[Originally published in the book Leading By Example]

John Oppedahl is a classic late bloomer. A classmate recalls him “as the quiet guy in the back of the room” as a student at Columbia Journalism School in 1968, a pretty noisy year on campus. Now he fills a room, with his commanding presence, his oversized wingtips that seem to be FBI-standard issue, and his non-stop talking in a booming voice.

Oppedahl is a rarity. A journalist for most of his career, he became publisher at two very different newspapers in two very different communities—Phoenix and San Francisco.

“What separates John from most publishers is love of breaking the rules,” recalls Julia Wallace, who worked with Oppedahl at The Arizona Republic and is now the managing editor at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. She relates her view to a favorite story of his. Oppedahl was an editor at the Detroit Free Press. A veteran reporter for the paper, visiting in Florida, wanted to do a story about walking catfish.

Oppedahl was—shall we say—skeptical. He shared this story again and again over the years, embellishing it, playing with it, but holding the listener’s attention. After making fun of this ridiculous idea that fish walked, Oppedahl was presented with proof of something he didn’t think could exist.

Wallace believes one of the story’s morals is to learn to challenge convention. If fish can walk, then maybe—from a perch at the Republic in the ’90s—technology and the Internet could have huge implications for the future of news.

When Oppedahl asked Howard Finberg for his ideas about the “digital future,” in 1990, Finberg was thinking short-term—fix this, buy that. Through conversations, questions, and probing, Oppedahl got him to expand his vision. Finberg eventually led technology planning for the Republic and for Central Newspapers Inc. Today, he sees clearly that Oppedahl was beginning the technology blueprint that would drive change—and difficult conversations—within the company.

“It was his leadership ability to work around the edges that was essential to starting the company on a path toward technology leadership,” Finberg says today.

John Lavine, newsroom management specialist at Northwestern, admires the way Oppedahl built a “special” team at the Republic. This team not only had major accomplishments, says Lavine, “but they changed the newspaper’s culture, which is rare.”

Oppedahl’s leadership in that change played out over time through risk-taking decisions to introduce organizational development that focused on: 

· Strategic planning.

· Performance systems that matched staff goals with company priorities.

· Detailed studies of how things got done so resources could be used for new projects.

· Wide involvement of employees in planning and strategy.

· Technology innovation that spurred better ways to deliver papers to driveways and news via the Internet.

The showstopper was a yearlong study of the future. Ultimately a hundred employees participated in a challenging exercise of studying trends and the possible effects over the next five years on newspapers, the Phoenix area, and how people live their lives.

Storytelling—what newspapers do best—brought into focus three possible scenarios to guide planning. This context helped employees and managers expand their views and understand challenges ahead. Collaboration and shared responsibilities were becoming strong characteristics of the Republic.

In San Francisco, where he merged two distinct news traditions at the Chronicle and Examiner, Oppedahl’s impact is just beginning to be felt, Lavine says.

John Diaz, editorial page editor at the San Francisco Chronicle, describes the passion for news that he sees in Oppedahl: “He has no patience for bland or plodding stories or editorials. He wants the newspaper to stir it up, to make a difference, to be a leader in the community.”

A prime Oppedahl litmus test of journalistic success is measured by how many people complain about the paper. Shortly after he took over at San Francisco—just at the time the local advertising market began to crater—Oppedahl would tell anyone within earshot how irritated he was that so few elected officials and people in power were calling to complain about stories and editorials.

“It was a refreshing concept,” says Diaz. “Here is a publisher who not only doesn’t mind shaking up the establishment, but actually welcomes it.”

Perhaps because he was an editor first, with stints at four big newspapers before switching to the publisher’s suite, and perhaps because he has become so comfortable taking risks, Oppedahl is willing to take a leadership role within the industry and to say what few other publishers will.

He has talked about editors as marketers and startled some in the business with this observation: “Journalism is a business value. Journalism is the value that journalists add to the news. Journalism is worth money.”

In articulating his philosophy of publishing, Oppedahl did not advocate that the wall separating advertising and news be smashed. Not at all. He urged an “appropriate separation.” Moreover, he urged that “journalists, especially editors, must pay attention to what advertisers know, because they often know more about what readers want than editors know.”

For instance, he said that advertisers had figured out years ago that people were living different lives on Saturdays. More recently, editorial content followed what advertisers had discerned, as many Saturday papers expanded sections on the home, home entertainment, and automobiles.

For Oppedahl, a publisher must focus on the future and prepare for it now. That is the only way newspapers can be something readers want and something that will make journalists proud. If newspapers do not change dramatically soon, he fears that within 10 years they will be irrelevant as a mass medium.

That sounds like a challenge to conventional thinking. Anybody want to hear a story about walking catfish?

[Tom Goldstein has been a recidivist dean, first at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, then at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. In each place, John Oppedahl served on an advisory committee, providing his special brand of cut-to-the-chase, no-nonsense advice. ]