Washington Says Goodbye

Chicago Reporter, The, Nov-Dec, 2001 by Micah Holmquist

Laura S. Washington will step down as editor and publisher of The Chicago Reporter at the end of 2001, and Senior Editor Alysia Tate will become the publication's new leader.

Washington held every job at the Reporter since starting as an intern in 1979. She was named editor and publisher in 1994.

During her tenure, the Reporter won more than 90 awards. In 1997 Newsweek magazine cited Washington as one of "100 People to Watch in the Next Century."

Washington served as deputy press secretary for Mayor Harold Washington from 1985 to 1987 and later worked as a producer for the investigative unit at CBS 2 Chicago. She has contributed to television news and public affairs programs and has written for numerous publications, including the Chicago Tribune, and currently writes a regular column for the Chicago Sun-Times.

Washington said she will continue as a Sun-Times columnist and is "developing a television project that will produce provocative and productive conversations and analysis on racial issues." She is also working on a book project.

She added: "While I am sad to go, I know I am leaving the Reporter in the hands of a talented and committed journalist. Alysia represents a new generation of leaders who will take the Reporter to the next level."

Tate served as the Reporter's managing editor before she was named senior editor in July. She covered government and politics for the publication from 1998 to 2000. In 1999 she helped lead the award-winning report "A Community's Trauma," which revealed that few mental health services were available to help families in the Englewood community on Chicago's South Side cope with high levels of violent crime.

Tate hosts the Reporter's monthly public affairs program, "City Voices," which airs on WNUA, 95.5 FM. From 1994 to 1998 she was a reporter for the Daily Herald in northwest suburban Arlington Heights. She earned her bachelor's degree from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.

"We will miss Laura," Tate said, "but she has trained us to ask the uncomfortable questions that show how race and poverty affect us all.

"Racism may seem less overt," she added. "But it is no less destructive, or insidious."

In other news: Leah Samuel has joined the Reporter as the new Robert R. McCormick Tribune Minority Fellow in Urban Journalism. Since 1995 she has been a staff writer for Labor Notes, a Detroit-based, non-profit monthly that covers national labor issues. Previously, Samuel was a reporter for Metro Times, Detroit's alternative weekly.

Also, the Reporter received an $80,000 grant from The Chicago Community Trust to support the 2002 Chicago Matters series, which will focus on housing issues. Chicago Matters is an annual public affairs series initiated and funded by the Trust, Chicago's community foundation, in collaboration with WTTW, Channel 11; WBEZ, 91.5 FM, Chicago Public Radio; the Chicago Public Library; and the Reporter.