The Community Expert of Macon, Georgia
Ed Grisamore has always loved writing. He started out writing for his high school newspaper. It started his passion which eventually became his profession. The passion that started at Riverwood High School in Atlanta, Georgia. sent him to the University of Georgia and the Grady School of Journalism and Mass Communication where his professional career would begin.
Grisamore not only was a part of the prestigious Grady School, but also wrote for another Athens treasure — The Red & Black. Grisamore spent three of his four years at UGA writing for the famous newspaper, but that was not all he was doing. Between his junior year and senior year, he interned at The Columbus Enquirer, now known as The Ledger-Enquirer, which he says was the best thing for him.
When applying for jobs after his senior year, the employers did not care about his GPA, Grisamore says, “they wanted to know what kind of experience I had.”
In 1978, Grisamore came to Macon, Georgia, the place that would become a home for his family, and where he would find a new story every day. His career at The Macon Telegraph began in 1996 in sports journalism. After two short years, one of his mentors, Bill Boyd, retired and Grisamore became the new local community columnist for the next 17 years. Bill Boyd was “legendary” for Grisamore and says Boyd taught him, “to look for the extraordinary in the ordinary.”
Grisamore would do this, and do this well for so long that he eventually became Macon-famous. His pieces about regular people in the community became a part of Macon’s culture, and shined light on different parts of the community that deserved to be praised.
Grisamore himself says that Macon is not perfect. He says, “But it has been a great place to live and raise a family. I love its history and architectural beauty. It is a town with great people. It’s a place with soul.”
Recently, Grisamore “retired” from The Macon Telegraph, but he did not stay down for long. In 2015, he started teaching a journalism class at Stratford Academy, which has been a huge success.
He says seeing how different news is delivered is the main way newspaper writing has changed from the beginning of his career to now. Grisamore does not even call The Gazebo a newspaper anymore, “it’s a news site.” The school newspaper has changed from only column writing to include video production as well.
While Grisamore is still teaching at Stratford, he did not stay retired from The Macon Telegraph for long, he cut his work from four columns a week and went to freelance writing for the Sunday column in January of 2016.
One of the things he’s familiar with is face to face interviews. Being the local community columnist, he knows how hard it can be to get a person to get out of there shell and talk about the subject matter. But he’s learned a few tricks to make the person he is interviewing feel at ease.
“I ask a lot of filter questions in the beginning to get them used to it. I try not to intimidate them. If I can get them to relax and have a conversation (instead of feeling like they’re being interrogated) I will get a better story,” says Grisamore.
The stories he tells are about himself, Macon, the local high school football coach, a drummer in a local band, or any every day citizen who deserves to have their name in the Sunday paper. The news might not be ground-breaking or legendary, but it matters to the people of Macon. His articles tell their story, the story of a person who works hard and normally gets no recognition.
People get excited to see if someone they know might have been featured, and his articles show that Macon is constantly changing.
Elements of Journalism Questions:
Q: Is it difficult to tell the truth when the answer may not be what the general public would like to hear?
A: I’ve always tried to be objective and unbiased, even when I don’t agree with who or what I’m writing about.
Q: How do you verify your information?
A: For news stories, I checked and double-checked facts and sources. And I always try to remember there are two sides to every story.
Q: Personally, which article that you’ve written has impacted you the most?
A: I get asked that question all the time. Columns impact readers in different ways. The most powerful are the ones that make a difference, foster change and connect people who might not otherwise come together.