''San Jose Mercury News West Magazine'', also referred to as ''West'' and ''West Magazine'', was a Sunday magazine published by ''
San Jose Mercury News
''The Mercury News'' (formerly ''San Jose Mercury News'', often locally known as ''The Merc'') is a morning daily newspaper published in San Jose, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is published by the Bay Area News Group, a subsidia ...
'' from 1982 to 1997. ''West Magazine'' received numerous awards and was recognized both for its articles and
investigative journalism
Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, such as serious crimes, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend months or years res ...
, as well as its art design.
The ''San Jose Mercury News West Magazine'' was not related to the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...
''-operated ''West Magazine'', which was published between 1967 and 1972, although its name paid homage to the earlier publication.
History
Jeffrey Bruce Klein
Jeffrey Bruce Klein (born January 15, 1948) is an investigative journalist who co-founded '' Mother Jones'' in 1976.
For its first issue he found a piece that won a National Magazine Award. He forced the resignation of Ronald Reagan’s chief ...
began working at ''San Jose Mercury News'' in 1979, and in 1986 was promoted to associate editor and columnist.
Susan Faludi worked as a reporter for ''West Magazine'' in 1987; she went on to receive a
Pulitzer Prize in 1991. By 1993, Klein was editor-in-chief of ''West'', and in January of that year he left to become editor-in-chief of ''
Mother Jones
Mary G. Harris Jones (1837 (baptized) – November 30, 1930), known as Mother Jones from 1897 onwards, was an Irish-born American schoolteacher and dressmaker who became a prominent union organizer, community organizer, and activist. She h ...
''.
He was replaced by Pat Dillon, a ''Mercury News'' columnist with a college degree from the
University of Washington
The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington.
Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattl ...
and a
M.A.
A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...
from
Boston University
Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with ...
, whose prior experience included work with the
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. ne ...
and ''
San Diego Union''.
In 1994, Dillon left ''West'' to work on a book.
The next editor-in-chief was Fran Smith, former medical reporter and magazine writer for ''West''.
Smith, who had previously worked at ''Mercury News'' for 10 years, received a
B.S.
A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years.
The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...
from
Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...
and a graduated from
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
with a master's degree in journalism.
In the acknowledgements in his book ''The Valley of Heart's Delight'', author Michael Shawn Malone comments: "At the ''Mercury-News' West Magazine'', first Jeffrey Klein and then Patrick Dillon, let me push the limits of feature writing." In 1994, Bob Ingle served as executive editor of ''Mercury News''.
Jerome Ceppos also served as an editor at the magazine.
Awards and recognition
Reporter John Hubner was honored with the first-place award in writing in the 1985 California-Nevada UPI Editors Association Newspaper Awards competition, for his series of articles on
Arthur Rudolph
Arthur Louis Hugo Rudolph (November 9, 1906 – January 1, 1996) was a German rocket engineer who was a leader of the effort to develop the V-2 rocket for Nazi Germany. After World War II, the United States Government's Office of Strategic Ser ...
, a former
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
rocket scientist
Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is s ...
. Hubner received the second-place award from the National Education Writers Association, for his November 2, 1986 article "How George Shirley Almost Beat the System," about teacher George Shirley who had been fired in the Spring of 1986 from Salinas Union High School District in
Salinas, California.
The Unity Awards in Media Committee of the
Lincoln University of Missouri
Lincoln University (Lincoln U) is a public, historically black, land-grant university in Jefferson City, Missouri. Founded in 1866 by African-American veterans of the American Civil War, it is a member-school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fun ...
awarded Hubner a first-place award for the same article.
Hubner's work was recognized with the UAIM trophy "for news coverage of minority problems and concerns in education", at a formal ceremony in
Jefferson City, Missouri.
Susan Faludi received a merit award in 1987 in the
California Newspaper Publishers Association
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
's annual competition, for her contributions to ''West''. In October 1987, the magazine received multiple awards at the Society of Newspaper Design conference in
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...
.
Sidney Fischer was recognized for artwork published in the magazine, Bambi Nicklen for her work as art director, and Ken Coffelt received an award for free-lance writing.
Edward O. Welles received a
Gerald Loeb Award in 1987 for his work on the article "Technical Equities".
In 1988 the California Newspaper Publishers Association's annual Better Newspapers competition recognized reporter Susan Faludi for her writing on
Japanese American internment. In 1989, Carole Rafferty received a first-place award at the annual Peninsula Press Club awards dinner, for her article "Sympathy for the Devil". The magazine took multiple awards in the 1989 "Best of the West" journalism contest, out of a pool of submissions from reporters in 13 states from the
Western United States
The Western United States (also called the American West, the Far West, and the West) is the region comprising the westernmost states of the United States. As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the meaning of the term ''the We ...
.
Journalist Michael Zielenziger received a first-place award for reporting on environmental policies of the
Reagan administration
Ronald Reagan's tenure as the 40th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1981, and ended on January 20, 1989. Reagan, a Republican from California, took office following a landslide victory over ...
.
A group of reporters from the magazine received a first-place award for reporting on effects of
Proposition 13
Proposition 13 (officially named the People's Initiative to Limit Property Taxation) is an amendment of the Constitution of California enacted during 1978, by means of the initiative process. The initiative was approved by California voters on J ...
.
John Hubner received a third-place award in the contest, for his article on how Salinas, California tire factory employees were affected by
benzene
Benzene is an organic chemical compound with the molecular formula C6H6. The benzene molecule is composed of six carbon atoms joined in a planar ring with one hydrogen atom attached to each. Because it contains only carbon and hydrogen atoms ...
.
In 1990, Gary Blonston received a first-place award for his article "Pandora's Kitchen," at the Peninsula Press Club banquet awards.
In 1991, the
Sunday Magazine Editors Association
The Sunday Magazine Editors Association, also referred to as SUNMAG, or Sunmag, was an organization of editors of Sunday newspaper magazines. It represented a majority of the major newspaper magazines in the United States. The organization was for ...
awarded Hubner first prize for an article series he wrote in the category of "investigative or in-depth reporting",
and named a ''West'' magazine cover illustration by Sue Coe as one of the 10 best covers of the year.
Hubner's article series was judged for Sunday Magazine Editors Association by Harrison E. Salisbury, former foreign correspondent for ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
''.
Salisbury characterized Hubner's series of articles as "incredible in its detail and the manner in which it has all been put together. I don't think I have seen anything like it in the press or in the electronic media in recent years."
The Associated Press News Executives Council of California and Nevada honored Kathy Holub with a first-place prize in features in its annual newswriting and photography contest, for her story of her own rape experience, "A Case of Rape". Staff writer Mike Weiss received a certificate of merit award from in the 1992
J.C. Penney-University of Missouri Newspaper Awards, for his article "The Shield That Failed," about a female police officer who filed sexual harassment charges against her superior. In 1993, ''West'' art director
Sandra Eisert became the first woman to be honored with the Joseph Costa Award from the National Press Photographers Association, the second-highest award given by the organization.
At the 1994 annual conference of Sunday newspaper magazines, SunMag, ''West'' was recognized for its June 27, 1993 magazine cover.
SunMag placed the June 1993 magazine cover among the 10 best Sunday magazine covers.
The cover picture was taken by photographer Jason M. Grow, and the cover was designed by former ''West'' art director Sandra Eisert.
See also
*
San Francisco Chronicle Magazine
*
Robert Cohn
*
Sunday Magazine Editors Association
The Sunday Magazine Editors Association, also referred to as SUNMAG, or Sunmag, was an organization of editors of Sunday newspaper magazines. It represented a majority of the major newspaper magazines in the United States. The organization was for ...
References
Further reading
*"The 100 most powerful people in Silicon Valley", ''West magazine'',
San Jose Mercury News
''The Mercury News'' (formerly ''San Jose Mercury News'', often locally known as ''The Merc'') is a morning daily newspaper published in San Jose, California, in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is published by the Bay Area News Group, a subsidia ...
, (June 7, 1987)
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:San Jose Mercury News West Magazine
News magazines published in the United States
Defunct magazines published in the United States
Magazines published in the San Francisco Bay Area
Culture of San Jose, California
Mass media in San Jose, California
The Mercury News
Magazines established in 1982
Newspaper supplements
Sunday magazines
Magazines disestablished in 1997