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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (April 21, 2018)
LIFESTYLES WEEKEND, APRIL 21-22, 2018 Rural journal revived Staff photo by E.J. Harris Reporter Pat Caldwell, center, talks to Malheur Enterprise publisher Les Zaitz about a story he is developing, while working on deadline for the newspaper Monday in Vale. Pulitzer-finalist Les Zaitz transforms tiny, dying weekly into award winner By KATHY ANEY | East Oregonian L es Zaitz was on a glide path toward retirement. No one could blame him for thinking about powering down. He had racked up some remarkable accomplishments during his journalism career. Some 44 years ago, Zaitz jumped into journalism Staff photo by E.J. Harris right out of high school, starting at the Salem Statesman Journal and Publisher Les Zaitz looks over mug shots for a story with reporter Jayme Fraser on Monday at the Malheur Enterprise in Vale. eventually maturing into the Oregonian’s senior investigative reporter. The two-time Pulitzer finalist raked in scores of journalism prizes. A couple of years ago, Zaitz envisioned retiring with his wife, Scotta Callister, at their Grant County ranch. He would ride horses and fix fence and maybe write a book. Instead, he doubled down on journalism. It all started when someone told him the Malheur Enterprise was for sale. The tiny newspaper in Vale, a town of fewer than 2,000 people, was on the verge of going under. That troubled Zaitz. “I realized, here’s this paper that’s been here 100 years,” he said. “I’m a big believer in community newspapers and could not buy the idea that it could just shut down.” He appealed to his wife, who had just retired from her job as editor of the Blue Mountain Eagle in John Day, and his brother Lyndon Zaitz, publisher of the Keizertimes. The trio bought the newspaper in October 2015 and set about turning it around. “The paper in my judgment at that time was arguably the worst news- paper in Oregon,” Zaitz said. “It was full of government press releases.” Over the next two years, the newspaper morphed into a tiny powerhouse. This month, the weekly won a national writing award, beating out such industry giants as the New York Times and the Washington Post. Circulation has seen healthy growth. By summer, Zaitz will have five reporters, up from one, including two summer interns from the University of Oregon. Zaitz looks at the little weekly as something of a laboratory. Sitting at a table in the newspaper’s break room, he explained how the Enterprise is bucking the trend in a time of shrinking and dying newspapers. “I’ve always been struck that as the newspaper industry went through grinding change in the past decade everyone was struggling for answers and the answers typically came from major news organizations,” he said. “The rest of us were just expected to scale down what they were doing to fit our operations. Well, what if we turned that around? There are a hell of a lot more smaller newsrooms than big ones in the country.” Zaitz insists the newspaper’s trans- formation wasn’t magic, it was simply gaining the trust of readers by giving them what they want. Because Zaitz still worked at the Oregonian, Callister ran the paper the first year. She got rid of press releases that masqueraded as news. She added an editorial page, improved the format and made other “nuts and bolts” changes. About a year and a half ago, Zaitz retired from the Oregonian and came on the scene like a tsunami hitting the beach. Callister re-retired to the ranch. Pat Caldwell, one the paper’s two reporters, said Zaitz was a force from day one. “He was like Jimmie Johnson See MALHEUR/4C Staff photo by E.J. Harris Reporter John Braese takes notes while talking with a source at Vale City Hall on Monday in Vale. Staff photo by E.J. Harris The small agricultural community of Vale has limited news outlets cov- ering local issues in the largest county in the state.
