Bob Zaltsberg

2022

Recent decades in the newspaper industry have been rife with dramatic change, and longtime editor of the (Bloomington, Ind.) Herald-Times Bob Zaltsberg has had a front-row seat.

But countering shrinking ad revenues, doing more with smaller staffs and navigating the shift to the 24-hour news cycle were offset by the joys of leading a daily, he said.

“Being a newspaper editor provides tons of opportunities to hold authorities accountable, expose community needs and wrongdoing, help make sense of complex situations, celebrate milestones and successes, and advocate for people who need help or justice,” he said when announcing his retirement after more than 33 years as editor. “And I can’t think of a better place to do this work than in Bloomington.”

Zaltsberg retired in 2019, just days before parent company Schurz sold its newspapers to GateHouse Media, a national chain in 38 states. He had spent all but about 18 months of his career at the newspaper.

Newspapers were an early attraction, thanks to Zaltsberg’s father, a retailer in Winchester, Indiana, who subscribed to four state and regional papers. Majoring in English at Miami University in Ohio, Zaltsberg dabbled in radio news but, after a bout of giggles on air left his supervisor less than impressed, he focused on print. This led to his first job after college as sports editor at the Plainfield newspaper.

Soon, Zaltsberg was wooed away to Bloomington to work half-time sports and half-time news beats. Over nine years, he moved up to region editor, city editor and managing editor. He was considering moving to a larger paper when then-editor Bill Schrader pulled him aside.

“Schrader told me to hang on for his job, which he thought would open in about five years,” Zaltsberg recalled. But Schrader made the move to Bedford just two years later, and Zaltsberg assumed the top job in 1985.

The new editor worked to balance the paper’s traditional editorial stance with its existence in one of Indiana’s most liberal communities. He also developed his own leadership style as he managed his former peers and colleagues.

That style evolved into a hands-off stance on how his staff worked and an engaged approach to the paper’s coverage and response to the community. Sometimes, the two strategies clashed, as when the H-T shifted from afternoon to morning publication. The planning covered all the technology, mechanics and labor issues, deadlines, press runs and shift changes.

“But we didn’t anticipate the cultural shift that had real impact on a lot of people, all at once, uprooting the lives of at least a third of our staff,” Zaltsberg said, recalling one employee who sobbed that the time switch would be the end of his marriage.

Looking back, he said, he would handle many things differently, but learning on the job over three decades did bring some wisdom. Staff meetings provided the venue for hashing out not just story ideas, but drilling down to the community level about how change – government or cultural – was affecting readers.

And those readers were vocal, calling, emailing and writing Zaltsberg daily to question his decisions, which ranged from changing the line-up of the comics or moving a beloved music reviewer’s column online to holding the newspaper accountable for uneven coverage of public and private citizens. Anticipating comments and complaints became a litmus test during staff meetings.   

“Whenever making decisions, I’d want to formulate my response to the questions that surely would come, so I started thinking about why: Why put that on the front page? Why treat this person differently in a story?” Zaltsberg explained. “If we didn’t know the answer, we’d rethink those decisions. We wanted to have the answer ready. This practice ended up strengthening our coverage.”

The newspaper gained and maintained a reputation for watchdog journalism, for holding authorities accountable. During his tenure, the newspaper won two Blue Ribbon Newspaper awards from the Hoosier State Press Association Foundation, and he and staff members won scores of personal awards from several state and national journalism organizations.

Producing investigative pieces and examining hot-button issues can generate more than phone calls and emails. Zaltsberg recalled one situation that sparked personal threats. The newspaper published a publicly available database that showed gun carry permit rates at street-level, without names or other identifying information. During backlash from National Rifle Association and its supporters, Zaltsberg and two administrators saw their homes show up on an NRA website, complete with addresses and other identifying info.

Zaltsberg said he regrets publishing the database, but not because of the threats. Instead, the episode led state legislature to introduce a law that made state police records private, preventing anyone – citizens or local newspapers – from accessing the information. “I do not think those records should be private,” he said.

Zaltsberg developed a reputation for collaborating with other newspapers and organizations to support journalism and journalists. The Herald-Times participated in the “State of Secrecy” project with The Times of Northwest Indiana to look at death penalty laws and potential inequities.

He helped pilot The Learning Newsroom, a joint project of the Knight Foundation and the American Press Institute and American Society of Newspaper Editors focusing on training news staffs to better adapt to change and the digital age.

He served and led committees at HSPA, such as the Freedom of Information committee and the Newsroom Seminar Committee, and was active in numerous other journalism organizations, including the Associated Press Managing Editors and Mid-America Press Institute.

While no longer at the H-T, he continues to read and support the newspaper and his former staffers, and feels their pain as the paper transitions to new ownership, changing press schedules, tightening belts. But the focus on local news must continue, Zaltsberg said.

“Local is most important to ensure that communities are covered, citizens get the information they need and deserve,” he said. “If we lose the community watchdog, it is troubling for democracy and community-building.”

Today, Zaltsberg shares his expertise with new local audiences. He teaches media management classes at Indiana University, and he co-hosts Noon Edition, a weekly call-in current events program on WFIU. The station recently hired him to produce City Limits, a series that relies on Zaltsberg’s community experience and reporting skills.

“So I did make it to radio after all,” Zaltsberg said of the transition to radio after that embarrassing gaffe in college all those years ago.

Otherwise, his current gigs still are in line with the job he held for 33 years: Responding to a community he loves by listening to concerns, then providing the information and context it needs.