Desert Sun editor Julie Makinen bids farewell after 4½ years in 'best and toughest' job

This, dear readers, is the last day of the best and toughest job I’ve ever had: executive editor of The Desert Sun.

When I took this job 4½ years ago, my brother quipped — only half-jokingly — that I was “slouching toward retirement.” After stints reporting in war zones like Iraq and Afghanistan, and covering stories like the 2008 financial crisis and 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami, I would find Palm Springs a walk in the park, he predicted.

He had no bloody idea what he was talking about.

True, I arrived here in 2018 with a great sense of optimism and fanciful plans. The economy was strong. Our parent company, Gannett, was looking to expand coverage on the West Coast. And the Coachella Valley was a community that seemed to want a quality local newspaper. Plus, I imagined, I could hit the pool after work and feel no shame eating early bird special dinners at 5:30 p.m.

I had little inkling of all the challenges that would soon come thundering down: A corporate merger laden with more than $1 billion in debt. The COVID-19 pandemic. A shift to all-remote work for nearly two years. Declines in advertising amid long shutdowns. Inflation. Labor shortages. Furloughs. Buyouts. Layoffs. Benefit cuts. The “great resignation.” The sale of our building and shutdown of our printing press. Not to mention a broad trend toward hostility to media — or simply “news avoidance.”

Far from making me soft, Palm Springs has, quite unexpectedly, toughened me up.

For the record: I never got to swim after work, or eat dinner at 5:30. I got out of shape and stayed up late working at my desk. Not that I’m complaining. I have always relished a good fight for a worthy cause. And what more worthy cause is there than an informed community?

I can honestly say that I and my team gave it our all.

We have tried to hold the powerful to account, and give voice to the voiceless. We have worked to explain complicated topics, from Salton Sea water politics to community college bond funding, to bounty hunter regulations and warehouse zoning rules. We’ve worked to deliver stories from parts of the valley that haven’t gotten their due in our pages, from east valley mobile home parks with contaminated water to hidden communities of Thai Buddhists near Desert Hot Springs.

When the pandemic thrust us all into working from home, we tore up our playbook. Sports reporters stepped up to cover schools and education. Entertainment reporters began covering breaking news. Environment reporters pitched in to track COVID-19 data. It was like conducting a symphony where half the musicians had to change instruments and learn new parts halfway through the concert. It was chaotic, and fun, and important. We felt called to do our best to keep you up to date on this unprecedented crisis, from how many cases were being reported here in the valley, to each city’s shifting rules, to local financial relief programs and so much more. That is news that no national outlet — not Fox News, nor the Wall Street Journal, nor CNN, was going to provide. Local news truly matters.

When the bean counters ordered budget cuts, we got creative. I and my team sought out support from national foundations and local philanthropists. We received critical support from organizations including Report for America, ProPublica, the College of the Desert Foundation, the Inland Empire Community Foundation and the Coachella Valley Journalism Foundation. And that’s not to mention the hundreds of local individuals who have donated to help keep our coverage strong.

This support has allowed us to bring you enhanced coverage of tribal affairs, senior citizens’ issues, the environment and more. It has kept these opinion pages and our editorial board alive. It has created opportunities for more than a dozen students to work as interns, gaining valuable experience and filling important coverage gaps from sports stories to arts and entertainment features and photography.

This community is supportive. It is also demanding — another quality I appreciate.

You expect excellence, and weren’t afraid to tell me when you thought we were falling short. I received emails about misspelled words. Long letters about why certain articles lacked context or crucial background. Complaints about stories that were too long — or too short. Concerns about biased language in wire stories. Grammar gaffes. Punctuation errors. I appreciate every last one of them. I engaged with many of you via phone, email, text message and in person.

We sought to fix what we could, learn from our mistakes, and do better next time. The relentless and somehow joyful truth about working for a daily newspaper is that we get to come back the next day and do more, and do better. To make one more phone call. To track down one more fact. To unearth one more document that might shed crucial light on an important story.

The fact that you all gave a damn made me care even more.

I hope with all my heart that you will continue to give a damn. Continue reading and critiquing our stories. Continue writing in with letters to the editor and Valley Voices. Continue contributing to our fundraising efforts. Pay attention to what’s happening to corporate ownership of local news.

I am leaving you in good hands, with a strong team of editors, reporters and photographers who are knowledgeable about the Coachella Valley and aspire to journalistic excellence. Kate Franco, a Desert Sun veteran of more than 20 years for whom I have the deepest respect, will be picking up where I left off.

This community has the power to keep this newspaper not only alive, but thriving. If you hold the bar high, and offer your support and your constructive criticism, it will only get better.

Though I’ll be joining a new publication in the Bay Area, the San Francisco Standard, I plan to remain engaged in the Coachella Valley, and I will do my part to support local news. For starters, I will be joining the board of the Coachella Valley Journalism Foundation, which aims to support The Desert Sun and other news outlets here in the valley with grants for staff positions, internships and reporting projects.

I also look forward to reading daily as a paid subscriber, sharing good stories with friends, and perhaps even penning the occasional letter to the editor.

It’s been an honor and a privilege to serve.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Desert Sun editor Julie Makinen, in final column, says thanks