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MICHAEL DUNNE: I'm Michael Dunne. the Register Guard has been on a roller coaster ride of late. First, the Baker family sold the paper after years and years of ownership, then the move to a large out of state corporate owner and a whittling down of staff. The changes have left many people in the community less than thrilled about the state of the community's paper of record and wonder if it's even a local entity anymore. Well, today on the show, you'll hear from the new editor of the RG, a proud Duck, who's returning home to run the paper she read decades ago. She feels strongly about localism and restoring both trust and readership for the Register Guard as both a paper and a digital news service. Even though she's been in the Midwest for years, new Register Guard editor Jill Bond grew up in Eugene, graduated from the U of O, and knows how important the local paper is and will be to the community going forward. I chatted with her via zoom at her home in Indiana as she prepares to head west and run the paper. She grew up reading. Jill Bond, the new editor of the Register Guard, welcome to the show.
JILL BOND: Thank you. Thanks for inviting me.
MICHAEL DUNNE: This is a bit of a homecoming for you. Talk about your time previously in Eugene.
JILL BOND: So, I am a graduate of the journalism program at the University of Oregon. I only spent two years there. I started my journalism learning when I was at Mount Hood Community College in Gresham. And then I was able to transfer in and bring all of my journalism credits with me. And so, I had been the editor of the student newspaper there at Mount Hood, and came on board to the staff at the Daily Emerald, which I was super proud of, because usually you had to freelance to get on, but because I had this background and experience at Mount head, they hired me in and made me a regular reporter. I covered student government there. I remember this really impactful story - It lasted through my entire career - I spent a whole semester digging through records in one of the libraries there at the U of O, looking for information about how the student government had come to have a million dollars in its bank account with no plan for how to spend it. So, writing that story, publishing it, and hearing from alumni, and just getting the reaction that really solidified, I think, For me, a career path that I followed. After my graduation, I spent the summer after graduation at the Register Guard as a Snowden intern, and was lucky enough to meet my husband while I was there, and we later came back to get married in in Eugene, and make it easy for all of our friends and family members who are nearby to attend our wedding. So, a lot of great memories associated with Eugene.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Sounds like it. So, then kind of pick up your career from there.
JILL BOND: So, after I completed my internship, I was hired by the Herald and News down in Klamath Falls, where they had a really dynamic and inspiring editor there who was willing to try lots of cool stuff and give us plenty of opportunities to lean in on being young journalists. And also, he was really supportive when we looked for opportunities for advancement. So, someone left, the news editor had left. And so, me and another gal, Anna, - who is now at the Washington Post - we were both at the Herald And News at the time, and we were both going for the same job this opening, and he found a way to kind of give us both an opportunity to advance. And so, when Ana left, then I moved into the daytime editor role there. So, I stayed there about five years, and did, like copy editing on the night desk, ran that and then did daytime editing and worked directly with reporters. From there, I was ready to kind of see what else was out there. My brother lives here in Indiana, so I wanted to have an opportunity to get close to him and his children, and so there was an opening in Kokomo, which is north of Indianapolis, and I took a job as the Metro editor there and worked in that newsroom for a few years. Kind of got, you know, a little bit burned out in journalism, I think so. I took a break after that and enrolled at Indiana University and got a master's degree from their school of Public and Environmental Affairs. Worked in the Census Bureau for the 2020 Census, and then when that was over, I was here in Bloomington, reading the newspaper, subscribing to the newspaper, and I wasn't, like, a really big fan of what I saw in it, so they had the editor job open, and I said, well, I’m not doing anything, I'm staying at home, I’ve got some ideas…So, they let me come in and change a whole bunch of stuff.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Wow. So, you've cut your teeth in so many important jobs in journalism. Now you're coming, back home, to Eugene, talk about your vision for the Register Guard?
JILL BOND: I've always had this soft spot for the Register Guard since rejoining the network and being able to kind of see what the Register Guard is doing these days. I've always kind of had an eye on it, and I don't want to come in and shake things up too much right away. I really plan on spending a lot of time listening. I've got some great ideas to do some listening sessions. And certainly, I want to listen to the staff that is there about what they love, about their jobs, what gets them excited to do journalism, what things they'd like to try and tackle, and then, you know, I'll be there to be a support system for them so that we can do really meaningful journalism and journalism that is centered on people and focused on issues that have an impact on people's everyday lives.
MICHAEL DUNNE: You're coming back at an interesting time right now in the community, because when you were first here, the Register Guard was the paper of record of the community. It stood alone and now there's competition. There's a new sort of game in town, the Eugene Lookout, I kind of wanted to hear from you about now being in a two-newspaper town.
JILL BOND: You know, I'm a people manager. I'm always looking for different ways to motivate people. And some people are motivated by being competitive. And so having a competitor is actually a good thing in keeping us sharp, keeping us on our toes, and it's good for the community to have access to more news. So, I look forward to sitting down with Dan when I get there, and getting to know him better. We kind of know each other from a distance, because he's coming from Louisville and coming from the same organization that I work for now. So, looking forward to how we can drive print journalism forward together.
MICHAEL DUNNE: And, of course, obviously, it's kind of this tenuous time for newspapers right now. Certainly, you know, you've seen many smaller newspapers closing. So, I kind of wanted to hear from you about both the market here, as well as your experience in journalism in other markets. Talk about the challenges, but then also talk about the opportunities.
JILL BOND: I think it's an exciting time to be in journalism, to be honest. Journalism has always been a constant learning environment, right? But it used to be just like we were learning what the government was doing, or we were learning how to do the reporting, and now we are learning so much more. I am every day presented with an opportunity to gain a new skill, and that is so exciting to me. I love to be challenged. And I think that the people who have put their hearts into saving print journalism are truly, truly striving for excellence and a path forward. When I graduated, my professors at U of O were like, you guys, have to go out there and save journalism. And here it is, like, 20 years later almost, and we're finally doing it. We're finally forced to actually do it, instead of just talking about it.
MICHAEL DUNNE: I'm sure you're aware that the Register Guard has gone through some real big changes over the past decade or so. And how do you continue to make the paper you know, both feel, local, sound local?
JILL BOND: By focusing on local issues and local people. And that's what local news is. No, we don't have the ability to do everything that we used to do. When I came to my current role, there were some things that I had to help the staff navigate and to help the community navigate in terms of stuff we weren't going to do anymore, But I have rewarded their patience and belief with strong quality journalism, and that's what we're going to do in Eugene. And I want to look forward and I want to think positively, because that's what's going to keep us going and give us the motivation to serve this community very, very well, and to serve our readers very, very well. So yeah, I know where we've come from. I was in the RG newsroom 17 years ago, so I know. But we have made some strides in efficiency, and we've also focused on what newspapers are really about, right?
MICHAEL DUNNE: I'm wondering too, in your vision, this idea of blending sort of old with the new. I guess what I'm asking is, for example, the RG fairly recently made a decision to not do so to the editor. And I'm wondering, is that something worth revisiting that idea of community engagement and allowing your readers to offer their opinions, but also blending it with a newer focus on new sections, new ways to report the news.
JILL BOND: Certainly. I have a bag of tools that I'm going to bring with me that will help us to report the news in lots of different ways, and I'm excited to deploy those at the Register Guard. As far as opinion content, you know, if it's important, I'm going to find out through listening to the community, and I'll, you know, I'll evaluate that, because it is something that takes time. And I have some things that I want to, you know, do in those first few weeks. So, I don't know if that's like the first thing that I want to do, but it's certainly on my mind.
MICHAEL DUNNE: From a town perspective, Eugene and Bloomington are quite different, but they're both college towns. And I kind of wanted to ask you- the University of Oregon is so impactful and so important in Eugene. And, of course, the University of Indiana is so impactful for Bloomington. Talk about that in terms of, you know, being, being the paper of record that also happens to have this national institution in the local college.
JILL BOND: Yeah, it's a huge part of what we do At the Herald Times, and certainly a big part of what they're doing already at the Register Guard and I mean there are differences between Bloomington and Eugene, but one of the reasons we chose Bloomington was because it reminded us of Eugene. There are some similarities in what the population values, and how our elected leaders approach problem solving and the impact of the university and how it influences the community. So, I think it's really important that we have a robust news landscape in places that those students come and learn and become citizens of the world.
MICHAEL DUNNE: As a leader there at the registered guard, talk about the importance of attracting young people to the profession.
JILL BOND: I love to teach and to give young, aspiring journalists opportunities here at the Herald times. I have a couple of high school students who are very interested in journalism that I work with, and I also have a number of students that I interact with. We've got interns. We've had interns in our newsroom every summer who have had good enough experiences working with us that they stayed in journalism. And I think that's something I am super proud of, because if it was a bad experience, maybe they'd pick something else. But they've, for the most part, all went on to find jobs and print journalism. So, I mean, I really believe that giving young people experiences in newsrooms is probably one of the best ways that newspapers can continue to foster the next generation. And you know, I'm looking forward to going back to the journalism school, getting to know who's there these days and seeing what kinds of ways that we can support each other. Yeah, I'm really excited about that
MICHAEL DUNNE: Obviously a lot has changed in journalism. And I wanted to talk to you about blending some of the newer stuff, podcasting, social media, etc., etc. Because obviously, hard copy newspapers aren't nearly as popular as they once were. But talk about ways in which you're, you're going to want to meet your news consumers where they want to be met, especially digitally.
JILL BOND: I'm excited because the staff of the Register Guard is fairly young, and so I think they're going to be really open to lots of different ways of storytelling and reaching audiences. So, I want to experiment with a number of different platforms to see what really resonates with beauty and community. I mean, there's this idea of young people getting their news from news influencers. Are those trusted news sources, or are they, you know, just people who are saying some stuff for views or whatever. And, I think that there's a space for real journalists, to communicate in lots of different ways and lots of different platforms. And technology is ever evolving. I think maybe newspapers were a little resistant in the beginning to evolving with technology, but now we've got our foot on the gas. I mean, we're, we have to, and we have to learn how to follow our audiences and to deliver information that they need and can use in whatever form they want. So, if potential readers are actually video watchers, we need to be aware of that and think about how we can communicate that information in the medium that makes sense.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Okay. Jill, my last question for you is really just, you know, what are you most excited about coming to Eugene and becoming the new editor of the Register Guard?
JILL BOND: I'm mostly excited about getting to know the new people in Eugene. And, setting up some tabling events and doing some other things where people can get to know me as well. I am also excited to bring some of these tools that I have in my toolbox into the Register Guard newsroom, and really hopefully inspire the staff to be their absolute best. And that's, you know, I mean, that's all you could ask of someone. So, I'm hoping to really ignite something there that, you know, has a perpetual burn, so to speak, so that we're, we're really on fire a lot of the time.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Good enough. Well, welcome back to town. Jill Bond, the new editor of the Register Guard, really appreciate talking to you.
JILL BOND: Thank you, Michael.
MICHAEL DUNNE: That's the show for today. All episodes of Oregon on the record are available as a podcast at klcc.org. Monday on the show, we'll talk with the head of the Eugene Public Library about the budget challenges they face locally, and the censorship and intrusion challenges they face nationally. I'm Michael Dunne, and this has been Oregon On The Record from KLCC, thanks for listening.
