A prayer for Van McKenzie

Words to live by: "Never Assume Anything."

Words to die by: "That’s not the way we do things around here."

Wise words for anyone to remember, no matter what business you're in.

 

Van was good people. He knew the business. However, he didn't ask anything of his staff that hasn't been asked before. He expected his people to act professionally and to treat their job seriously.
If you need someone to inspire you when you get to the Sentinel, then you have problems. The incentive of being there is built in.
He will be missed because he was respected and knew the craft. Too many people around these days aren't respected and know the craft. If given an opportunity, I'm sure he would've found a way to make good money off the internet via journalism.

 

I want to see this entire thread stickied, 21. It's really been inspiring and eye-opening.

Agree with you 100 percent, my friend. At the same time, this business jades a lot easier than others, it seems. I've been as guilty of that as anyone, and I'm quite small-time.

Again, RIP to a great man and, based on the Vanifesto, a great motivator.

 

The best thing about Van is that people DID NOT WAIT until he was near death or dead to show him love and respect. There is a lesson to be learned from that boys and girls.

 

This is true. Early in my career I went to work for someone who had distributed a manifesto a couple years before he hired me. It wasn't as impressive as McKenzie's in that it didn't promise we'd be the best in the biz, but it did explain quite eloquently why the department's philosophy needed to change and why each of us needed to start looking at our work in a different way. When I started there some colleagues showed me a copy, not to inspire me but to try to get me on their side in sniping at the boss behind his back. So it is great that people who have come to celebrate Van McKenzie's life have been inspired by his Vanifesto, but equally praiseworthy are the people in Orlando who embraced this change rather than fight it every step of the way.

 

Not to threadjack ... but the copy editors on our desk are trying to make some changes now. Our desk head isn't backing us whatsoever. Any excuse whatsoever to block some good ideas we're putting together, ideas that have worked at papers much bigger than our size and on the same level.

It takes special people to put change through, and it seems like Van had that knack.

 

The reason for that is the same reason the Vanifesto is now part of Orlando Sentinel (and by proxy sports journalism) lore. It came from Van in his full authority as AME/Sports. When vision and direction starts at the top and the editor backs it up with what runs in the paper, that's management. That's leadership and charisma.

When nobody tells you what you are from day-to-day, then exactly WHAT are you from day-to-day? Van knew this and the Vanifesto made it clear.

Nothing and nobody in our industry will ever be the same without him.

 

frank

there is way too much of a divide these days between those who work "inside" sports departments and sports writers outside who seem to consider themselves independent contractors. there's little sense of team unity, which was certainly developed more in the pre-computer age. it's become way too easy for reporters to work from home, in their own cocoon.

working in the office, back in the day, you felt more a part of the vibrancy. today, there is no vibrancy. newspaper offices have become like insurance offices. heaven forbid anyone raise his/her voice.

van was old school, in all the best ways. but he was, sadly, a unique character. no one can even try to duplicate his ways. his charms. his knack for knowing how to get people to run through a wall for him.

hey, if it was easy, everyone would do it. few have 'it.' van did.

 

Here's a bookend for The Vanifesto: The memo Van sent to the Sentinel staff after the department bagged a load of APSE awards.

>>
Thursday, March 7, 2002

To: Staff

From: Van McKenzie

My favorite movie is "Let it Ride," where Richard Dreyfuss plays an obsessive gambler who keeps betting everything he has on every race. He keeps winning race after race, and at the end of the movie walks out a rich man and says to nobody in particular, "I am having a very good day." Maybe you didn't know it at the time, but each of you was having a very good day Tuesday as judge after judge posted the winners in the annual APSE sports writing and editing contest.

The Orlando Sentinel sports section kept winning, and winning, and winning. Competing in the largest category (over 250,000), the Sentinel won 6 awards -- 2 more than any other big sports section in the country (the Dallas Morning News was second with 4, and 1 of those came from a former Sentinel sports writer). The Sentinel was one of only 2 newspapers in the big division to win awards in all 3 section categories (Sunday, daily, special sections). And we rode our horse (Ed Hinton) to 3 more writing awards.

Consider that all the sports sections you were up against had more space, larger staffs, bigger travel budgets, and the magnitude of your accomplishment is without equal in the history of this contest. I have been on staffs at 3 other newspapers, all larger than the Sentinel, that dominated this contest before, but never have I seen a staff do so much with so little.

Against all odds, you did it: The best damn sports section in the country!

You are the talk of the sports nation. But don't just take my word for it. Read the judges' comments of your sections.

-- van mckenzie

ps - after the judging results came in, I went to the local dog track with some friends. I hit the superfecta on the last race. I was having a very good day.

another ps -- Let it ride and do it again.

 

Shock, Van took out the us and them mentality out of the sports department. He made them work as a team. He made them accountable for their mistakes. He didn't ride people like a horse (sorry Barbaro). If more editors thought first as people, then as readers, then as executives, they too would be able to get the same results. It's not science. It's journalism.

 

Hinton went to work for the Sentinel, hired away from SI, because Van had the imagination and influence to persuade the Tribune company that Hinton's unique work for the Sentinel could appear in all the company's papers if they shared the cost.

 

Sadly, at many newspapers these days the leadership is none too interested in anything more groundbreaking than the profit margin and they don't want to see anything that might possibly have a theoretical chance to hypothetically upset that pumpkin cart.