At the regular morning meeting of the Rotary Club of Hamilton AM on September18, guest speaker, Jeff Mahoney shared his deepest insights into the "good, the bad and the ugly" of working in the newsroom of the Hamilton Spectator newspaper.
Jeff recently retired after 36 years at "The Spec" where he was renowned for his feature stories primarily on human interest and community issues. Jeff spoke for 20 minutes straight, without notes, but we felt assured he was speaking truth, and from the heart.
Jeff was saddened by the gradual reduction in newspapers in Ontario, for example the loss of our weekly community papers, and indicated the newsroom was reduced from about 150 to its present cohort of 15 reporters, editors, photographers and others. Many members realized that the enormous presses in the Spectator flagship at Frid and Main West were now gone and in fact the building has been sold and the business relocated to an almost secret location on Pritchard Road.
A number of members, particularly John Mokrycke and Mark Ewer have valued their friendship with Jeff over the years but we are not sure of how long this might last due to advanced age on the part of all the parties!
Jeff valued the contribution of Rotary to the community and the Rotary Club of Hamilton AM valued Jeff's contribution to public education and awareness over his many years as an outstanding reporter! Thank you Jeff was the message the club wanted to convey to him!
