PIONEER WATCH : He Made a Difference

Robert C. Maynard, who died Tuesday, reached the pinnacle of American journalism. The first black publisher of a major metropolitan daily, he owned and ran the Oakland Tribune until illness forced him to sell the paper last year. He served on Pulitzer juries that recognized the best that newspapers offered, and on the boards of the top newspaper industry organizations. He made the rounds of the Sunday news shows, a rare black face among the pundits. Before he moved to California, he covered the White House, wrote editorials and worked as the ombudsman for the Washington Post.

He was quite successful, and he was unselfish with his success.

He crusaded for integration in America’s newsrooms. He made a business case for diversity--not as some high-minded social obligation but as a way to improve the bottom line. He convinced other captains of the newspaper industry to integrate to broaden coverage, and capture the increasingly diverse readers of the future.

He quit the Post to train African-American, Asian and Latino journalists so that no white editor could ever say again, “I couldn’t find anybody qualified.” His Institute for Journalism Education sponsored the Summer Program for Minority Journalists, at UC Berkeley. Through IJE efforts, Maynard mentored 500 minority reporters, editors and newspaper managers.

Erudite, tenacious, demanding and precise, Bob Maynard made a difference in the business of journalism. And he thus enriched the quality and breadth of what Americans read and saw in the news.