Michelle Leonard: Reporter/Photographer at Farmington Independent This interview was conducted on the second day of the Minnesota Newspaper

Association convention on Jan. 28, 2011. Jon Collins: Thank you so much for talking to me, I appreciate it. I guess the best place to start is who you are and what you do? Michelle Leonard: My name is Michelle Leonard, Im a reporter and photographer with the Farmington Independent. Ive been covering Farmington for going on 17 years, and thats through three different publications. Collins: Three different publications, how does that work? Leonard: Well, I started out my second job out of college was with the Lakeville Life and Times, we had a section that covered Farmington because of our advertising base over there. And I was hired to do the Farmington beat and I was doing that for 5-6 years, and our publisher decide it was time to retire so he sold us to ECM Publishing and we merged with This Week newspapers so I spent a year and a half there, and after a year and a half over there, I left this week publications and went to the Independent. That was October of 2000. Collins: What did you go to school for? Leonard: I went to school, mass communications/ news editorial is my major. Mankato State University not Minnesota University of Mankato, Im old school. I entered the program in 1986, so it was really the beginning of the computer age over there. My first mass comm. Class, my instructor, her name was Ellen Mrja, shes an instructor down there, she went around the room and said how many people want to go into broadcast, a bunch of hands go up, how many people want to go into public relations, more hands go up, how many people want to go into newspaper, I was the only one and she looked at me and said Michelle I hope you know what youre in for. She said newspaper reporters by and large put in the most amount of hours and get the least amount of pay. Then she went into the thing about how reporters also had the highest alcoholism rate per capita of any career. Here I am 25 years later. Collins: What made you go towards journalism when you were in school, why did it attract you? Leonard: I decided when I was 10 years old that I was going to be a writer when I grew up. I never had any doubt in my mind. When I was a senior in high school we did those aptitude tests, the one I was most geared towards was journalism, the second was interior design and the third was s mortician, so I went with the first. Its all Ive ever wanted to do.

Collins: One of the first jobs you got was in Lakeville you said, how did you move up to where you are now? Leonard: I dont know if I necessarily moved up, its just been a series of lateral moves over time. I really have been doing the same thing in different forms for 17 years. When I started in Lakeville it was 1994, and obviously wed already made the jump to computers. However we were still printing out and doing the cut and paste method of laying out the papers. Eventually we got into the whole thing of pagination and then from there just continued to learn as they came up with something new. Collins: When you worked on stories, what were the stories that really stand out to you as being really positive or really effective? Leonard: I dont know, I think every story is interesting in its own way shape or form. Seriously, I cant even put a favorite out there. Ive had some bigger stories, things that have snowballed over time. I won investigating reporting a few years back for a series of stories regarding a mayors decision to replace some council members so he could get rid of a city administrator. I think community journalism, the reason we do it is because we want to inform our public, so I dont think one thing is more important than the other. Collins: What sort of stories do you like to do? Leonard: Personally, I would have to say I really kind of like hard news but I dont come across it very often. I dont like being that person to get into the mothers face and say, what do you think Your son just died how do you feel. I do like the hard and fast part of the facts that are there and being able to take that information and put it out there and then gradually move into the more human side of the event., be it a guy in a silo. We did have that last year, had a man trapped in a silo for eight hours. Collins: In Farmington, how do you balance changes in demographics, balance your coverage. Leonard: We have three newspapers out of our office. We have three people on the news side and two are sports. One of my co-workers is primarily Rosemount, Im Farmington, my editor is a little bit of both. I do a lot of the organizations, the community group kinds of stories, he does the business stories and the senior stories. I think we kind of classify it by what they are and take it that route. Collins: In the example that you brought up to me about the mayor, that story you did, what was your relationship like before and what was it like after you did the story because he must not have liked it?

Leonard: I did get the, I thought we were friends line. Id known him for probably seven or eight years by the time that had happened. It ultimately meant like a $20,000 process because the city administrator was there for not even a full year I dont think, it wasnt his pick though, so then it comes down to, is this a bruised ego thing, or is it a greater good of the community sort of thing. I dont know, all along I told him its nothing personal, I know it may feel personal but this is my job. Id have o say that my relationship with every mayor since has also changed. As council members or when theyre in the planning commission or not so high profile of a role everything is all well and good. And they get elected and they come in and sit down and have the get to know you sort of interview, and Ill wrap it up and say, just so you know, its not personal, its my job and its something entirely different. Sometimes they still recognize that and sometimes they dont. Collins: What do you think the community sees your role as? Leonard: Im the woman whos never going away. There is a name recognition there that people dont necessarily come right out and say, hey youre Michelle from the paper, but Ill see somebody in a neighboring community a grocery store or Kohls or something like this. People recognize me, and theyll come in and talk to me like they know me, and I probably have met you sometimes in the last however many years, but I dont remember it. Between my editor and myself we have 30 years of covering Farmington between the tow of us, I think there is a level of public trust there, just that longevity aspect, we know what were talking about, weve been there and weve experienced these things with them. We had our first tornado there last summer, and I live in town and it missed my house by a mile, but I had friends, associates that are in that neighborhood, and those are things I can identify with and they can identify with me because I have that common knowledge. Collins: Do you think because you are so involved in that community that more news tips come to you and that people do trust you, to bring things to you? Leonard: I can tell you that we do by and large get more news tips. Our publication is strictly Farmington, the Farmington paper is the Farmington paper, the Rosemount paper is the Rosemount paper and theres seven miles separating the two. Once in a while if theres a Dakota County story, thats a mutual thing, if theres a person who say lives in Farmington but works in Rosemount that the storys on this individual, but for the most part, we dont really cross those boundaries. Its very specific, and for the most part we dont really cross those boundaries, so its very specific and I think thats something about a hometown newspaper you dont find as much in our area. Collins: What your older colleagues like when you first started?

Leonard: I would have to say, I dont really remember too much. My first publication was in Hayfield, Minnesota, that was a very small weekly newspaper, there again we had a computer but it was the cut and paste, that was definitely a much smaller small town kind of feeling to it. In Lakeville I was fortunate in that my former publisher was a member of the MN technology committee so he was really embracing all those updates, and I think he really kind of got a kick out of being the first to have it. Ive always kind of worked with a progressive group as far as that goes. With the Independent, were a member of Forum Communications, theyre also very assertive when it comes to their online presence and changing with the technology. I dont know, I guess Ive just been along for the ride for 17 years. Collins: Do you have any predictions about where its going to go? Leonard: I have no idea where its going to go. Im the volunteer coordinator for the museum, for the newspaper museum, thats the thing, everybody knows what computers do, but when people come into the museum and everything is moving happening, its fascinating, its just cool, Collins: And tactile, right? Leonard: Yes, and thats something they dont see anymore. I appreciate the history and its important for newspaper people to see that, to grasp that, to know that it wasnt always this easy, to really appreciate the direction were going, because really we have no idea where were going. But Ill trll you what, when they were running Linotype in 1910 would they ever have guessed? Theres really no way of knowing where its going.