Creating The Squawkbox gives readers a voice

Woody Hayes was one of the most successful football coaches in history and in his 28 seasons as head coach at Ohio State, his teams won three national championships, captured 13 Big Ten Conference titles and built an incredible record of 205-61-10.

Unfortunately, to many football fans he’ll always be remembered as the coach who delivered his career-ending sucker-punch to the head of a Clemson player near the end of the 1978 Gator Bowl.

Obviously, I’m no Woody Hayes, but on my own level, I can kind of identify with Woody’s situation. I retired from The Albany Herald in 2005 after 43 years in the newspaper business. Now, I wonder if I might best be remembered as the creator of the Squawkbox.

Well, if so, that’s okay, because I’ve come to think it was a better idea than I realized at the time and for reasons that have very little to do with the original intent.

First, for clarification, let me point out that I might have been responsible for introducing southwest Georgia to the art of squawking, but I didn’t create the concept. Other newspapers at that time published similar columns with names like “The Vent” or “Rant & Rave” and some of those columns still exist.

In 2001, when the Squawkbox was introduced, newspaper editors and publishers were giving a lot of thought to how they might attract young readers. Actually, attracting young readers had always been a challenge for newspapers, but, in the past, as young people aged and became more settled, many eventually migrated to newspaper readership. By 2001, this pattern seemed to be changing. The Internet had come of age, and there were seemingly countless sources of information.

When I first floated the idea to Dee Maret, The Herald’s executive editor at that time, I was primarily thinking about the young reader.

I had recently accompanied my wife on one of her out-of-town shopping trips. While biding my time in one of the shops, I overheard a group of young people discussing the anonymous comment column in that community’s newspaper. It was obvious from their conversation that they were frequent readers of the column. They not only quoted the current day’s column, they referred to columns published days or weeks earlier. The only other time I had heard of such a column was from my son, who would sometimes quote the column that appeared in his community’s newspaper. So, it seemed to me that this type of column might be attractive to the younger reader.

When I mentioned the idea to Maret, well, let’s just say he was hardly enthusiastic. That wasn’t a surprise. After all, Dee was a newsman’s newsman and in journalistic circles there wasn’t much of a place for anonymity.

“If you’re not willing to put YOUR name on it, I’m not willing to put MY name on it,” was the conventional wisdom of many editors and publishers.

But Maret was also an open-minded editor, so his initial response was something less than an outright rejection. Actually, I think his only comment was a question: “Are you kidding me?”

Weeks went by before I mentioned it again. This time Maret was much better prepared. He fired off many good reasons to not go there. As publisher, I almost always followed the editor’s advice. Editors are in a position to see and know a lot and most have well-developed intuitive skills. So, as far as I was concerned, the idea was dead.

Some time later, at the end of an unrelated discussion, Maret asked if I still wanted to introduce the column.

“If you do, Jim Hendricks has come up with a great name,” he said. Apparently, Maret had discussed the idea with then-managing editor Hendricks who coined the name, “Squawkbox.”

Before setting about to create the column, Maret once again warned me of the critical issues, as he saw them. It was kind of like reading my Miranda rights. I can very well remember a couple of Maret’s warnings. He said:

1. The column should only be compiled and edited by solid, mature editors with exceptional judgment; this is not the work for rookie editors.
2. And, if you start it, you’re not going to be able to stop it.

Maret was right on both counts.

The Squawkbox is the best of its kind, I think, due to the editing skills of those who compile it day by day and have the judgment to blend a variety of short comments into a very readable snapshot of what folks have on their minds.

Over the years, I have come to think the Squawkbox is much more than just a readership tool. It’s a voice that would otherwise never be heard. It’s a voice that has penetrated closed doors and influenced positive change. It’s a soap box for those — right or wrong — who believe they have no platform. Squawks come in all flavors, sometimes cleverly insightful, sometimes brutally blunt and sometimes just plain laughable, and that variety also contributes to the column’s success.

As popular as the column is with readers, it has probably drawn more criticism than any other feature in the newspaper. In the months and years after its creation, I fielded many of those complaints, but I don’t think I have ever heard a complaint from anyone who was not in a position of power or influence.

In my final days at The Herald, my successor, Mike Gebhart, came to me with a confession of sorts.

“I’m thinking about killing the Squawkbox,” he said.

I just smiled. “Good luck with that one, son.”

Obviously, Gebhart changed his mind. Six years later, the Squawkbox is as strong as ever and Gebhart has now published more Squawks than I did.

Gary Boley was publisher of The Albany Herald when he retired in 2005. He currently is a marketing executive with Moultrie Regional Hospital.