Washington Post editor
to J-students:
Love what you do

By Chelsi Moy
J-School Web Reporter

The Missoula community taught Washington Post editor Patricia Sullivan a valuable lesson: Journalists impact people.

"This isn’t the big city; you can’t hide here," said Sullivan, who worked for the Missoulian for 11 years. "You will write a story about someone and then run into them at Albertson’s."
Sullivan, the Post’s local technology editor, spoke with two journalism classes at the University of Montana on Sept. 23 and 24.

Photo by Josh Parker

Pat Sullivan, a Missoulian reporter for 11 years who is now an editor at The Washington Post, returned to Missoula last month and spoke to two J-school classes. Journalists must have a passion for their work, said Sullivan, here speaking to Michael Downs' news editing class.

Before speaking to Michael Downs’ 8 a.m. editing class, Sullivan joined the students in taking an AP style quiz. (She might have earned an "A" had she not failed to see the word "more" at the bottom of the page.) She talked about her early years as a journalist and her responsibilities at the Washington Post, and she urged these aspiring journalists to love what they do.

"It takes up a lot of hours in your day, so you need to enjoy it," she said. "You’ve got to find that passion."

She has been a top online editor at both The Industry Standard in San Francisco and San Jose Mercury News. She also completed a Knight Fellowship at Stanford University in 1993.

Sullivan began her career working for the Fort Lauderdale News/Sun-Sentinel. She worked there for five years before deciding she needed a change.

"I didn’t know if I was sick of Fort Lauderdale," she said, "or sick of journalism."

Sullivan decided to go to graduate school in 1985. She stumbled across UM, and took graduate courses in environmental studies. She decided she wasn’t sick of journalism, and from 1985 to 1995 she worked for the Missoulian.

Sullivan is from Chicago and has lived all over the United States, but said she loves returning to Montana.

"It’s like coming home for me," she said.

Sullivan was in Montana joining UM journalism professors Carol Van Valkenburg and Sheri Venema, along with six journalism students, in attending the annual Journalism & Women Symposium Conference, held this year in Whitefish, Mont.

JAWS was established in 1985 to empower women professionally, in both the newsroom and society. Sullivan has been an active member for nine years and served as the JAWS president three years ago.

Currently, Sullivan is the local technology assignment editor at the Washington Post. She commits her time to interpreting stock and business reports and finding the best ways to convey information to her reporters and readers.

"It’s like being a freshman," she said. "Every day, I’m trying to figure it out to graduate to the next grade."

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