The following is a story I wrote for a Journalism class after talking to Brian Blair, a journalist from my hometown of Columbus, IN.
The last story The Republic, a newspaper out of Columbus, Ind. posted from ex-feature writer Brian Blair was ‘Taiko drum class participants find healing, hope in a rhythm of life.’ This story was posted over a year ago, on Oct, 30, 2024 and that made me wonder what he was doing now, so I asked him.
Blair shared that he left The Republic to make time for his wife’s medical appointments. After a cancer diagnosis in August, he decided he needed to work something out with he paper.
“I tried to work stuff out with the paper to where I could still do all the stuff I needed to do and be at loads of medical appointments,” Blair said. “It just wasn’t going to work.”
Unfortunately, the paper could not compromise with him and, although he would like to get back into working with the paper, there has not been an opening for that to happen. In the meantime, Blair has been working multiple part-time jobs. He does research and writing about Columbus architecture for a non-profit called Landmark Columbus Foundation.
“They highlight a lot of the modernist architecture here in Columbus and I covered a lot of that when I was at the Republic for the last 6 or 7 years,” Blair said.
Blair also edits books for a small publishing company in Columbus and writes for Our Brown County magazine based in the tourist town of Nashville, Ind., near Columbus.
“[Our Brown County] is actually pretty interesting, it’s been around about 30 years,” Blair said. “For a little Hamlet like [Nashville], they have quite a bit going on.”
Blair worked for The Republic for over 37 years, starting in August of 1987 when a friend invited him to apply. He never intended to stay in Columbus but, I guess it was meant to be when his next job offer only came after he and his wife bought a house.
“We didn’t want to up and leave right after we just [bought a house], so I ended up staying way, way beyond what I originally imagined,” Blair said. “I am grateful I stayed.”
Blair has been through a lot in 46 years of journalism experience and one thing I found most interesting was the impact reporters choices had on the citizens of Columbus, Ind.
“When we first started doing stories, at The Republic, on faiths other than Christians, people here were very unsettled about that,” Blair said. “A lot of the conservative Christians, they were angry and upset. What I told them was ‘you can’t ignore it.’”
I think this city is pretty unique in that it is historically conservative but now faced with the growing population of immigrants from major corporations, like Cummins, which is headquartered there. Blair say this shift first-hand as people had to face their fears of the unknown.
“They had never really, face-to-face, sat down at a table with anybody with different views,” Blair said. “I think media can be a huge component to change that for people and I think that goes way beyond newspapers and broadcast media.”
Blair has seen a lot of things change over the years, and one of the most concerning is the downsizing of newspaper staffs, but Blair does have hope for the future of journalism.
“So many things in life run in cycle, so my fingers are cross that maybe 10 years down the road, if you’re still in media, that maybe there’s a way for some of these concerning trends to be reversed a bit,” Blair said.
The story I read from Blair intrigued me from the start. I loved the lead: “When Dave Stehouwer hears the thunder, he wonders if he has somehow caught lightning in a bottle.” Right away, you can tell that this isn’t going to be like any other standard event coverage.
Personally, I find leads hard to develop. I typically write the rest of the story before coming back to puzzle-out the lead. While Blair may not always share the struggle, he did share a good tip with me.
“I would get into the habit of setting my phone on the car seat and start playing the interview back while I was driving back to the paper,” Blair said. “It’s sort of like microwaving a meal that has, sort of, gone lukewarm. Sort of brings it back to life.”
Blair has a way of getting to the root of things, of getting people to share “the heartbeat of their story.” Just within the Taiko drumming story, a source confided in Blair about his battle with Parkinson’s disease and another source shared that she first came to the class to deal with unresolved trauma.
When I asked how Blair connects with people so deeply, I got a surprising response.
“I’m on crutches,” Blair said. “I think that’s one major factor that has allowed people to open up a little more with me.”
Speaking with Blair over the phone, and not knowing him previously, I was not expecting such an unlikely superpower. Despite his peace with his condition now, it hasn’t always been that way.
“I had teachers in college who thought that [being on crutches] would create distance between me and a story source. They thought that people would be uncomfortable,” Blair said. “I allowed that to rattle me for probably 2 or 3 years until I finally said ‘Wait a minute, this isn’t working against me, it’s working for me.’ That was a good area of peace and relaxation, eventually.”