From the Editor

A word from Editor, Rosanne Dunkelberger  
Tell Me More: Why Journalism Has Always Been the Job for Me

{mosimage} 

While I’m no fan of Gov. Bush’s plan to require high school freshmen to declare a major, in ninth grade I did know my career path. I always wanted to be a reporter – a journalist.

Every so often I’d wander off the reservation,  but I always was drawn back to the thing that I enjoy the most and do the best – writing stories.

Journalism is a profession, but it’s not one likely to make you rich. However, there are other perks that make the job worthwhile, even while you’re eating the dust of your kid brother as he rockets past you on his way up the corporate ladder.

And one of the best things about being a reporter is that you can ask pretty much anybody pretty much anything. And, pretty much, they’ll answer you.

Probably all my life I’ve had a natural curiosity about people, which one of my fellow students all the way back in junior high identified when he dubbed me “Nosy Rosie.” While most people who make an impertinent inquiry get a huffy  response, the reporter will be invited into the house for an information dump.

As a journalist, if you call the CEO of Widgets Etc., the police chief or the nation’s top expert on the mating habits of voles, you just might get that person on the line.

For 30-plus years, my avocation has given me the opportunity to interview all sorts of interesting people. A few celebrities, gobs of elected officials, cops, kids, street preachers, experts, artists, racists, people like me, people nothing like me … a multitude of questions, and so much learned.

Working on this issue’s package of stories about Florida’s governor’s race, I had an experience not many people can duplicate. I was able to interview three of the four men who will be on the primary ballot, a 75-percent probability that I will have had an extended conversation with the next governor of our state.

It’s an honor – and a huge responsibility. I feel as though I’m the surrogate for all the readers of Tallahassee Magazine. What do you want to know about these candidates? What sorts of answers will help you decide between the contenders? Do you have a deal-breaker issue that would keep you from voting for one in particular?

It’s hard to cover all of those political bases, but I think we’ve come up with a format that should provide at least a start in your decision-making process. There’s a political state-of-the-state-race analysis by Florida State University professor Lance Dehaven-Smith. Then we have personality profiles of the men-who-would-be-governor. Finally, there’s a question grid providing cut-to-the-chase short answers on topics of state and local interest.

It’s not everything you’ll need to know, but hopefully it will give you a head start for the Sept. 5 primary and, ultimately, the general election in November.

As you get further into this issue of the magazine, you may notice things are looking a little different. We’re constantly making tweaks to improve Tallahassee Magazine’s appearance and readability, but this time Creative Director Larry Davidson and his team have redesigned much of the magazine. We’re covering most of the same topics we always have. It’s mostly reshuffling (moving all of the food-related news into the dining guide, for example) to make the magazine easier to navigate and redesigning to make pages “cleaner” and easier to read.