Friday, Aug. 29, was Steve Rundio’s last day at The LaCrosse Tribune. He inhabited positions ranging from paper boy to sports reporter to weekly editor to covering crime and courts during that 38-year time period in the Coulee Region.
Rundio’s farewell column appeared in the Aug. 28 issue of The Tribune. According to the column:
Rundio joined The Tomah Journal in November 1987, and worked there as sports editor for 23 years, then as editor for 10 years, before working the past five years for The Tribune.
The bittersweet column waxed philosophical about the state of journalism too.
“While I’ve been extremely fortunate to enjoy a long career in journalism, I’m under no illusions about the state of the profession,” Rundio wrote. “When I delivered papers in Greensboro, about three-fourths of the homes on my route subscribed. There was an interest in news back then and few other places to get it. The internet changed all that. Not only did readers start getting their news for free, it shifted the focus from local to national news. It’s easy to find stories about Donald Trump or Elon Musk. It’s a lot harder to find stories about local government.
“In many communities, there is no media that covers local government at all,” Rundio wrote. “That’s not a good thing. Politicians who want to steal from the public prefer a barren local media landscape.
“While the number of reporters shrinks, so does the public’s understanding and appreciation of the First Amendment. I never thought I would need to write this, but in light of Trump’s threats and lawsuits designed to ‘straighten out the press,’ it must be said,” Rundio wrote. “The First Amendment doesn’t guarantee a nonpartisan press. It doesn’t guarantee a fair press. It doesn’t guarantee an unbiased press. It doesn’t guarantee a patriotic press. It only guarantees a free press.”
Rundio said he hasn’t lost faith in working with LaCrosse reporters, whom he said give him hope “there is a new and talented generation of digitally savvy professionals — much more savvy than I — who can sustain a vibrant, informative and free press. It’s a critical task.
“I’m counting on them,” Rundio concluded. “And so should you.”
