Steele, Ray, 2015 Leon S. Peters Distinguished Service Award recipient
Item
Title
Steele, Ray, 2015 Leon S. Peters Distinguished Service Award recipient
Description
Talks about how he got into journalism while a student at Fresno State, worked his way up from reporter to editor at the Fresno Bee and eventually moved into the business side of the operation as general manager and publisher. He discusses the importance of ethics and values in business. He also talks about the influence and example set by the Peters brothers in giving back to the community.
Creator
Steele, Ray
Relation
Leon S. Peters Legacy Collection
Coverage
Fresno, California
Date
2015
Format
Microsoft Word 2013 document, 2 pages
Identifier
SCMS_lspl_00035
extracted text
[ Music ]
>> Ray Steele: I got to be a journalism major because I got a part-time job in the local
newspaper in Fowler, sweeping floors and writing stories. So I said, "I sort of like this and you
can make a difference." So I switched from an English major to a journalism major at Fresno
State. I started my career at "The Fresno Bee" before I even gotten out of college. They asked
me to go to work for them. So I started as a reporter and, frankly, I covered a lot of night
meetings and then also covered Fresno State during the campus riots of the late 1960s. And
then from there I wanted to make a bigger difference. As a reporter, you can do certain things.
But I wanted to make a bigger difference, so I became an editor. And that way you can sort of
define what you were going to cover and what you weren't going to cover. And then I learned
that, hey, even being an editor doesn't give you as much sway as you think it should. So I
learned more about the business side so I could become a general manager and a publisher. And
then not only can you have some influence on what kind of stories were written and what kind
of subject matter was covered but also how many pages were in the paper and whether there
was color and black and white. So along the way I just said, "I want more responsibility and to
have more influence on what we were doing." Well "The Fresno Bee" is one of the largest
employers and probably, at least, when I was there was one of the great revenue generators. We
had about 900 employees, something like 700 and some full-time equivalents when I- when I
was there. And our revenues were well over $100 million a year. And our profit margins were
very good, 25 to 30 million or more a year, but we did very well. And we-- it's a responsible
business. And you wouldn't have to run it like a business. You try to increase your revenues
every year and your profit line every year while still maintaining your journalism quality. The
ethics of a business and journalism, I think, should be the same. I mean, you should have basic
values and say, "This is how I run my business, and this is how we write stories." You always
want to do what's right. What's fair. What's logical? But you want to make sure that you do
things the right way as well as for the right reasons and that you don't, particularly when you're
running a newspaper-- that you don't misuse your influence that you can have on a community.
Well some of the greatest challenges, I think, that we’ve- we’ve faced is when people prefer
that you not write certain stories about them. I know we had some challenges with Fresno State
over academic fraud and some other things that went on there. If you are writing a story about
one of your major advertisers, whether it's some car recall or there's a-- you know, in our case
we had some instances where some of our major advertisers were doing things against the law.
And you have to live up to your principles and you write stories about it. And in the end, they
pull their advertising because it's sort of punishment. You shouldn't be writing stories about
things that we do wrong. But I think you have to live up to the principles of basic journalism
and to the public that you serve and write about both the good and the bad. But the primary
challenge was the change in the market and how print media was seen and the use of print
media. Print media has declined significantly over the last few years as more people use these
types of electronic devices to get their information. And you have so many avenues for
information anymore through your electronic devices, be the smart phone or a Kindle or a
laptop or whatever. I think the media can have a tremendous effect on society. And today it is
so fragmented that you're getting, I think, less effect because you have so many people with
different voices who have easy access to communication and, therefore, you have all these
different ideas that are out there. But those different ideas are good if you can get some
leadership to bring those together and work with them. But when you've got multiple sources of
people with blogs and-- and you know, the internet access and everything else that people can
do today and you can set up a website for very little money and get your own information out
there. And so it makes it more difficult to get a sense of community on a particular issue and a
consensus on an issue so that you can move forward and solve problems. I think the legacy of
Leon Peters is making a difference in this community. You know, he made a huge difference by
his leadership and by working together with other people to improve the quality of life, not only
in this community but for the people of this community. I mean, you look at Community
Hospital and what it does. You look at the Peters Foundation and the money that it gives back
to various causes, Fresno State, hospitals, a lot of different causes in this community that make
this community a better place to live. I'm from Fowler. And I knew a lot of the Peters. There
was Leon and Pete. They were born and lived on a rural farm in Fowler. They both went to
Fowler High School. I went to Fowler High School and graduated from Fowler High School as
they did. If you knew the Peters, you were almost like part of their family and having that
connection. That's why receiving this award is so important to me because I know these people,
I knew what Leon Peters stood for, you know, and what he-- what he did for this valley, the
passion he had to make things better. If he saw a problem, he'd get some people together and try
to work to solve it. Many of you know they used to refer to him as the human PG&E, Peters,
[inaudible]. If they saw a problem, they would get together-- people together and they'd go
solve it. I'm honored to be in the same group as the many of the people who were on that stage
today and have received the Leon S. Peters award. These are people, one, with a passion for
their community. They want to do something that improves their community. Two, they've
been very successful in whatever business venture they've been involved in. But I think people
who have passion and vision and then can be-- have some leadership qualities to bring people
together to identify problems and solve problems, makes for good community leaders.
[ Music ]
>> Ray Steele: I got to be a journalism major because I got a part-time job in the local
newspaper in Fowler, sweeping floors and writing stories. So I said, "I sort of like this and you
can make a difference." So I switched from an English major to a journalism major at Fresno
State. I started my career at "The Fresno Bee" before I even gotten out of college. They asked
me to go to work for them. So I started as a reporter and, frankly, I covered a lot of night
meetings and then also covered Fresno State during the campus riots of the late 1960s. And
then from there I wanted to make a bigger difference. As a reporter, you can do certain things.
But I wanted to make a bigger difference, so I became an editor. And that way you can sort of
define what you were going to cover and what you weren't going to cover. And then I learned
that, hey, even being an editor doesn't give you as much sway as you think it should. So I
learned more about the business side so I could become a general manager and a publisher. And
then not only can you have some influence on what kind of stories were written and what kind
of subject matter was covered but also how many pages were in the paper and whether there
was color and black and white. So along the way I just said, "I want more responsibility and to
have more influence on what we were doing." Well "The Fresno Bee" is one of the largest
employers and probably, at least, when I was there was one of the great revenue generators. We
had about 900 employees, something like 700 and some full-time equivalents when I- when I
was there. And our revenues were well over $100 million a year. And our profit margins were
very good, 25 to 30 million or more a year, but we did very well. And we-- it's a responsible
business. And you wouldn't have to run it like a business. You try to increase your revenues
every year and your profit line every year while still maintaining your journalism quality. The
ethics of a business and journalism, I think, should be the same. I mean, you should have basic
values and say, "This is how I run my business, and this is how we write stories." You always
want to do what's right. What's fair. What's logical? But you want to make sure that you do
things the right way as well as for the right reasons and that you don't, particularly when you're
running a newspaper-- that you don't misuse your influence that you can have on a community.
Well some of the greatest challenges, I think, that we’ve- we’ve faced is when people prefer
that you not write certain stories about them. I know we had some challenges with Fresno State
over academic fraud and some other things that went on there. If you are writing a story about
one of your major advertisers, whether it's some car recall or there's a-- you know, in our case
we had some instances where some of our major advertisers were doing things against the law.
And you have to live up to your principles and you write stories about it. And in the end, they
pull their advertising because it's sort of punishment. You shouldn't be writing stories about
things that we do wrong. But I think you have to live up to the principles of basic journalism
and to the public that you serve and write about both the good and the bad. But the primary
challenge was the change in the market and how print media was seen and the use of print
media. Print media has declined significantly over the last few years as more people use these
types of electronic devices to get their information. And you have so many avenues for
information anymore through your electronic devices, be the smart phone or a Kindle or a
laptop or whatever. I think the media can have a tremendous effect on society. And today it is
so fragmented that you're getting, I think, less effect because you have so many people with
different voices who have easy access to communication and, therefore, you have all these
different ideas that are out there. But those different ideas are good if you can get some
leadership to bring those together and work with them. But when you've got multiple sources of
people with blogs and-- and you know, the internet access and everything else that people can
do today and you can set up a website for very little money and get your own information out
there. And so it makes it more difficult to get a sense of community on a particular issue and a
consensus on an issue so that you can move forward and solve problems. I think the legacy of
Leon Peters is making a difference in this community. You know, he made a huge difference by
his leadership and by working together with other people to improve the quality of life, not only
in this community but for the people of this community. I mean, you look at Community
Hospital and what it does. You look at the Peters Foundation and the money that it gives back
to various causes, Fresno State, hospitals, a lot of different causes in this community that make
this community a better place to live. I'm from Fowler. And I knew a lot of the Peters. There
was Leon and Pete. They were born and lived on a rural farm in Fowler. They both went to
Fowler High School. I went to Fowler High School and graduated from Fowler High School as
they did. If you knew the Peters, you were almost like part of their family and having that
connection. That's why receiving this award is so important to me because I know these people,
I knew what Leon Peters stood for, you know, and what he-- what he did for this valley, the
passion he had to make things better. If he saw a problem, he'd get some people together and try
to work to solve it. Many of you know they used to refer to him as the human PG&E, Peters,
[inaudible]. If they saw a problem, they would get together-- people together and they'd go
solve it. I'm honored to be in the same group as the many of the people who were on that stage
today and have received the Leon S. Peters award. These are people, one, with a passion for
their community. They want to do something that improves their community. Two, they've
been very successful in whatever business venture they've been involved in. But I think people
who have passion and vision and then can be-- have some leadership qualities to bring people
together to identify problems and solve problems, makes for good community leaders.
[ Music ]
[ Music ]
>> Ray Steele: I got to be a journalism major because I got a part-time job in the local
newspaper in Fowler, sweeping floors and writing stories. So I said, "I sort of like this and you
can make a difference." So I switched from an English major to a journalism major at Fresno
State. I started my career at "The Fresno Bee" before I even gotten out of college. They asked
me to go to work for them. So I started as a reporter and, frankly, I covered a lot of night
meetings and then also covered Fresno State during the campus riots of the late 1960s. And
then from there I wanted to make a bigger difference. As a reporter, you can do certain things.
But I wanted to make a bigger difference, so I became an editor. And that way you can sort of
define what you were going to cover and what you weren't going to cover. And then I learned
that, hey, even being an editor doesn't give you as much sway as you think it should. So I
learned more about the business side so I could become a general manager and a publisher. And
then not only can you have some influence on what kind of stories were written and what kind
of subject matter was covered but also how many pages were in the paper and whether there
was color and black and white. So along the way I just said, "I want more responsibility and to
have more influence on what we were doing." Well "The Fresno Bee" is one of the largest
employers and probably, at least, when I was there was one of the great revenue generators. We
had about 900 employees, something like 700 and some full-time equivalents when I- when I
was there. And our revenues were well over $100 million a year. And our profit margins were
very good, 25 to 30 million or more a year, but we did very well. And we-- it's a responsible
business. And you wouldn't have to run it like a business. You try to increase your revenues
every year and your profit line every year while still maintaining your journalism quality. The
ethics of a business and journalism, I think, should be the same. I mean, you should have basic
values and say, "This is how I run my business, and this is how we write stories." You always
want to do what's right. What's fair. What's logical? But you want to make sure that you do
things the right way as well as for the right reasons and that you don't, particularly when you're
running a newspaper-- that you don't misuse your influence that you can have on a community.
Well some of the greatest challenges, I think, that we’ve- we’ve faced is when people prefer
that you not write certain stories about them. I know we had some challenges with Fresno State
over academic fraud and some other things that went on there. If you are writing a story about
one of your major advertisers, whether it's some car recall or there's a-- you know, in our case
we had some instances where some of our major advertisers were doing things against the law.
And you have to live up to your principles and you write stories about it. And in the end, they
pull their advertising because it's sort of punishment. You shouldn't be writing stories about
things that we do wrong. But I think you have to live up to the principles of basic journalism
and to the public that you serve and write about both the good and the bad. But the primary
challenge was the change in the market and how print media was seen and the use of print
media. Print media has declined significantly over the last few years as more people use these
types of electronic devices to get their information. And you have so many avenues for
information anymore through your electronic devices, be the smart phone or a Kindle or a
laptop or whatever. I think the media can have a tremendous effect on society. And today it is
so fragmented that you're getting, I think, less effect because you have so many people with
different voices who have easy access to communication and, therefore, you have all these
different ideas that are out there. But those different ideas are good if you can get some
leadership to bring those together and work with them. But when you've got multiple sources of
people with blogs and-- and you know, the internet access and everything else that people can
do today and you can set up a website for very little money and get your own information out
there. And so it makes it more difficult to get a sense of community on a particular issue and a
consensus on an issue so that you can move forward and solve problems. I think the legacy of
Leon Peters is making a difference in this community. You know, he made a huge difference by
his leadership and by working together with other people to improve the quality of life, not only
in this community but for the people of this community. I mean, you look at Community
Hospital and what it does. You look at the Peters Foundation and the money that it gives back
to various causes, Fresno State, hospitals, a lot of different causes in this community that make
this community a better place to live. I'm from Fowler. And I knew a lot of the Peters. There
was Leon and Pete. They were born and lived on a rural farm in Fowler. They both went to
Fowler High School. I went to Fowler High School and graduated from Fowler High School as
they did. If you knew the Peters, you were almost like part of their family and having that
connection. That's why receiving this award is so important to me because I know these people,
I knew what Leon Peters stood for, you know, and what he-- what he did for this valley, the
passion he had to make things better. If he saw a problem, he'd get some people together and try
to work to solve it. Many of you know they used to refer to him as the human PG&E, Peters,
[inaudible]. If they saw a problem, they would get together-- people together and they'd go
solve it. I'm honored to be in the same group as the many of the people who were on that stage
today and have received the Leon S. Peters award. These are people, one, with a passion for
their community. They want to do something that improves their community. Two, they've
been very successful in whatever business venture they've been involved in. But I think people
who have passion and vision and then can be-- have some leadership qualities to bring people
together to identify problems and solve problems, makes for good community leaders.
[ Music ]
>> Ray Steele: I got to be a journalism major because I got a part-time job in the local
newspaper in Fowler, sweeping floors and writing stories. So I said, "I sort of like this and you
can make a difference." So I switched from an English major to a journalism major at Fresno
State. I started my career at "The Fresno Bee" before I even gotten out of college. They asked
me to go to work for them. So I started as a reporter and, frankly, I covered a lot of night
meetings and then also covered Fresno State during the campus riots of the late 1960s. And
then from there I wanted to make a bigger difference. As a reporter, you can do certain things.
But I wanted to make a bigger difference, so I became an editor. And that way you can sort of
define what you were going to cover and what you weren't going to cover. And then I learned
that, hey, even being an editor doesn't give you as much sway as you think it should. So I
learned more about the business side so I could become a general manager and a publisher. And
then not only can you have some influence on what kind of stories were written and what kind
of subject matter was covered but also how many pages were in the paper and whether there
was color and black and white. So along the way I just said, "I want more responsibility and to
have more influence on what we were doing." Well "The Fresno Bee" is one of the largest
employers and probably, at least, when I was there was one of the great revenue generators. We
had about 900 employees, something like 700 and some full-time equivalents when I- when I
was there. And our revenues were well over $100 million a year. And our profit margins were
very good, 25 to 30 million or more a year, but we did very well. And we-- it's a responsible
business. And you wouldn't have to run it like a business. You try to increase your revenues
every year and your profit line every year while still maintaining your journalism quality. The
ethics of a business and journalism, I think, should be the same. I mean, you should have basic
values and say, "This is how I run my business, and this is how we write stories." You always
want to do what's right. What's fair. What's logical? But you want to make sure that you do
things the right way as well as for the right reasons and that you don't, particularly when you're
running a newspaper-- that you don't misuse your influence that you can have on a community.
Well some of the greatest challenges, I think, that we’ve- we’ve faced is when people prefer
that you not write certain stories about them. I know we had some challenges with Fresno State
over academic fraud and some other things that went on there. If you are writing a story about
one of your major advertisers, whether it's some car recall or there's a-- you know, in our case
we had some instances where some of our major advertisers were doing things against the law.
And you have to live up to your principles and you write stories about it. And in the end, they
pull their advertising because it's sort of punishment. You shouldn't be writing stories about
things that we do wrong. But I think you have to live up to the principles of basic journalism
and to the public that you serve and write about both the good and the bad. But the primary
challenge was the change in the market and how print media was seen and the use of print
media. Print media has declined significantly over the last few years as more people use these
types of electronic devices to get their information. And you have so many avenues for
information anymore through your electronic devices, be the smart phone or a Kindle or a
laptop or whatever. I think the media can have a tremendous effect on society. And today it is
so fragmented that you're getting, I think, less effect because you have so many people with
different voices who have easy access to communication and, therefore, you have all these
different ideas that are out there. But those different ideas are good if you can get some
leadership to bring those together and work with them. But when you've got multiple sources of
people with blogs and-- and you know, the internet access and everything else that people can
do today and you can set up a website for very little money and get your own information out
there. And so it makes it more difficult to get a sense of community on a particular issue and a
consensus on an issue so that you can move forward and solve problems. I think the legacy of
Leon Peters is making a difference in this community. You know, he made a huge difference by
his leadership and by working together with other people to improve the quality of life, not only
in this community but for the people of this community. I mean, you look at Community
Hospital and what it does. You look at the Peters Foundation and the money that it gives back
to various causes, Fresno State, hospitals, a lot of different causes in this community that make
this community a better place to live. I'm from Fowler. And I knew a lot of the Peters. There
was Leon and Pete. They were born and lived on a rural farm in Fowler. They both went to
Fowler High School. I went to Fowler High School and graduated from Fowler High School as
they did. If you knew the Peters, you were almost like part of their family and having that
connection. That's why receiving this award is so important to me because I know these people,
I knew what Leon Peters stood for, you know, and what he-- what he did for this valley, the
passion he had to make things better. If he saw a problem, he'd get some people together and try
to work to solve it. Many of you know they used to refer to him as the human PG&E, Peters,
[inaudible]. If they saw a problem, they would get together-- people together and they'd go
solve it. I'm honored to be in the same group as the many of the people who were on that stage
today and have received the Leon S. Peters award. These are people, one, with a passion for
their community. They want to do something that improves their community. Two, they've
been very successful in whatever business venture they've been involved in. But I think people
who have passion and vision and then can be-- have some leadership qualities to bring people
together to identify problems and solve problems, makes for good community leaders.
[ Music ]