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KNOWLEDGABLE AND PASSIONATE: The Norman Transcript managing editor and Gaylord College alumnus Andy Rieger enjoys the newspaper business because, he says, “No two days are alike.” Photo provided

Journey of a journalist
Passion for newspaper business took alum from paperboy to publisher

By Marlena Chavira-Medford

Andy Rieger, managing editor of The Norman Transcript, is a fourth-generation Cleveland County resident and a third-generation OU graduate. Rieger has been focused on a newspaper career since childhood. Well, sort of.

“I was employed by a carrier to fold papers while he went to piano lessons,” he says. “I think I got a quarter a day, and I was probably 10 years old.”

In junior high, Rieger got his own route delivering The Transcript, a childhood foreshadowing of his professional future. During high school he took up an after-school job working in the press room, learning the process of newspaper production and printing. Today, Rieger’s office sits just above where the press room used to be.

“So really, in 30 years I haven’t moved very far,” he says.

Although Rieger earned his bachelor’s degree in journalism from OU in 1980, he originally entered the university to pursue a career in advertising.

“I noticed that the people who worked on the advertising side looked like they wore nicer clothes and drove nicer cars than the people who worked on the news side,” he says. “I took an advertising class and decided I couldn’t do that. I didn’t have that many adjectives in my vocabulary.”

In 1978, Rieger served as managing editor of The Oklahoma Daily. He says it was the staff that made his time there memorable.

“There was a group of people who had just returned from Vietnam,” he says. “Those guys were pretty tough, and they didn’t mind calling things the way they saw them. It was an atmosphere that was really exciting.”

Rieger says while the experience at The Oklahoma Daily was excellent, the pay was not. He made about $11 a day and with a new wife who had just started law school, money and free time were lacking. While he was still an undergrad, he left the student newspaper to take a job with The Oklahoman, which offered $140 per week.

Rieger worked at The Oklahoman until 1985, when he decided to try his hand at publishing. He and a friend established a newspaper in Noble called The Cleveland County Record.

“We started the paper up from scratch,” he says. “It was very interesting. We had very supportive spouses who allowed us to play out this dream and give a newspaper to a community that didn’t have one.”

Rieger and his partner sold the newspaper in fall 1988. Within a year, he began teaching as an adjunct professor at OU and, soon thereafter, became adviser to The Oklahoma Daily.

“It was energizing to be around young people who shared your enthusiasm for the profession,” he says. “It was exciting to be around people who were excited about getting the story and getting it right.”

In 1993, Rieger left his position at OU to become a full-time dad, staying at home with his three children while his wife worked.

“That was a wonderful time,” he says. “I think the kids still remember it. We took field trips and we did Cub Scouts. I taught a computer class at the school. We made pizza and made homemade bread.”

While the dough was rising, Rieger earned a master’s degree in public administration and was a freelance writer.

Longing for a steadier writing assignment, Rieger proposed that The Transcript allow him to write a weekly column. Instead, he was offered a position as managing editor.

Rieger says the transition from reporting to managing has called for some adjusting on his part in learning to deal with business, logistics and human resource issues.

“No two days are alike,” he says. “Some days are more stressful than others. Some days the issues I deal with are not at all journalism related. Some days I feel like I could be selling shoes.”

Melissa Wabnitz, a 2003 OU journalism graduate who has written for The Transcript for three years, says she appreciates how practical and approachable Rieger is.

“He’s not a micromanager,” she says. “But if I got a nasty letter, I felt like I could talk to him about it. And he’s patient. He’s very patient, which is important in a position like his.”

Wabnitz says the staff admires Rieger’s extensive knowledge of Norman, which is what growing up in one place provides.

“We always joke that if there’s an address in Norman, we should just ask Rieger instead of looking it up,” she says.

Mark Thomas, executive vice president of the Oklahoma Press Association, says he admires how much Rieger knows about journalism.

“He really understands and cares about the profession on all the levels,” Thomas says. “I think one of the things I appreciate most about Andy is his depth of understanding of the newspaper industry. That depth of understanding helps him to make tough decisions he faces as an editor. He has a baby-face smile, but he’s tough. He has that sense of humor you have to have to be an editor.”

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