The News Under Noonan
In 1986 the Desplaines Valley News was purchased by the soft-spoken, chain-smoking, former copy boy turned editor, John C. Noonan. Under the Bridgeport, Chicago native’s leadership, the Desplaines Valley News was transformed into a kind of “working school” for aspiring local journalists.
When he was 15 years old, Noonan went to work for the Bridgeport News and got his first exposure to print journalism. While attending DeLaSalle High School, Noonan was able to get a job as a copy boy at the Chicago Tribune. Some time later he was moved to the Tribune’s rewrite desk, and in 1961 Noonan became a beat reporter with the City News Bureau of Chicago. Noonan spent seven years at City News, where he was overnight city editor and broadcast editor.
During his 14-year tenure at the Desplaines Valley News, Noonan exposed a new generation of reporters to the “City News” style of journalism, training wide-eyed upstarts to think like beat reporters – be tenacious, make friends, get lots of information and make sure it’s good. Noonan brought the City News maxim, “If your mother says she loves you, check it out,” to Summit, Illinois.
In addition to running the Desplaines Valley News, Noonan also ran for Illinois Senate in the 24th District in 1992. He was defeated in the Democratic Party primary, but garnered nearly 10,000 votes.
John Noonan died on Sunday, October 15, 2000 at Hinsdale Hospital, Hinsdale, Illinois, after a short battle with lung cancer at the age of 58.
Read more about this topic: Desplaines Valley News
Famous quotes containing the words news and/or noonan:
“The media have just buried the last yuppie, a pathetic creature who had not heard the news that the great pendulum of public conciousness has just swung from Greed to Compassion and from Tex-Mex to meatballs.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (b. 1941)
“A speech is poetry: cadence, rhythm, imagery, sweep! A speech reminds us that words, like children, have the power to make dance the dullest beanbag of a heart.”
—Peggy Noonan (b. 1950)