Section II

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chicagotribune.com/features/chi-0501040259jan04,1,474519.story

KOKY DISHON: IN APPRECIATION
A sectional revolution

Tributes to Colleen “Koky” Dishon by Charles Leroux, Brenda Butler, Mary Knoblauch, Tony Majeri, Randy Curwen, John Lux, Marjorie David and Mark Caro

Published January 4, 2005

The Tempo section you’re holding, and many other parts of the Tribune – KidNews, WomanNews, Friday – all sprang from the incredibly inventive mind of Colleen “Koky” Dishon.

Koky died a week ago today. She was 80 and had had a journalism career lasting more than 60 years. She was the muse of what became known at the Tribune as the “sectional revolution,” and much of what she did influenced newspapers and their readers all across America. Combining a hard news sense with a flair for coaxing intriguing stories from her writers, she created features sections that enticed specific audiences with words and images crafted just for them.

You may not have known her name, but what follows are memories of her handiwork from colleagues who assisted in creations you have come to know over the last 29 years.

– Charles Leroux, Tribune senior correspondent

Homework: It started with you

Before Koky ever launched a new section, she studied and researched its most precious commodity – you, the reader – until she knew you extremely well. She embraced your values, p(name removed by moderator)ointed your interests and hobbies. Where you chose to live, city or suburbs, told her things about you. Where you shopped and what you bought said even more. As she would say, “We need to find out who our readers are and connect with them.” And that she did.

– Brenda Butler, senior features editor

Tempo: Goodbye to the women’s pages

Koky came to the Tribune in 1975 to enliven sections that were seen as stodgy and out-of-date. Some jokester threw a “remodeling” sign across the cover of what had been essentially the old-fashioned “women’s pages”; Koky took one look and said, “That’s it!” – and the under-construction image became her sly way of announcing the new Tempo feature section to readers in 1976.

A good Tempo day for the readers meant they got something unexpected, interesting and new to read, from the story of scientists trying to teach apes sign language to a survey of the most popular Chicago souvenirs for tourists to NASA’s use of the first “Star Trek” convention to a profile of a daredevil mountain climber or a rising novelist named Anne Rice.

Koky regarded writing as the byproduct of an interesting mind. When she was hiring, she was more interested in how a prospective writer’s mind worked than in any writing samples or resume details.

– Mary Knoblauch, retired Tribune writing coach

Tempo: A new look to match

The best publication design emerges directly from the content of the articles. So when Koky invented a new form of journalism that went well beyond the old idea of a feature section or women’s page, she demanded a new design to showcase it.

Tempo was created with a new typography, pace and approach to illustrations unlike anything else in the Tribune. Our success in Tempo was widely noticed in the newspaper industry and often copied. Today, throughout the country, stories told in a visually sophisticated fashion have become a part of readers’ lives.

– Tony Majeri, Tribune creative director

Friday: Weekends just aren’t the same

What Koky did in 1984 with the Friday section completely changed our perception of weekends.

Before Friday, weekend sections were rather slim collections of “fun-to-do” activities anchored around the movie reviews and movie ads. From the start, Friday expanded the definition of what weekends were all about. Sure, there still were reviews of films, stories on concerts and festivals, tips for families and reports on the club-hopping scene – all those things that traditionally took us out on the town for the day or night. But there also were pages on videos, photography, even home improvement – reflecting the trend that has become known as cocooning today.

And Friday was fat with stories and ads. Most newspaper editors traditionally looked askance at anything to do with advertising. Not Koky. She knew that, besides a good read, readers wanted information – and they didn’t care whether it came in stories or ads. Friday’s clearly defined subsections provided logical spots for readers to get both.

Randy Curwen, first Friday editor

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Style: Fashioning a new tradition

The words and pictures in newspapers change every day. But the ideas – what is deemed worthy of coverage – are generally dictated by tradition. By allowing journalists to flout those traditions, Koky brought readers something surprising, thoughtful and fun. And she did it – literally and figuratively – with style.

Imagining a successor to Feminique, the upscale fashion section that was losing its base of readers and advertisers, Koky came up with the Style section. Crafted by Koky’s deputy, Paul Camp, Style was a weekly tabloid that expanded the idea of fashion beyond clothes and jewelry. In its second week, the cover story was about a different kind of style, the story of how a suave north suburban investment adviser swindled his trusting neighbors.

In the natural cycle of newspapers, Style is gone now, but its spirit of innovation, fostered by Koky, lives in the reader-centric sections still being produced by the editors and writers she trained and inspired.

– John Lux, former managing editor of Style

WOMANEWS: A lively conversation

In the late '80s, the Tribune ran a Sunday section called TempoWoman. We began talking about the ways in which women’s lives were (and were not) reflected in the media. Women were taking leading roles in the world – in charge of countries, movie studios, corporations, Big Ten schools. Those discussions eventually led to WOMANEWS, designed to reflect the changes in women’s lives as they balanced home and family, work and community. The section’s name was printed in capital letters to emphasize that women were making news.

It was an ironic twist in Koky’s career. Once she had been in the forefront of “killing” women’s sections, as she put it, back in the days when these sections were heavily weighted to fashion and recipes. So when the Tribune was invited by the American Society of Newspaper Editors to tailor a section to busy working women, Koky ran with the opportunity.

WOMANEWS itself became news as pundits weighed in on the merits of a news section for women. Koky delighted in that. Controversy meant liveliness and dialogue, and the section was, and continues to be, a conversation with readers.

– Marjorie David, first editor of WOMANEWS

KidNews: No yelling allowed

Dumbing down wasn’t part of Koky’s vocabulary, no matter which readers were meant to be served. So when the KidNews section was launched in 1992, it attempted something radical: It didn’t condescend to its target audience of 9- to13-year-olds. Instead, the idea was to give young readers a section over which they would feel ownership, one that mixed news about kids with straightforward accounts of world events plus bright, interactive features.

Koky oversaw the section’s creation, and she knew exactly what she wanted, always. The section’s name set the tone; direct and to the point. When we came up with a particularly splashy prototype cover – the headline was “Earthquake!” – Koky tore into it as too loud, sensationalistic, shrill. KidNews wasn’t designed to yell like some desperate-to-please uncle. It was meant to deal with kids on their level, whether discussing the war in Bosnia or New Kids on the Block.

– Mark Caro, KidNews’ first reporter

Copyright © 2005, Chicago Tribune