I Love Not Reading Books

I love going to my local library branch just down the road. Every few weeks I walk in and return books that I didn’t read and check out a few more that’ll come back equally unread.

The library system has a great mobile app where I also check out e-books that I don’t read. And, my goodness, it feels great to check out those books – the digital and hardback versions.

To be clear, this isn’t hyperbole, it’s the literal truth; not one sentence will be read and not one page will be turned in these books. Sad or funny? I find it funny.

On a recent flight back from the colder part of the nation, while watching some downloaded shows from Netflix on my phone and taking notes to plan out some of our CUNA GAC coverage, I realized that I don’t enjoy reading anything that doesn’t involve work. Is it some strange fear of missing something? Or, most likely, is it my competitive nature caused by who knows what?

I know some credit union executives who will discuss, on- and off-the-record, how much they think about work and coming up with new ideas to help build and sustain a thriving and credible credit union in their communities. Those are the types of people who try to sleep, but can’t because they are running through their mental list: Expanding new lending programs, creating a sustainable work/life balance for their team, reminding themselves that their VP of marketing has a school function to go to on Tuesday for their daughter and thinking that maybe they should start using recycled coffee cups in the credit union’s lobby.

Similarly, some nights ago, I found myself awake at 2 a.m. reading and re-reading Michael Cohen’s 20-page opening statement. Later that day, he would testify in front of the House Oversight Committee and I wanted to find out if he was going to mention his taxi medallion loans in the statement. He did not.

Each day the sun comes up for all of us, and we all try to move forward and do things a little better than we did the day before. Maybe I’ll spend more time on Monday reading some NCUA briefings, study up on supplemental capital issues and find some new news nuggets that might help our executive audience make better decisions. Mostly, from some of the feedback we get, those items turn out to add to the worry pile; but that’s part of this news-reporting gig. We aren’t in the business of reducing the stress of credit union executives. We’re here to report what’s happening, why it’s happening and find the answers to their questions.

We also understand how heavy the news can be, and how much mental strength it takes to absorb and fully understand the weight of what we report to you.

Because of that, we try to break that cycle and find some different stories to tell to highlight a lighter side of the credit union world.

Recently, Managing Editor Natasha Chilingerian and I had a meeting with one of our technology reporters, Tina Orem, and we threw her a curveball of a story idea. For those of you not personally familiar with Tina, she focuses a lot of energy on mobile banking and payment trends stories for CU Times.

In that meeting, we came up with a feature story idea that has absolutely nothing to do with mobile banking news: What are the hidden talents of credit union executives?

We thought this would be a fun way to write about non-heavy news issues and focus instead on credit union executives’ love for music, magic, dancing, painting and performing. We put out a public call for these stories on our social media channels, asking our readers to reach out and let us know what CU executives do in their off-time. We’ve heard back from a few readers with examples such as being a drummer in a KISS cover band. So yes, we are looking for all types of talents out there, and any videos or photos you can send for us to share with our readers.

We are planning on featuring as many of these stories as we can in an issue sometime this summer. We try to create these stories for you to give you a break and show you a much more fun side of the space where we all live and work.

Maybe this is why I don’t read those library books – I’m reading all sorts of great entertaining things during work.

Having said all this, I do fully understand that there is skepticism from news consumers/readers that journalists are untrustworthy, or even not genuine in our approach to reporting the news or creating fun feature stories.

A couple of weeks ago, the Columbia Journalism Review released a new poll: How does the public think journalism happens? In this survey of more than 4,200 U.S. adults, 60% of respondents believe reporters get paid by their sources “sometimes or very often.” In the five newsrooms I’ve worked in during my career, that has never been the case. In fact, in every news organization I’ve worked for, everyone in news editorial positions is required to sign a document basically stating that we will never take money or gifts from anyone. If we do, we can be fired immediately. It didn’t surprise me that so many people incorrectly believe that journalists are getting paid by sources. What did surprise me is that 23% of those surveyed believe the National Enquirer is a legitimate news organization.

No matter what you think of journalism, journalists and/or the process of reporting, we are all-in when it comes to finding answers to questions that help and educate our audiences.

We love what we do, because we love finding out more about you, reading all sorts of reports, getting questions answered and fact-checking those answers. We are bookworms in that sense.

Speaking of that, if you have any great book recommendations for me, I’ll gladly take them and check them out at the library. I’ll just probably be reading summary judgments in a credit union fraud case instead. It’s a strange book club, I know.

Michael Ogden is editor-in-chief for CU Times. He can be reached at mogden@cutimes.com.