THE ODYSSEY OF RICK LEMYRE Inside Story of the Man Behind the Brentwood Press
	SEPTEMBER 2004

by Don Huntington

Rick Lemyre has been Editor In Chief of The Brentwood Press since August 1999, when the newspaper launched its first issue. Prior to that he was a reporter and columnist with the Brentwood News, covering issues and happenings about Oakley and Brentwood, eventually becoming a full-time general assignment reporter for Brentwood and Discovery Bay.

In the Beginning
Rick began his newspaper career as a contracted newspaper distributor for the Chronicle and several other area publications. He was an ambitious distributor and aspired to be the "go-to" delivery person for anybody wanting to distribute newspapers in East County, Rick realized that he could probably boost his aspirations of assuming the role of kingpin for local newspaper distribution by becoming more knowledgeable about the industry he belonged to and the nature of the product he was distributing. So he signed up for some journalism classes at LMC and got a job working for the school newspaper, the LMC Experience.

As part of his class assignments, Rick began writing for the school newspaper. The newspaper entered some of Rick's columns in a contest sponsored by the JACC (Journalism Association for Community Colleges) and Rick won a couple of awards for the quality of his writing. He suddenly caught a vision of becoming a journalist. He discovered that the Brentwood News was looking for reporters so he began writing for the paper's Special Sections, as well as writing articles for other area papers.

Before long a staff position opened up and Rick found himself with a fulltime job as a newspaper reporter. Meanwhile he was still getting up at one o'clock every morning to spend seven hours distributing newspapers, some of which now contained articles that he had, himself, written the previous day.

Developing a Vision
As Rick got deeper into the journalism trade, he began to develop a vision for what the editorial character of local newspapers might become. While looking through old archives, he became impressed with how many of the stories were actually small personal items, such as "Mrs. Smith visited her son in Arizona."

The trivial items seemed ridiculous from a genuine journalistic point of view, but Rick began to develop the idea of writing short, interesting, personal stories, aimed at small targets but at the same time inviting other people to look, as it were, at little snapshots from the lives of other people.

Probably not many people except Mrs. Smith and her son were actually interested in that Arizona visit, but, on the other hand, if they had a remarkable experience while they were there — for example, if Mrs. Smith's son was a decorated pilot stationed at the Davis Monthan Air Force Base — Rick thought that anybody might be interested in hearing about that.

Rick tried without success to market to the people running the Brentwood News his idea of basing journalism on small personal vignettes about community members. Since they adamantly rebuffed what seemed to Rick such a great idea, he ended up leaving the paper to pursue the idea of doing something on his own.

While in a search for graphic artists, Rick ran across Jimmy Chamoures, who was, among other things, searching for ways to invest capital in a publishing venture. The two of them started their first project, which was the initial (1999) issue of the Brentwood Welcome Magazine. This was there way of proving the concept for their newspaper venture.

Putting Legs to the Vision
The successful production of the first Welcome Guide provided a green light for Rick and Jimmy to plow ahead. They devised the format and then launched the first issues out of a small room they called the Ad Shack, for reasons that nobody can remember. A month later they moved into their current location.

The first issue of the fledging newspaper saw the light of day in August 1999. Rick said that the success came only following a rather wild and wooly race to that initial publication date.

Rick said that the week before the first issue launched, Jimmy suddenly switched the whole production process to Apple computers. With the launch date only a week away, Rick said, he had to learn to use the Mac interface in a rush. In retrospect, he admits that the changeover to Macintosh based production technology was a wise move. But it was an exciting time.

With the advent of the first issue, things changed a lot in Rick's life. He had been a "night-crawler," to use his term for himself. "I was in Brentwood when there was one light-signal," he said. "There were only three other people awake downtown most nights — the person on the grill at 1/4 lb Hamburger, the guy at Dallas Shanks Chevron on Main Street, and I.

So with the appearance of that first issue, Rick went from being a reporter and columnist to Editor In Chief of his own newspaper. Rick said the transition was a dizzying one. Except for the three semesters of classes he took at LMC, he had never had any formal training in either editing or journalism.

Now he's very visible and through his position on the paper has become something of a local celebrity.

"I still don't feel like a real editor," Rick admitted. "We don't do the same thing that the people in the daily papers or other papers do."

Some local people might say viva la difference about the fact that The Brentwood Press is not like the bigger papers, or even like other local papers.

The Brentwood Press Difference
Rick said the editorial policy of the Press is to filter for achievement. "If somebody does something to further their lives, club, school, or their city we want to give them a pat on the back," Rick said. The Press, for example, does such things as publish the names of students on the Honor Roll, and talks about poetry that residents have published.

"We want to make people feel good," Rick said. "We want to highlight the good things that people do and the accomplishments they make."

Rick smiled as he recalled an issue the Press published a couple years ago, which contained a "Look Back" article surveying the good events from the previous year, including an acknowledgement of all the students of the month over the previous year as well as listing all the students who made it onto the BUG (Bring Up Grades) list.

"We printed the names of 472 students on a double-page spread," Rick said. Then added with a delighted laugh, "There were 472 refrigerators out there with that page stuck on it."

One of his favorite sources for stories is the telephone. People call him up, he said, and might begin by saying, "I don't know if this is a story, but..." More often than not the thing the caller is talking about actually turns into a story. "We run between 65-100 items," each issue," Rick said.

Of course, the Press has to run a certain amount of information that the public expects, but it doesn't force the same editorial mix that the other newspapers have. Rick explained, "We run four or five hard stories, but none too long."

He said the Press has to cover controversial local issues since people depend upon the local newspaper for such information. Each issue includes such things as Profiles of City Council meetings, Agency Stories, meetings of the School Board and City Council.

"But we don't emphasize these things," Rick said. "We would rather write about somebody who is doing something that makes a difference."

Local residents read the Press and they see articles and pictures about their friends and their neighbors on its pages. They get a feel for their community.

"We print some bad news," Rick said, "but we don't emphasize such thing. Sometimes you hear people say, 'You never read anything good about kids.' People who say that aren't reading the Brentwood Press." Then he added with a small dose of gentle belligerence, "If that means that we're not a 'real' newspaper, we're good with that."

Enjoying Success
One thing that helps Rick maintain his positive attitude is that the Brentwood Press has been very successful. "People like what we do," he said. "Our success is demonstrable right at the bottom line."

"Every day a few people tell me how much they appreciate our newspaper. They like to read about community people and events. They like our positive emphasis."

Rick said with justifiable pride, "We've been publishing this newspaper for more than 300 months since that first issue went to press and have never missed an issue. And during that time, the Brentwood Press, has grown from 28 pages to two sections. And our staff has grown from four people to more than 30."

Three years ago the company launched the Oakley Press and last year the Discovery Bay Press.

Rick tries to keep the three publications distinct and not to share the stories among them inappropriately. He really believes that each city should have its own newspaper. People in Discovery Bay, he believes, aren't necessarily interested in knowing about Oakley events.

On the other hand, stories of common interest among the communities appear in all the publications. For example, Liberty High School District extends into all the areas and people all over the region will be interested in reading stories and articles about those schools.

The newspaper has become a source of satisfaction as well as income for Rick. "When people tell me, 'I love what you are doing,' that's a major positive thing in my life."

Rick said that the other cool thing is having his wife, Cyndy, working by his side. She is manager of both the Classified section and HR. Rick said that it is nice working in the same office with Cyndy. "I can kiss her at inappropriate times," he said with a twinkle in his eye. "Also, our daughter, Stephanie, is only a few blocks away."

The only fly in Rick's ointment is the sad reality that his son, Chris, can't come by for a sandwich these days. Chris is a medical corpsman serving in Iraq.

"Rick won't talk about what he's doing, but he's gotten his hands bloody. I know he carries a gun with him, and fires it battle sometimes."

Rick said that he and Cyndy are receiving wonderful support from the community during these anxious months. "I get to talk about my son," Rick said. "I'm able to tell his story over and over. I can see concern and sympathy in the eyes of people who listen to me. That really helps."

Grateful Reflections
Rick is pleased with how his life is going. He said that if he could go back to the beginning and do the whole thing over again he might try to gain more practical education in his trade, and perhaps gain some experience as an editor before he became Editor In Chief. "I might have done some things differently," he said, "if I had known more what I was doing."

On the other hand, who knows whether with formal training he would actually have done better? Some creative people like Rick can more easily do innovative things when they don't know how things are "supposed" to be done.

Rick admits that it is easier to "think outside the box," perhaps, if a person never learned exactly where the box is in the first place.

Rick said that he's having a great deal of fun even though life, at times, can still be unbelievably busy. He said he has taken control of his schedule and has slowed down a little.

"Most importantly," he said, "I don't do Twin's Day any more. 'Twin's Day' refers to the ghastly weekly event when he would come to work at 3:30 a.m. on Tuesday and work until 5 p.m. on Wednesday. "I continue to do a lot of early mornings," Rick said, "but I don't do that any more."

We on the editorial staff of 110 Degree Magazine are glad and proud to be writing for our East County audience. We also rejoice that the Brentwood Press Editor In Chief shares with us our appreciation for the regions' rich resources, commitment to its people, and a passionate desire to exert a positive influence in our communities.