Late shift, anyone?

David Shaw’s lament (“Corporate culture drained of its colorful characters,” Dec. 29) that reporters, editors and the newspapers they produce these days are less interesting than they used to be reminds me of when Jim Bellows was editing the Herald Examiner in the late ‘70s.

Bellows used to personally sketch the Page 1 layout for the next day’s paper at the late-afternoon news meeting. And he insisted that if there were any changes in the layout he was to be called at home. I thought, at the time, that that was risky (inclining the night folks to overlook late news) and a tad insulting to the news editors themselves.

Now, when, as Shaw says, we see blandness and lack of personality the order of the day in so many American papers, Bellows’ approach makes eminent sense. It was his way of making sure the most important page in the paper started with his voice and his vision. An idea for current editors who would go and do likewise: Hey, work the 4-to-midnight shift!

John Walter

Atlanta

John Walter is the former executive editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.