I had to choose between my dream Chronicle job or publishing a weekly newspaper

By John Toth

The Bulletin

My former editor, Mary Moody, called me in 1995, five months after I quit the Houston Chronicle.

“Did you get that weekly paper publishing bug out of your system yet?” she asked.

“Why are you asking,” I asked back.

“Because I have to fill your position, and I thought you’d like to come back,” she replied.

I was honored. Mary and I didn’t always see eye to eye, although we managed to resolve our differences and became friends again – and again. I had no idea she was holding off on hiring anyone until I got this newspaper publishing bug out of my system, as she put it.

She offered me the chance to return with seniority and benefits restored. I was making a nice income working for the Chronicle and really liked chasing stories and being given a lot of leeway with my activities daily.

I established a good reputation in Brazoria County while working for the Facts for about a year and then 12 years at the Chronicle. I was reporting on Brazoria and area counties, and, for the most part, I did anything I wanted as long as I came up with stories to file, which I did frequently.

If I was not able to get on Page 1 of the paper with a bylined article at least once a week, I felt like I was not doing my job. I chased other types of stories also, but that was my goal. Achieving it on a weekly basis was not always possible. That made me work even harder.

I maximized stories without distorting them. Even on controversial stories, I kept my sources on both sides. I live in this community. Had I burnt them, word would have spread, and I would have had a hard time getting others to trust me with information.

I would often think of how lucky I was. It was my dream job. What a way to earn a living – write stories for the fourth largest paper in the country and get paid well to do it.

The hustle, even-handedness and networking paid off. Information became easier to gather. Stories that nobody else was getting came my way. I was at the top of my game and career, and I loved every minute of it.

All this raced through my mind after Mary asked me to rejoin the Chronicle – all the stories, experiences, assignments and being part of a big organization. It was tempting.

The choice was between a multi-million dollar big-city newspaper owned by the Hearst Corporation or staying with our little, financially not-so-stable community paper that was only a few months old.

It was not a hard decision.

“I think I’ll keep doing The Bulletin,” I told Mary.

“Are you sure?” she asked.

I wasn’t sure. I had three children and a house mortgage. But I had a feeling that The Bulletin would work out. Sharon, my wife and business partner, and I were determined to take the paper to whatever awaited it.

We started printing The Bulletin on July 4, 1994. We entered a highly volatile publishing market already crowded with weeklies on a hunch that if we put a lot of work and effort into our product, the rest would take care of itself.

It turned out to be more complicated, but in the end, saying no to Mary was the right decision. My common sense side wanted to say yes. My heart said no.

We close out 31 years of printing The Bulletin with this issue. Next week we’ll start our 32nd year, bringing you the best product we can turn out weekly.

My thanks to Mary, may she rest in peace, for offering me a way out of this messy weekly publishing business, even though I turned it down. And, my thanks to all our readers and advertisers who made me realize throughout these years that I made the right decision.

(Want to comment on this story? Send me an email at john.bulletin@gmail.com. We’ll share your thoughts with our readers.)