more towards a daily online and having print copies becoming more of a weekly thing. I think eventually we will be reading our news on an electronic tablet—but not for twenty or thirty years. That is at least a generation away because people’s habits will have to change.

What is the one most important piece of advice you would give to an aspiring journalist/editor?

Do it because you love it. You’re not going to get rich in this business. Work on your craft everyday—work on writing. Whether it’s Web or print, it’s the story that matters. Get the story first and then figure out how to tell it.