A Journalist’s Journalist
From an early age, Dean Chang thought he might want to work as a journalist. While serving as editor of the University at Albany’s student-run newspaper, the Albany Student Press (ASP), he decided that a career in the news business was “what I want to do.”
The ASP experience provided both the insight and the skills Chang would need as a journalist. After earning a bachelor’s degree in political science, he worked at The Saratogian, the Bergen Record in New Jersey, and the New York Daily News. Chang joined The New York Times as deputy metro editor in 2008; “I’m in charge of political coverage for the entire state.”
Chang is reminded of the sobering role journalism serves when he looks back on Sept. 11, 2001. Then city editor at the Daily News, he remembers that the attack occurred on the same day New York’s primary elections were held. He was at home, watching television and planning to arrive at the office late to cover the returns, when he saw the first plane hit the towers. That’s when he knew he was going to be working late – but it wouldn’t be for the primaries.
“It was just one of those crazy, all-hands-on-deck situations where everything was disrupted, and every reporter at the paper, and then some, were thrown onto the story,” Chang noted.
“I love what I do, and I’m so lucky to be at The Times,” the veteran editor said. “But a part of me believes that every newsroom experience I’ve ever had still pales to the best of times at the ASP.”
Chang regards the ASP as the archetypal newsroom. There was something almost whimsical about the paper: “So many talented journalists came from the ASP, and I was lucky to have worked with many of them.” One, in fact, was Heidi Gralla, B.A.’87, who served as an editor of the paper before Chang did – and who would one day become his wife.
During the rare moments of downtime in their busy lives, “when we’re not worrying about our three kids and everything else,” Chang joked, he and Gralla reminisce about the student newspaper. “We both look back very fondly at our time at the ASP.”
Given his tenure in the newspaper business, Chang has experienced the industry’s many ebbs and flows: the downsizing, the upsurge of multi-tasking, and the shift in focus to prioritize online publishing. But, he observed, journalism “has always been a check on government, and probably never more so, at least in my life, than right now.”