Gene Roberts
Gene Roberts is a distinguished author, journalist, and educator known for his significant contributions to American journalism. Born in 1932 in Pikeville, North Carolina, Roberts emerged from a family rooted in the newspaper industry, working early on with his father's local publication. He graduated with a degree in journalism from the University of North Carolina in 1954 and began his career writing for various newspapers, including the New York Times, where he gained prominence as national editor. Roberts served as executive editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer from 1972 to 1990, during which time the newspaper earned numerous Pulitzer Prizes and gained national respect.
His coauthored book, *Race Beat*, received the Pulitzer Prize in history in 2007, providing critical insights into the press's role during the civil rights movement and highlighting the evolution of media coverage on racial issues. After retiring from journalism, Roberts transitioned to academia, teaching journalism at the University of Maryland and earning a reputation as a respected professor. His work has had a lasting impact on the field of journalism, both through his reporting and his research into the industry's history. Roberts has also been involved in community initiatives, including historic preservation efforts in North Carolina. He currently resides in Bath, North Carolina, with his wife, Susan Jane McLamb, and their four daughters.
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Subject Terms
Gene Roberts
Journalist
- Born: June 15, 1932
- Place of Birth: Pikeville, North Carolina
Contribution: Gene Roberts is an author, journalist, professor, and historian best known as coauthor of the Pulitzer Prize–winning book Race Beat (2007), executive editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer (1972–90), and managing editor of the New York Times (1994–97).
Background
Gene Roberts was born in Pikeville, North Carolina, in 1932 and grew up in the Goldsboro area. Roberts’s father, a minister, started and managed a small, local newspaper called the Goldsboro Herald. Roberts grew up in the newspaper industry, delivering his father’s newspapers around his hometown. Roberts even reportedly bartered with subscribers, taking livestock and farm goods in exchange for the paper.
Roberts sold bibles while pursuing his postsecondary education, first at Mars Hill College and then at the University of North Carolina (UNC), where he received his bachelor’s degree in journalism in 1954.
Career
After graduation, Roberts spent a couple of years serving in the army. He then began writing for the Goldsboro News-Argus in 1956, writing a farm-oriented column, "Rambling in Rural Wayne." Over two years, Roberts’s column became one of the most popular in the Goldsboro News-Argus, offering articles on topics ranging from who makes the best watermelon rind pickles to the season’s first tobacco transplanting to a sweet potato that bore a strong resemblance to Frenchman Charles de Gaulle.
In 1958, Roberts was hired to write for the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot and then, the following year, transferred to the News & Observer out of Raleigh, North Carolina. In 1964, he became city editor for the Detroit Free Press, but less than a year later, he accepted an offer to write for the New York Times, replacing Claude Sitton as the newspaper’s southern correspondent.
Roberts distinguished himself at the New York Times over the next four years and, in 1969, was offered the coveted position of national editor, which is often an important stepping-stone to the managing and executive editor positions. In 1972, however, Roberts unexpectedly decided to leave the New York Times to step in as executive editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer, then generally seen as an inferior paper.
With Roberts at the helm for more than eighteen years, the Philadelphia Inquirer improved, eventually displacing the Evening Bulletin to become the “paper of record” for the Philadelphia area and one of the most respected newspapers in the nation. Roberts—who was reportedly nicknamed the Frog, for his stature and facial structure—was famous for inspiring loyalty and dedication from his employees and for allowing young reporters to choose their own subjects. The result was a newspaper that covered unusual subjects and articles written with passion as journalists were allowed to cover stories that mattered to them. During Roberts’s tenure, the Inquirer was awarded seventeen Pulitzer Prizes, often for in-depth reporting of such issues as corruption in the city court system.
In 1990, after parent company Knight Ridder informed the staff that they would be drastically cutting budgets for the Philadelphia Inquirer due to a lack of advertising revenues, Roberts retired from the industry. In interviews, Roberts said that he felt he was being asked to undo the progress he had made during his tenure with the newspaper.
For the next four years, Roberts taught journalism at the University of Maryland while working on writing projects. Then, Roberts returned to journalism for three years, from 1994 to 1997, as managing editor of the New York Times. In 1998, he decided to return to the classroom, becoming one of the most respected journalism professors in the nation by his retirement in 2010. He was named professor emeritus at that point.
In 2001, Roberts coauthored the book Leaving Readers Behind: The Age of Corporate Reporting, through the University of Arkansas Press. Leaving Readers Behind was the first of two books that resulted from a comprehensive study of the journalism industry conducted by Roberts and a group of like-minded journalists and published through the American Journalism Review. The first book examines the corporate consolidation of the industry during the 1990s and early 2000s and its effects on the quality and direction of newspaper coverage. The second book, Breach of Faith: A Crisis of Coverage in the Age of Corporate Newspapering (2002), addresses the reduced coverage of current and national affairs in newspapers around the country and the increase in “gossip-centered” journalism as the standard newspaper model.
In 2007, Roberts and coauthor Hank Klibanoff received the Pulitzer Prize in history for The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation. In it, Roberts and Klibanoff cover the black and white press of the 1950s and 1960s and how the press evolved from ignoring civil rights to treating the civil rights struggle as a major social issue.
Roberts had reported on civil rights issues during his time writing for the New York Times and became interested in the subject over decades in the industry. In a May 2007 appearance on the PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) program NewsHour, Roberts told host Jeffrey Brown that Race Beat took more than sixteen years to complete because there had been virtually no research on the subject before he and Klibanoff started collecting data for the book.
In retirement, Roberts became a member of the Historic Bath Foundation, through which he helped restore local historic homes and create a museum. He served as its vice president from 2019 to 2020.
Impact
Roberts has had a major impact in the newspaper industry, both as a journalist and as a researcher investigating the history and development of the industry. Roberts’s Race Beat was awarded the Pulitzer Prize because the book was seen as providing an important major contribution to the study of race in journalism during a key period in American history.
In addition to the Pulitzer Prize, Roberts was awarded an honorary doctorate in laws from UNC in 2010. He later became the subject of a crowd-funded documentary that seeks to contextualize his work at the Inquirer amid the press of the time. In addition, the Philadelphia Inquirer and parent company Knight-Ridder established the Eugene L. Roberts Jr. Prize for in-depth reporting at the UNC School of Journalism and Mass Communication. He won a 2018 North Carolina Award for Public Service, the highest civilian honor in his home state.
Personal Life
Roberts married Susan Jane McLamb, a fellow UNC alum. Roberts and McLamb had four daughters together. He lives in Bath, North Carolina.
Bibliography
Arsenault, Raymond. “The News from Little Rock.” New York Times. New York Times Co., 21 Jan. 2007. Web. 26 June 2013.
Boldt, David R. “The Years with Roberts.” Philadelphia Inquirer. 5 Aug. 1990. Web. 26 June 2013.
“Breach of Faith.” UA Press. University of Arkansas Press, n.d. Web. 26 June 2013.
"Gene Roberts." Philip Merrill College of Journalism, merrill.umd.edu/directory/gene-roberts. Accessed 19 Sept. 2024.
Roberts, Gene, and Hank Klibanoff. “Pulitzer-Winning Book Examines Media and Civil Rights Movement.” Interview by Jeffrey Brown. PBS NewsHour. Public Broadcasting Service, 18 May 2007. Print. Transcript.
Schultz, Will. “Gene Roberts (1932–).” North Carolina History Project. John Locke Foundation, 2013. Web. June 26 2013.
Ward, Butch. “Tales of a Serial Prankster: How Newsroom Humor Can Create a Sense of Togetherness.” Poynter. Poynter Institute, 11 Apr. 2011. Web. 15 Mar. 2013.