Recognizing a legend in Greater Minnesota journalism

My mother-in-law is in her early 70s, and has been reading her hometown newspaper, the Mankato Free Press, since she was a kid.
Every day, for decades, she has read every single page.
And for a little more than half of those years, Joe Spear was part of it.
Joe, who worked for the Free Press for 35 years, serving as editor for 20 of those years, retired last fall.
Last week, the Minnesota Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists honored Joe by presenting him a Lifetime Achievement Award.
I sit on the board of directors and was asked to give Joe’s introduction, since I nominated him for the award earlier this year.
I’ve worked in print journalism most of my career, and am not a huge fan of public speaking. But when you have the chance to introduce an absolute legend in journalism, you don’t say no.
I actually first got to know Joe a bit when my wife and I moved back to Minnesota.
Shortly after we moved back, there was a job posting for a reporter at the Free Press, and I immediately applied.
Long story short, I was offered a job, but due to life circumstances — namely, having a lease in Minneapolis we couldn’t break — it wasn’t a good time for us to move to my wife’s hometown.
My first introduction to the Free Press was when I was cutting my teeth in St. James. Minnesota was a foreign place to me out of college, but I quickly learned my competition would be the regional daily.
I knew this was a good newspaper, because many of the high ranking officials in Watonwan County spoke about how they would get into their business from time to time, and they didn’t appreciate their aggressive reporting.
I exchanged words with many of these same sources, who thought I was also aggressive, and was a thorn in their sides — so I knew the Free Press was legit.
The truth is, powerful people generally don’t want to be held accountable. Good reporters get to the bottom of the truth, and are able to help make needed changes in their communities.
Well, Joe did a lot of this.
Under Joe’s watch, the Free Press won the Lynn Smith Community Leadership Award from the Minnesota Newspaper Association multiple times, which recognizes the top newspapers that make an identifiable difference in their community.
With his name on top of the masthead, the Free Press held the powerful accountable, helping shape public policy with things like funding for U.S. Highway 14, mental health awareness, fentanyl overdoses and homelessness. Each of those efforts brought a community or state response to address the problems the newspaper raised.
While we were eating supper at the awards banquet, Joe told me the awards he won from non-journalist organizations meant a lot to him.
One such award he treasures most was being named the «Outstanding Spokesman for Democracy» by the local VFW Post in Mankato.
Another award Joe mentioned was the Minnesota Chapter of the National Association of Mental Illness, which presented the Free Press the top media award for editorial writing, advocating for changes in mental health laws and enforcement of insurance laws for mental health issues.
Joe spent his career giving people a voice to tell their stories.It’s fitting, considering how he got his start. Joe wrote a letter to the editor, which ran. He saw an injustice, and thought something should be done about it. He was in high school in St. Paul at the time.
During his speech, Joe reminded us that the most important thing we can do as journalists is give people a voice, just like he got when he was just a kid.
It was an honor to present Joe with the Lifetime Achievement Award.
Being a journalist isn’t for the faint of heart, but it’s rewarding. We are able to make a difference on a daily basis. We are able to give a voice to the 16-year-old kid who wants to see a change in their school. We are able to give a voice to those who experience the worst tragedy of their life.
And when it’s needed, we will hold the powerful accountable — no matter how mad they get.
For over 40 years, Joe was able to prove that not just the biggest newspapers or outlets can make a major difference in communities and in the state.
And as the son-in-law of a lifelong reader of his former employer, I can tell you people appreciated it.