by Tony Norman, NSNC President
If there’s anyone in the NSNC who doesn’t need an introduction, it’s Bonnie Jean Feldkamp. Anyone who has been around this organization a few years knows that she’s a high-energy burst of ball lightning.
When Bonnie was the NSNC’s former media and public relations czarina and newsletter editor, she pushed us to rethink how we did everything. She pushed us in all the right ways with a joy and enthusiasm born of a work ethic forged during a working-class upbringing. Bonnie is tough, but sensitive and charismatic: an iron fist in a velvet glove.
But even as she was helping the NSNC get to the next level, Bonnie was balancing her freelance writing career and the demands of family during economically trying times. Through it all, she never lost perspective. She doesn’t believe in whining.
This is the first part of a series of Q&As with NSNC members who have transitioned from freelancing opinion columns to being bosses in the newspaper industry. What does it feel like to be on the other side of the desk receiving pitches from columnists and opinion writers instead of pitching them?
Bonnie Jean Feldkamp, Opinion Editor at the Courier-Journal in Louisville, Ky., and a syndicated columnist with Creators has had a few months to think about that very question:
Q: Bonnie, briefly sketch out your journey from freelancer, to valued contributor to an opinion page in Cincinnati to opinion editor at a major metropolitan newspaper in Louisville.
A: I wrote columns and then eventually a monthly blog for regional parenting publications. It was a mommy blog of sorts, but between the humor and “mom life” entries, I also wrote about current events with a parent’s perspective.
After two years, my blog won an award. So with my editor’s support, I approached the publisher to explore ways to help it grow. The publisher had never actually read my blog and this prompted her to take a look. When she did, she went through and deleted every blog post that she didn’t personally agree with.
I was shocked. Then, I was angry. I told her to take the whole blog down. My well-meaning friends told me not to burn any bridges. But I knew that my voice could not be authentic if it was actively being stifled.
She took it down. That was in 2018 and I felt like I’d lost my voice in the community and I wasn’t okay with that so I submitted the most recent blog entry to The Cincinnati Enquirer, which published it as an op-ed. I was hooked. I submitted a lot and since they’re a Gannett Publication, USA Today also published some of those op-eds. My voice went from being silenced regionally to being distributed nationally. Then I was invited to sit on a community advisory board and from there The Cincinnati Enquirer editorial board even though I was not a staff member. Then in April Creators offered me a ten-year contract to syndicate a weekly column with them. I signed it. When I told the mommy blog to shove it things just started happening and it picked up speed.
Over the summer fellow NSNCer Byron McCauley told me about the job opening at the Louisville Courier-Journal. I posted it in the Clubhouse like I always did when leads came up but after a few days I was like wait a minute…maybe I should go after that job. My time with the NSNC mentoring columnists, teaching workshops through SPJ and other community organizations, and my time as a columnist meant I was perfect for the job, I thought. And I am passionate about lifting community voices. Luckily they agreed and the opinion editor Kevin Aldridge at The Cincinnati Enquirer agreed. He gave me a glowing recommendation and here I am. That’s not a short answer.
Q: Now that you’re on the editor side of the columnist / editor divide, was there a period of transition where you felt your sympathy shifting from identification with columnists (out of necessity) to the editor’s imperative to publish worthy content at all costs?
A: I straddle that line well since I am still a working columnist and I think I carry my empathy and compassion with me to the editor side of the desk in the role thus far. I’ve made my expectations clear and I keep the reminder in my head that “Clear is kind.” I learned that reading Brene Brown (I am a fan) and I know by being clear with my vision for the Opinion page I’ve also give those who desire it, a path.
Q: What was the most unexpected development in your change of status? What do you understand now that you didn’t before?
A: I understand how the decisions are made and that column that would have been printed last week may not have room this week. Or vice versa. I’ve learned that patience and kindness are values to always carry and I also understand how much is expected of a person on the editing side of the desk. I see the things I did right that got me here but I also see the times I took things to heart that had nothing to do with me and I try to help people sidestep that internalizing of rejection (or flat out being ghosted) by giving excellent customer service. That said, I also type this knowing someone called my boss today threatening to cancel their subscription because I won’t run his op-ed. Some people you just can’t help.
Q: What do you wish you had known when you were a columnist pitching ideas that you know now?
A: I think I did this pretty well without the awareness but don’t expect me to remember you. If you send a follow up email reply to the conversation and reintroduce yourself in one sentence. If we worked together a bunch (or if you’ve been a royal pain in my ass) I’ll remember you. But if you wrote a one-off three months ago, please remind me who you are.
Q: You’re still doing an occasional column for your former newspaper in Cincy, right? In a sense you’re continuing that columnist / editor relationship long distance. How has your new role as an editor in Ky. influenced how you write columns (if at all)?
A: I’m still syndicated and write a weekly column with Creators. The Cincinnati Enquirer runs it frequently but not every week. The Louisville Courier-Journal doesn’t run my column at all. They want what I write for them to be hyperlocal and specific to the Louisville market which makes sense. It has influenced me that I don’t have the same amount of time to devote to it like I did before. I’ve not conducted as many interviews which I want to do more of. That’s a logistical issue I need to work out. I write my column on Sundays before the week hits me head on.
Q: What advice do you give to columnists and opinion writers who want you to publish them? What are you looking for in their pitch and in their actual copy?
I wrote a column about it earlier this month laying it all out and you can link to it here:
How to submit a guest opinion column or op-ed to The Courier-Journal
But mainly, I want productive contributions to public conversations. No name-calling. Make it local and tell me how issues affect your neighborhood and your life. If you just want to chastise those who don’t agree with you then I’ll ask you to dig deeper. I want solutions and positive change. Not rants and contemptuous bitch sessions. Save those for social media.
Tie personal experience to current events to help readers empathize, relate and care – that is my dogma.
I’m not asking columnists to do anything I don’t strive to do in my own columns.
Q: Do you have a role model in mind as you go about shaping the page?
I don’t have a specific person but I do take a little from each opinion editor I talk to and shape it to my vision and add it into the soup. I ask a lot of questions and have met (virtually) with several opinion editors and continue to meet with them to talk shop and brainstorm what’s working. I also read a ton. The study out of Cambridge Press really intrigues me. They found, “While it may not cure all of the imbalances and inequities in opinion journalism, an opinion page that ignores national politics could help local newspapers push back against political polarization.”
That’s hard to strive for when I’m editing op-eds from the likes of Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul but I do prioritize op-eds that target local issues. And I’m sorry, but don’t write to me from out of state unless you have clear ties to Kentucky or Southern Indiana or you have a good reason for addressing a Louisville publication with your letter or op-ed. And wagging your finger at Mitch McConnell in a letter to the editor from California gets you nowhere.
Q: Does your editorial vision for the page come mainly from you or do you shape it in accordance with the publisher’s wishes? How would you describe the philosophy in any case?
A: My executive editor Mary Irby and I have strategy meetings but it’s my lead and my vision. She has buy-in and offers me resources and support. I respect her feedback and input a ton. WE have a very forward vision towards digital publication.
My philosophy boils down to this quote from Brene Brown. It is my guiding light: A social wound needs a social balm and empathy is that balm.
That’s what I want to see happen in the opinion pages.
I want to hold space for others to safely express themselves so everyone can feel that they belong.
The opinion section in Louisville will soon go beyond words on a page and branch out into interviews that matter, we will continue to reaching younger people through social media and give them an entrypoint to engaging with their local publication. We care about their neighborhoods and schools more than the latest Washington Drama. Don’t talk to me about Trump unless he’s sitting on your front porch.
I want more human perspectives and stories and less pontificating politicians. I even started an “Op-eds on Tour” workshop series with neighborhood libraries so I can find voices we’ve not yet heard from.
I’ve also invited students to send me 10-30 second videos instead of written letters to the editor. I’m piloting that in conjunction with Student Press Freedom Day in Feb.
Q: Will you be attending the NSNC conference in Birmingham, or have you forgotten us already?
A: Yes. If Omicron lets up and the NSNC requires vaccination to attend, I’ll be there. I’m looking forward to seeing friends I haven’t seen since the Buffalo conference!
Q: Do you see yourself doing this 10 years from now whether you’re still at the same paper or not?
A: I see myself excelling locally. Mastering this vision of local engagement through empathy and then moving up to a regional position where I oversee the opinion sections of several Gannett publications. I don’t aim for anything less than knocking this out of the park in a way that enacts positive change for our community and then spirals out from there.
I want to be part of a kinder world and I want to inspire people to truly listen to one another even when it’s hard. Talk to me again in a few years.
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