Scott Wasser, V.P. & executive editor, Portland Press Herald, has been the editor since August 2009. Wasser came to journalism motivated by a love for writing and facilitated by an internship at Newsday. He says his newspaper’s key criteria for news selection is simply “what stories are going to impact the largest group of people.”

Scott Wasser, V.P. & executive editor, Portland Press Herald, stresses “fairness” in all The Herald’s coverage. He says the newsroom follows the Society of Professional Journalists’ code of ethics and the Stylebook of the Associated Press, and he is confident “we know what the standards are.”

Scott Wasser, V.P. & executive editor, Portland Press Herald, says the major change in his newsroom in recent years is its commitment to reporting the news 24 hours a day. He wants his reporting staff to post every story, online, as soon as it is written. “We don’t wait,” he says.

Scott Wasser, V.P. & executive editor, Portland Press Herald, says his newspaper has posted video screens in the newsroom that follow the traffic on the newspaper’s website: www.MaineToday.com, and its main competitors. The goal is for the Herald’s reporting staff to see what stories are drawing readership and what are not.

Scott Wasser, V.P. & executive editor, Portland Press Herald says the newspaper industry has shot itself in the foot, “over and over and over again,” by cutting news staffs. “How can we expect people to buy our newspapers … if we don’t have the kind of reporting they’ve come to expect?” asks Wasser. As for career preparation, Wasser says the formula is: “Practice, practice, practice.”