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.