Measure twice. Cut once.
I learned the master carpenter’s rule while building furniture in Santa Fe almost 20 years ago. It’s one I’ve recalled often in a subsequent journalism career that included stops in Jackson Hole, Wyo., and Boulder before depositing me here at the intersection of Broadway and Colfax.
The idea, obviously, is that it’s better to take additional time in the early phases than to come up short and waste time and resources later on.
That, and a lesson I learned on one of my first days at The Denver Post, are guiding me in the earliest days of my new job leading the paper’s editorial page.
The Denver Post lesson? “You can get the Chinese food.”
Let me explain.
In June 2003, a 20-year-old Eagle woman accused NBA star Kobe Bryant of sexually assaulting her in Edwards. The full-court media press that ensued included Boulder’s Daily Camera, where I then worked as a news editor.
So I wasn’t without Kobe experience in the summer of 2004 when I left the Camera to become state editor at The Post. The messy and often stressful Bryant story, I was told, had been a large factor in my predecessor’s decision to leave, and I would be knee-deep in it in my new position.
It wasn’t the first time I’d taken a challenging job that the last person had walked away from and, it turns out, it wouldn’t be the last.
In the afternoon on one of my first days on the job, a bombshell dropped: Prosecutors would dismiss the case against Bryant after his accuser decided she was incapable of going forward with the case.
It was the kind of big-news day in which the action and the volume in the newsroom actually nears what is portrayed as routine on television or at the movies. Keyboards clacking. Reporters running. Photographers grabbing their gear. Editors, phones trapped in crooked necks, barking.
I made a mental note to call my wife for another of the too-many conversations a journalist has that includes the phrase “don’t wait up for me,” and steeled myself for the task ahead.
With a team of some of the state’s best journalists gathered around a small horseshoe of desks, my new boss handed out assignments.
“We need you to find the DA,” she instructed one reporter.
“You’ve got to get an interview with the girl,” another was advised.
“What does it mean for the Lakers?” And so on, until every base was more than covered by what was and still is the largest newsgathering operation in the state.
All the while, I sat at my new desk, awaiting my assignment. Would I get this story? Maybe it would be that one?
And then, it came.
“Curtis,” she said, “you can get the Chinese food.”
I did as I was told, joining an editorial assistant responsible for meeting the delivery guy at the elevator.
Ultimately, there was an editing role for me on that story, but it was unspectacular. In retrospect, I understand the way it played out. Despite a familiarity with the job at hand, there was plenty that I needed to learn about personalities, procedures and other peculiarities before I could be a significant contributor.
It was not the time or the type of story for a newbie editor.
Which brings me to the job of newbie editorial page editor. I’m excited about the prospects of building on the legacy of those who came before me. I have ideas of what I’d like to do differently and of what we can do better. But first, I’m going to take measure of what this great staff and our thoughtful readers have to say.
Measure twice. Cut once.
I look forward to our conversations.
Just don’t ask me to get the Chinese food.
Do you have opinions on our editorial pages? Join editorial page editor editor Curtis Hubbard for a live chat on Tuesday at noon. Visit www. for details.
