Denver native Chavez guides
Post newsroom
By Curtis L. Esquibel
Jeanette Chavez |
A lot has changed since Jeanette Chavez
('73) grew up in Denver during the 1960s. Still, one thing remains the same. As
a child, Chavez recalls seeing The Denver Post at her family's doorstep every morning. As
the current managing editor of the Post, Chavez still reads the paper that's delivered to
her family's home every day.
Going on 25 years in the newspaper business, Chavez has seen firsthand the evolution of
the newspaper business from typewriters and Associated Press teletype machines to
computers and the Internet.
"The basics are still the same," said Chavez, 46. "You want to have the
best story, and you want to have it first. The technology and the way we produce the news
has changed, but in terms of what we want to deliver, it has stayed the same."
In April, Chavez was appointed managing editor of the Post, where she started as an
assistant news editor in 1984 before moving on to news editor and associate editor of
features.
"When I was in college, I just wanted to get a job as a reporter," Chavez
said. "I was happy that I was able to succeed at that." |
Succeed at that she did. All the way from the Colorado Springs Sun to The Coloradoan in
Fort Collins to the Chicago Sun-Times, Chavez covered, well, just about everything. The
question to ask is what didn't she cover. While education may have been her favorite beat,
she also enjoyed writing features and covering police, county government and health.
Her career path would eventually turn toward management in the late 1970s when she was
named city editor of The Coloradoan. Chavez said women managers bring different ideas to
the newsroom.
"I've always been in a spot where I was one of very few women in certain
positions, but there are some things that are universal to journalism in terms of the
types of stories that are done," she said.
In spite of her journalistic success, Chavez's first career passion was oceanography.
Once she found it required years of schooling to be an oceanographer, it did not take long
to turn her focus to a field where she could apply all of her interests.
Journalism, she figured, was definitely the next best thing.
"It's one of the few careers where you can have an interest in absolutely
everything, a nd being nosy is OK," she said.
Her introduction to a lifetime of news started at Kennedy High School in Denver. In the
ninth grade, Chavez signed up for a newswriting course and met Don Ridgway, then a high
school teacher and now a CU journalism professor emeritus. Little did she know that
Ridgway would be her greatest career influence.
"He always encouraged and supported me to do the best I could," Chavez said.
"He felt that I had the talent to be a good journalist."
Ridgway said Chavez's skills just kept getting stronger.
"She was a tremendous student. I remember she was rather shy as a ninth grader,
but by the time she was a senior she could be pretty tough. That kind of leadership is
serving her well at the Post.
"To the best of my knowledge, she has reached the highest accomplishment of any
student I've ever had."
Throughout her career, Chavez said she has always enjoyed her jobs whether she was
reporting, copy editing or writing headlines. Yet, when retracing her career, Chavez
especially remembers her early days as a reporter for the now-defunct Colorado Springs
Sun.
"So many students come out of journalism school, and they're ready to walk into
that large newsroom for their first job. That really doesn't happen a whole lot,"
Chavez said. "It was very helpful to start at a small newspaper."
