It’s a different business with a new editor, but the BND mission remains the same

There are many who have had a positive and lasting influence on me and my professional career, but there are only two I call “mentor.”

And I can’t help but think about them today, my first as executive editor of the Belleville News-Democrat.

The first is Jay Tebbe, who many of you know either from his years as president and publisher of the BND or from his community involvement.

Jay joined the BND as a truck driver in the circulation department in 1976 and steadily ascended his way through the ranks. It was on an April day in 2004 that he addressed a crowded lobby of employees from the spiral staircase in our old building on South Illinois Street.

As he would do so many times after, he pointed to the cluster of buildings a couple blocks to our west. He reminded us that he was born “right over there” at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, educated at Cathedral Grade School, and was baptized, confirmed and married beneath the towering steeple at St. Peter’s.

Jay’s DNA is all over Belleville. And Belleville is in him.

“I’m from here,” he said, “and I’m for here.”

Those words had a powerful and lasting impact on me. I was born in that hospital, too, and got married in that church. I was a St. Augustine’s kid, but my wife – a classmate from Belleville West ‘87 – graduated from that school.

Jay opened opportunities to me that I’d never imagined for myself, modeled what it is to be a servant leader, and demonstrated that a long and fulfilling career could be had right here in my hometown. More importantly, he re-enforced in me the idea that the work we do each day must serve to benefit our community and our neighbors.

So much has changed since Jay spoke those words, especially since he retired nearly seven years ago.

That hospital is gone. That school is closed. And newspapers are no longer newspapers.

This brings me to my other mentor, Jeff Couch, who on Friday walked out of the newsroom for the last time as our top editor and into the life of a retiree.

It wasn’t long after Jeff came to us in 2004 that the currents in the media industry began their dramatic and unalterable shift. Readers flocked to online sources and advertisers followed.

The resulting changes in our business have been profound and they have shaken the most veteran journalists.

I have few fonder memories, by the way, than Sundays after Mass with a slice of gooey butter cake from Mallo’s Bakery, a glass of milk and the BND sports section spread out across the kitchen table. It’s my experience with that printed paper that led me to this profession in the first place.

The scope and pace of the changes as we have shifted from print to digital were, at times, unsettling.

But Jeff, also a newsroom “lifer” and self-described “warhorse,” hasn’t been one to get caught wringing his hands with worry, even as 2,500 U.S. newspapers have gone under (including the East St. Louis Monitor, which published its last edition Thursday) and about 35,000 journalists lost their jobs.

“When a tidal wave is bearing down, you can do one of two things,” he’d say. “You can stand there and wait to get crushed, or you can ride the wave.”

And so, with confidence, grace and an inspiring passion for the craft, Jeff doubled down on the mission of community journalism, which is to ethically report the truth, hold power to account, and give a voice to the vulnerable.

This is our duty to you, the readers. And that will never change, whether the BND is downloaded to your iPad, scrolled across your phone or carried to your mailbox.

As the newly appointed steward of this nearly 167-year-old institution, it’s now my duty to lead a talented and dedicated newsroom on the foundation of these tenets. It’s both a privilege and a responsibility that I take seriously.

Because I’m from here and I’m for here.

You can reach BND Executive Editor Todd Eschman at 618-239-2540 or teschman@bnd.com.