Summary:
Audrey Cooper talks about how tough it was when she started as the first female editor-in-chief of the San Francisco Chronicle. Miserable at the beginning, coming home crying night after night, Audrey managed to stick with it and transform the organization.
Thuy Vu talks with Audrey Cooper, editor-in-chief of the San Francisco Chronicle, about some of her toughest days at the paper, when she was just starting out, and how Audrey managed to keep going despite fierce opposition, and screaming voices of self-doubt. If you’re ever tempted to quit, read about what kept Audrey going through some very dark days.
“When you have so many trolls and people who are constantly criticizing you, how do you cope with that? How are you able to put all that aside and still just steer that ship and keep your wits about you?”
It's really hard and it's something that the first year and a half that I was editor I struggled with so much. I would come home every night crying. I mean really I was miserable. I thought, “I suck at this and I am never going to fix this place. I'm never going to make it what I want.” And then at about a year and a half I looked around and everybody was happy and we were doing some great stories and I thought, “Oh my God all the things that I wanted to change actually happened!” And I think the maturity to know that these trolls--they want your attention. But you can't feed the trolls. I used to feed the trolls. Don't feed the trolls. Sometimes I still do. I don't always take my own advice and it's terrible but usually if you just turn it off you realize that the sun is still shining the birds are still singing. Not everybody is on “journalists’ Twitter” and this too shall pass.
But how did you go from coming home crying every night to getting your organization to a place where people were happy and that you felt you were engaging in effective leadership?
I mean it was really the hardest thing I've ever done by far in my entire life. And one of the things I had was an executive coach and that was huge. We had one session where I came in and I was crying so hard I just couldn't talk, and we just had to cancel it. I’m so embarrassed to tell you that.
I mean it was really hard but she really helped me realize that the sort of personality I have, I thought everybody was basically like me before this, which is crazy. She asked me who I wanted to be when I grew up, when I was little, and I said, “Sandra Day O'Connor the first female Supreme Court justice,” and she said, “Oh you were interested in the law?” and I said no. So she asked, “Well why do you think you wanted to do that?” And I said because she was the only woman I knew of that was important and doing something. Because I was four when she was confirmed and it made a huge impression. She says, “Don't you think that's a little unusual?” And I was like, “No, doesn't everybody want to be Sandra Day O'Connor?” And then she goes, “No! They don’t. At all.”
And I realized that I sometimes, am ahead of where everybody else is. And they catch up and they want to do what's right. And sometimes being the person who can see around the corner is not the easiest place to be but you get to see what's around the corner first.
