Alameda ambition
Oakland-grown Dianda is editor at the Tribune
By Carolyn Farr

Jill Tucker and Mario Dianda in Dianda's office at The Oakland Tribune.

A lot of journalism students aspire to one day edit their hometown paper, and the bigger the paper, the bigger the dream.

“The Oakland Tribune is the paper that I grew up with,” said Mario Dianda (’76), the Tribune’s editor, adding that accommodating his own passions for the Tribune and its readers requires long hours.

“You would need a head exam to do this job if you didn’t love it.” Dianda said.

Dianda said his main priority for the Tribune is that “at the end of the day, tomorrow’s paper is going to reflect what our readers want.” He said that one of the most gratifying aspects of his job is doing a public service every day and also knowing that “every day is a new day.”

The highly competitive San Francisco Bay-area market demands that kind of dedication, he said. The Tribune is the underdog in the Bay area, competing with the San Francisco Chronicle and The Mercury News in San Jose.

The Tribune, headquartered in downtown Oakland, is owned by the ANG Newspapers, a division of MediaNews Group, which also owns The Denver Post. Dianda, who has worked for ANG (formerly Alameda Newspaper Group) for nearly a decade, said his progression from reporting to editing was gradual. He was asked several times to become an editor but turned down the opportunities. Dianda said he had been told by fellow editors that “when you become an editor, reporters assume your IQ drops 30 points.”

Despite the warnings, Dianda eventually did accept the position as the regional editor of the Tribune and worked his way up to become editor. Under his leadership, the paper has received many awards, most notably the general excellence award from the California Newspaper Publishers Association, the California Newspaper Award for Investigative Reporting and two James Madison Freedom of Information Awards for Investigative Reporting.

He began his collegiate career not in Boulder, but at the University of San Francisco. After two years, Dianda came to the University of Colorado at Boulder after falling in love with the town during a cross-country journey.

The School, Dianda said, was relatively small when he attended classes there in the ‘70s but possessed some strong faculty personalities. He credits the late Bill McReynolds as the professor who got him interested in investigative reporting. It was here, he said, that he developed a passion for reporting that has driven him throughout his career. Another professor, Sam Archibald, greatly influenced Dianda. “Archibald would take your copy and tear it to shreds. Some people found it offensive, but I found it very helpful,” he said.

Dianda said that although he is no longer in touch with most of his classmates, he is still quite close to one. Dianda met his wife, Carolyn, while he was studying at CU. They have a 14-year-old son, Tony.

Dianda said he worked full time throughout college to pay the hefty out-of-state tuition, toiling mostly for Hansen Ski Boot. Despite his outside work, he found time to work for the campus paper, and it was there that he said he began to practice his investigative skills and hone a hard-news edge on his reporting.

Dianda entered a job market that was swarming with journalism graduates who wanted to be the next Bob Woodward or Carl Bernstein. After Watergate, he said, many people wanted to get involved in journalism. He noted that there was this “perceived power to take down the president,” which made the journalistic world seem very glamorous.

He said he landed his first job at the Woodland Daily Democrat in California. He continued to work at a variety of papers around California before ending up at The Oakland Tribune, reporting for The Sacramento Bee and the Peninsula Times Tribune in Palo Alto.

At the Times Tribune, Dianda briefly crossed paths with the School’s dean, Paul Voakes, who was then the editorial page editor. In 1993, the Peninsula Times Tribune closed, and Dianda moved to Oakland. mdianda@angnewspapers.com

CU counsel still key for ANG's Jill Tucker
by Carolyn Farr

She has gone on from the School to become a prize-winning journalist, but one of the former professors of Jill Tucker (MA '97) is never more than a phone call away as a resource and an adviser.

Tucker's most recent prize came in June 2004 when she received the Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism for a five-part series for The Oakland Tribune and ANG Newspapers called “Separate and Unequal.”

The series examined the disparities in the California public school system.

She also received the Public Service Award from the Society of Professional Journalists of Northern California in June 2003 for her work on the series.

Tucker said she was hired as the regional education writer for ANG newspapers in 1997 by Mario Dianda ('76), then the regional editor for ANG, a group of newspapers with a circulation of about 240,000, with The Oakland Tribune as its flagship paper.

Tucker was a finalist in the Associated Press Managing Editors National Public Service Award for “Separate and Unequal.”

She was also was awarded the Price Child Health and Welfare Journalism Award by the Children's Advocacy Group sponsored by the University of California at San Diego.

Two years ago, Tucker received five awards, including her first Casey Medal, for a series of articles that she wrote on special education.

The Casey Medal is given by the University of Maryland and recognizes exceptional news coverage of children and family issues.

Although Tucker has been away from CU for nine years, she said she still counts on her most influential professor, Len Ackland.

“He's a friend and an invaluable resource to my career, ” she said.

Tucker said she considers Ackland's advice invaluable. She said she contacted him about her “Separate and Unequal” series and that he helped her sort out her ideas.

Tucker's first job after graduate school was at the Longmont Daily Times-Call where she was a general assignment reporter for two years.

She is married to Kristopher Skinner, a former graduate student at the School and now a photographer for the Contra Costa Times Newspaper Group. They have a 2-year-old son. jtucker@angnewspapers.com