Houston Chronicle Editor Jeff Cohen Headlines January Issue Of The Alcalde

By alcalde in Blog on January 11, 2011 at 5:07 pm | No Comments

Our cover model for the first issue of The Alcalde in 2011 is the much-loved, much-despised, much-respected editor of the Houston Chronicle, Jeff Cohen.

Since 2002, Cohen, BJ ’76, Life Member, has led the newspaper through one of the toughest patches in media history. While big daily newspapers across the country have hemorrhaged money or gone bankrupt, the Chronicle has lost circulation but survived, and its online audience has grown.

In the process he has become a model for the modern newspaper editor. In 2007, the National Press Foundation awarded him the Benjamin Bradlee Editor of the Year award, and in 2008 the Chronicle was named the state’s top metropolitan newspaper by the Texas Associated Press Managing Editors.

But that doesn’t mean the job is all Scotch and fine cigars — there’s heartburn, too.

Cohen regularly receives some stinging mail from readers upset with his paper for taking too liberal, or too conservative, a view on an issue.

The barking doesn’t bother him, though, Cohen says. He got used to it long ago as managing editor of the Daily Texan.

Cohen will be speaking about the Chronicle and his time at UT to Texas Exes in Houston on Wed., Jan. 12, at 6 p.m. at the University Co-op store. If you’re in Houston, be sure to stop by. Wine and cheese provided.

Kudos to photographer Jay B. Sauceda for a great shot of Jeff and to Bill Carson for his design on Cohen’s cover. Read freelancer Michael Hardy’s fascinating profile of Cohen here.

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