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John Doussard MA '76

What do you do in your job?
I am the Director of Communications for the Mayor of Portland. Basically, everything I do revolves around one simple task: help the Mayor have a successful, ongoing conversation with our community. That sounds hokey, but it's true. Portland is an unusually - really, really unusually - involved city; people feel it's their birthright to be a part of civic life, and everyone has an opinion about everything. That makes it a great city, and I work for a guy who really believes people should be involved and listened to at every level. Best of all, nothing in my job description requires me to be a daily piñata for the media here like the president's press secretary is in D.C.

How did you get started in your career?
I graduated in 1976, two years after Watergate apparently emptied the nation's law schools and sent everyone instead into journalism. I sent out 150 resumes and got a grand total of two responses, only one of which had anything to do with actual employment. Next thing I knew, I was in El Paso, Texas, which appeared to be either (a) the end of the world, or (b) right next to it. Back in those days, a lot of reporters were vagabonds, which appealed to my strong lack of direction. I went from Texas to newspapers in Florida and Virginia, back to Miami and then over to San Jose and Orange County, Calif. I was a reporter for 13 years, an editor for 14, before walking into the managing editor's office at the Orange County Register and quitting to move to Portland, Ore., where I didn't have a job or know a soul. I always thought working for a newspaper was better than having a real job. I interviewed characters and worked with oddballs; scuba dived with treasure hunters; flew in fighter jets; was a part of investigations that changed communities, and had a job where you could honestly say that what you did made a difference. All that and I got my subscription for free.

How did you go from newspapers to government?
I pulled into town right about the time Tom Potter was announcing for office. He didn't have any money and was running against the establishment candidate, who had more than $1 million in campaign donations; huge money in Portland politics. Tom wasn't considered a long shot; no one thought his chances were even that good. Tom's first act was to announce he wouldn't accept any campaign contributions more than $25, and he had to be talked into taking any money at all. I offered to do his media outreach gratis as a favor to a friend. I figured it would be like getting to see the Titanic up close, plus I liked Tom's left-of-center, progressive politics. Basically, he won in a landslide with a grassroots campaign.

How do you use your journalism skills in your job?
The Orange County Register, more than any newspaper I worked for, truly believed its mission was to be a part of the community it served. The folks in the newsroom publishing the neighborhood weeklies were as respected as the investigative reporters; which, admittedly, was sometimes news to the investigative reporters. The Register taught me to actually listen to the community, not to preach to it. That can be a humbling lesson for most journalists, but it's an invaluable one. It also serves anyone who goes into public service.

What has been your greatest professional challenge?
Being an editor. Good ones know how to listen; how to make someone grow; how to teach; how to be secondary to the story and the person who wrote it. Bad ones just know how to edit copy.

What is the best professional lesson you learned at the J-School?
How to not be embarrassed by asking complete strangers questions, often incredibly stupid questions. It's amazing what people will tell you if you ask. Investigations seldom turn on meeting Deep Throat in a darkened parking garage. Usually, they're the result of smart reporters asking lots of people lots of often very basic questions. Mom was right...you'll never know if you don't ask.

What is your favorite J-School memory?
Two things. Surviving Don Ranly's class. I forget the name, but it was a copy editing class that all the new kids in grad school had to take in those days. I can't spell, I have a life-long distrust of the copy desk, I have no command of basic grammar, and this class was at an ungodly early hour. But for some odd reason, it was a lot of fun. I think it was just the bonding experience of that first semester in J-School, when we were all going to be Woodward and Bernstein. Or at least steadily employed someday. And second, covering a session of the Missouri Legislature with Dusty Kidd and Bill Tarrant. We (I) didn't know what we were doing, but it was great fun. It was sort of like attending my favorite event at the Boone County fair - the Demolition Derby - only no one but taxpayers got hurt.

What advice would you have for current students?
For starters, go to class. I didn't do that a lot, and I'd be curious to see how that turns out for people. And if you are going to go, check out a few classes over in the business school; take statistics and basic business classes that will actually give you some skills you can use. Newsrooms are filled with people who think they will someday write a novel, but it's always a real plus to have someone on staff who can actually look at a balance sheet and figure out who is lying to whom.