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The Rotary Spark Podcast
Welcome to our dedicated podcast for Rotary International's District 5750, designed to connect our community through the power of personal storytelling. Each episode celebrates the unique journeys of our fellow Rotarians and community members, highlighting their individual experiences, motivations, and the profound impact of their service and contributions.
Join us as we dive into heartfelt discussions with individuals from all walks of life, sharing stories that inspire and foster connection.
The Rotary Spark Podcast
#0025 - Jeff Harrison
Jeff Harrison's journey from aspiring graphic designer to managing editor of the Midwest City Beacon reveals the unexpected paths that lead us to meaningful work. The Wisconsin native never imagined Oklahoma would become his permanent home, yet the challenges and rewards of local journalism captured his heart and anchored him in a community he's grown to love.
As the sole full-time editorial employee at a small community newspaper, Harrison offers a fascinating glimpse into the day-to-day realities of modern local journalism. From the Monday press-day scrambles to finish layouts and tie up loose ends, to the persistent detective work required to uncover important stories, his experiences highlight both the evolving challenges and enduring importance of community news. "It's getting harder and harder to get people on the phone," Harrison notes, pointing to just one of the many obstacles today's journalists face in gathering information.
The symbiotic relationship between local journalism and community service organizations like Rotary forms the heart of this conversation. Harrison's relatively new membership in the Midwest City Rotary Club mirrors the newspaper's mission to strengthen community bonds. Both entities share information, support local initiatives, and create connections between diverse community members. As newspapers nationwide face unprecedented financial pressures, Harrison emphasizes how community support through subscriptions, advertising, and news tips directly translates to stronger local journalism and, by extension, more informed and connected communities. Check out MidwestCityBeacon.com to subscribe or call 405-455-1110 to learn how you can support this vital community resource. What local news sources do you rely on, and how might you help them thrive?
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Welcome to the Rotary Spark podcast. With me today is Jeff Harrison, over at the Midwest City Beacon and member of the Midwest City Rotary Club. How are you doing today, jeff?
Jeff Harrison:Oh, I'm great.
Brian Triger:Thanks, thanks for coming down. So, jeff, tell me a little bit about your Rotary journey. How did you discover Rotary and how long have you been in Rotary?
Jeff Harrison:kind of throughout my time since I've been at the Midwest City Beacon, the Senator Howell was the one who had kind of introduced me to it and he had kind of promoted it a lot as a good way to meet other people in the community and I would kind of go to meetings every kind of now and then I kind of resisted joining because of the I have a pretty bad scheduling conflict since the meetings are Monday afternoons and that's our press day, so Mondays are kind of the busiest day at the newspaper. But then about a year ago Mac Patel and Ken Newey, they kind of approached me again and encouraged me to join. So I finally decided that I should join last January I think.
Brian Triger:That's great. Yeah, mac is very persistent. I know that from personal experience, so tell us a little bit more about what goes on on Mondays over at the Beacon.
Jeff Harrison:Well, monday is the press day, so that's when we have to have everything, all the pages, finished. So it's kind of just a rough day of just finishing up any loose ends, any stories that didn't quite finish up, and making sure you have everything and all the material together and then finish up the layout for the pages. So it's kind of a long day.
Brian Triger:Okay, so take us maybe into the day-to-day as a managing editor. What does that look like over at the Beacon?
Jeff Harrison:or really anywhere else?
Jeff Harrison:Well, ours, it's a pretty small newspaper. I'm really the only full-time editorial employee there, so I kind of make up my schedule for the most part. So Monday is finishing the paper and Tuesdays I have to kind of help with the layout for one of our company's other papers. Then otherwise I kind of just spend most of the week just digging for different stories covering a lot of the regular beats go to the city council meetings, go to the school board meetings and we also have to cover the sports, so go to a lot of the high school stuff. So it's a lot of those kind of regular events, and then in between just kind of dig for different stories and try to hunt people down and get, get whatever you need.
Brian Triger:So okay, that's really cool. It sounds like a lot of uh, detective work yeah, yeah, it can be in.
Jeff Harrison:It seems like it's always. It's getting harder and harder to get people on the phone and stuff.
Brian Triger:So how are some of the ways that you and anyone else over at the Beacon are dealing with those challenges as the industry is changing?
Jeff Harrison:Um, I guess I just try to stay persistent with it. I'll hear a tidbit here or there. There's something at a meeting that sounded interesting. You'll see a lot of stuff on social media. People will have questions or tips. I'll just try to be persistent and, you know, kind of keep after it and, you know, try to find as much stuff as you can online and try to, you know, get people on the phone and or, you know, get get them through emails.
Brian Triger:And and what ways can we help you as a community and as Rotarians? Is there, aside from maybe sending stories, is there a way that Midwest City and surrounding cities and listeners from maybe other parts of the world that have events that connect to our city, are there specific things that we can do to make your job a little bit easier, to make the Midwest City beacon? Just to make the Midwest City Beacon just to support the Midwest. City Beacon. What can we do?
Jeff Harrison:Well, I mean ours, like one of the biggest challenges is just financially. The newspapers are kind of traditionally built on, you know, display ads from businesses and events and stuff and that's kind of getting a lot harder and harder to get. We always appreciate any kind of advertising from if you have a business or you have an event coming up, we always appreciate all of that. Subscribing is another big thing. You know we have printed and online subscriptions, so that's another key, you know, revenue source for us and then, kind of like you said too, is also, you know, keeping you informative of what's going on. Informative what's going on. So you know I try to be real responsive if somebody has something happening. You know if you have a event or some kind of story idea, you know we always appreciate, you know, you letting us know about it and so we can. We can kind of, you know, look at it and help promote it as well we can kind of you know, look at it and help promote it as well.
Brian Triger:Yeah, so, as I get to know you and talk to other members over at the beacon, it's really an opportunity to invest money back into the community. At the end of the day, if I subscribe to the newspaper or I subscribe to online and or advertise within the paper, it enhances the platform and the quality of content within the paper. That then circles back into the community, which informs everyone in midwest city and any surrounding cities that may be grabbing the paper, and it enriches the uh, the community being solidified in a lot of ways, because the more informed we are as the general public I'd argue to some extent that we're you know our community gets stronger.
Jeff Harrison:So it as long as we invest it, you know, turns into a win-win. Yeah, definitely, and it's something that's kind kind of uh, you know, local newspapers are kind of decreasing a lot, so I mean to have, uh, you know, have that in your community. I think that's a big, uh big resource.
Brian Triger:And so I know that we can go online. Where can we go to, whether it's online calling, calling advertising? Who can we reach out to you? Would we reach out to you directly? Would we go on the Beacon's website? Where would someone that's listening right now go ahead and subscribe and or advertise on your paper?
Jeff Harrison:To subscribe. You can go to our website it's probably the easiest way to do it and it's MidwestCityBeaconcom and there's just a subscribe tab on there and you can get an online subscription or a print subscription or both right on the website. That's probably the easiest way. Or you could call our office. It's 405-455-1110, and we can get you set up there and for advertising it's the same number and Angie Gray is an ad sales representative that works at the office, so she can help with a lot of that. End of it.
Brian Triger:Okay, perfect, yeah, so everyone that's listening right now. Representative that works at the office so she can help with a lot of that. End of it. Okay, perfect, yeah, so everyone that's listening right now. We'll go ahead and we'll make sure to have that in the transcript and push out at least an email or two tied to all of the contact data. It's great to invest in the community. Midwest City Beacon has helped out this podcast and covered a lot of events that I've been exposed to within Rotary.
Brian Triger:So I think that Rotary definitely supports the Beacon, and vice versa. So we do appreciate you. Well thank you. So tell us a little bit about the origin of your career. How did you get into into media?
Jeff Harrison:um, well, and I'm originally from wisconsin and when I was in college I was originally wanted to study graphic design and then, um, I worked at a print shop and a co-worker of mine he would always listen to the talk radio and there were some kind of issues around just around.
Jeff Harrison:This was at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and there were some local issues that just kind of got me interested more in news and politics and so I changed my major to journalism and kind of got really interested in it. And after college I worked at some papers around Milwaukee and then I just thought it would be kind of interesting to move somewhere else and see a different part of the country. And I got a job offer in Guthrie and moved down here and been been here ever since, so worked, uh, worked in Guthrie and worked in Edmond and Mustang where the, the current company there they're headquartered. So I just uh moved down here and kind of expected to only be here for a little while. But just uh really liked it and stayed. So Kind of expected to only be here for a little while but just really liked it and stayed.
Brian Triger:Do you see a lot of similarities between?
Jeff Harrison:Midwest City or.
Brian Triger:Oklahoma in general and where you came from in Wisconsin.
Jeff Harrison:A little bit. I mean Oklahoma City and Milwaukee are kind of similar size metros. Yeah, it seems like Oklahoma City is a newer city so it's kind of growing quite a bit.
Brian Triger:Okay.
Jeff Harrison:Do you go back home or do you go back to?
Brian Triger:Milwaukee.
Jeff Harrison:Yeah, I get back probably about once or twice a year. We'll go see family for Christmas every year and then usually at least one other time in the summer or spring. So yeah try to get back as much as you can.
Brian Triger:I haven't been to Wisconsin yet, so if you have any recommendations, on or offline, of some sites to visit, just let me know.
Jeff Harrison:Yeah, I love it. It especially the summer is a good time to go. It's a little bit cooler than here in the summer, so Okay, uh, let's see.
Brian Triger:So you're new to rotary. I know that there are some events going on within your club, so the shrimp oil is March 15th. I believe anyone in the Midwest City Rotary Club can be contacted for any tables or any auction item opportunities, so we'll go ahead and do our best to include that information as well. Are there any other events that you'd like to promote? Or that you're excited about within the Midwest City Rotary Club.
Jeff Harrison:The Chimp Oil is a big one. It's a great event, it's a lot of fun and it does raise a lot of money for the club, for scholarships and different stuff that we do. We do and, um, I know the the uh wings of rotary that's coming up, where the students from Japan will come over here, and I don't remember the exact date of that, but that's that's very soon as well.
Brian Triger:Yeah, I know, so I'm actually going to look that up on the air. Let's, let's check out our rotary5750.org, and pretty sure that Wings of Rotary is on there. Here we go.
Jeff Harrison:Is the Midwest City Rotary host a kind of hoedown event?
Brian Triger:Yeah, so the hoedown, I'm looking at the Wings of Rotary page right now and I have the 2024-2025 flyer, so I'm downloading it as we speak and it looks like all right. Trip of a lifetime two weeks in June. Let's see there's a QR code, hmm, so it looks like it's in June. Thanks for your patience, everyone. We just want to make sure that everyone has the information available at their fingertips.
Brian Triger:So, we're going to go to our calendar, our club calendar. Well, it looks like that needs to be updated. We need to reach out to Keith and she can be contacted at K, as in Kilo B, as in Bravo O, as in Echo H-L-E-R-T at gmailcom. She's in charge of Wings of Rotary and we'll make sure to throw that information up on Facebook and via email as well. And I know that the hoedown is definitely on our website, so I'm going to take a look at that to make sure everyone knows when that's available. So the Wings of Rotary Hoedown is 3-15-2025, and it's at the Atkinson Heritage, 1001 North Midwest Boulevard, midwest City, oklahoma, and it is between 2 and 4 pm. You can find out that information at rotary5750.org and it looks like you can RSVP by calling Sally Newey at 405-833-1465. I know that she works on the Wings Project as well, so you can definitely contact her for more information about that. And yeah, no, they're great projects. I'm excited to see some of the pictures and maybe meet some of the kids when they come out from.
Brian Triger:Japan. I think it's a really cool thing that our community does.
Jeff Harrison:Yeah, I've been to that HODON before. That's a lot of fun. They're all excited to meet everybody and they've been to that hold on before. That's a lot of fun and it's they're all excited to meet everybody in there.
Brian Triger:They always have great kids involved in that. For anyone who's listening, wings of Rotary is a youth exchange program between Oklahoma District 5750 and Japan District 2520. It's been going on for about 40 years now and the student teams consist of eight to nine students plus Rotary team members and there are a couple of meetings before the departure in June. So there are a lot of questions and answers that are hashed out prior to a lot of these events occurring. That are hashed out prior to a lot of these events occurring. And if you want to check out more information, you can go to rotary5750.org and go to the wings section or the wings of Rotary section of our website to find out more information. To wrap up, jeff, as a new member, do you have any tips for new members coming in for the first time?
Jeff Harrison:I guess I would say just to just try to be kind of as open as possible and try to meet people and just kind of, I guess, learn from them and get involved as much as you can.
Brian Triger:That's really good advice. Well, thanks for coming out, jeff, and thank you to our listeners. Thank you to Almonte Library, the Metropolitan Library System, for supporting this endeavor. Thank you to ITSpark and Rotary District 5750, as well as Rotary International and our subscribers as well. Have a great night, everyone. Thank you.
