BU Grad steps up to be Globe's media critic
By Amanda Krupkoski

Mark Jurkowitz once vowed he would never write for The Boston Globe.

Today, he is The Globe’s media critic. So what changed his mind?

“I got an offer I could not refuse,” said Jurkowitz, referencing his chance to become the paper’s ombudsman. He was also given the opportunity to write about the general news media as part of the job.
Jurkowitz, a native of Scranton, Pa., and a 1975 graduate of Boston University’s College of Communication, began working for The Globe in January 1995. He hasn’t regretted a moment since.

In September 1997, he became the paper’s first full-time media writer, a topic he had also covered at the Boston Phoenix, where he started writing the “Don’t Quote Me” column in 1987.

Before that, in the late ‘70s he spent three years in Phoenix, Ariz., doing “odd jobs” and making a “slow transition into society” before returning to Boston to write for what was then the Brookline-Newton Tab. By 1984, he had become editor in chief of that paper, and in 1986, he thought it was time for a change.

Jurkowitz left newspapers temporarily and was hired as press secretary for a Congressional campaign in Massachusetts. Although he did not work for the winning candidate, he said, “I met more journalists in the nine months I worked on that campaign and got better contacts than I had during my years at the Tab.” After his political stint, he began work as a Phoenix columnist.

“It was a unique column and the only one in the city really that was all about the media,” said Jurkowitz. “It was a combination of reporting and gossip and opinion.”

It was while he worked at the Phoenix that Jurkowitz pledged never to write for The Globe. His column involved keeping tabs on The Globe, and he wanted to remain unbiased.

“I had several noted screaming matches with people at The Boston Globe. I once had a former editor of The Boston Globe threaten to sue the paper over something I had written,” Jurkowitz recalled.

In 1994, after spending seven years at the Phoenix, “writing the same basic stories over and over,” Jurkowitz decided to pursue new goals, and joined the staff of Boston magazine as executive editor.

But the position was short-lived. While at Boston magazine, he received a phone call from Globe Editor Matthew Storin, asking Jurkowitz to be the paper’s ombudsman.

“I had never anticipated [that] happening,” marveled Jurkowitz. “Until that phone call came, I had never thought twice about ever working for them. … It was a wonderful offer.”

After less than a year at Boston magazine, Jurkowitz left for the place he promised he would never work: The Globe.

Today, seven years later, Jurkowitz says he enjoys writing about media issues and that he never gets bored.

“I’ve decided that what I do is write about the media and journalism and that’s my favorite thing,” he said. “Even if I didn’t do it here, I’d probably do it somewhere else.”
And though his column only runs once weekly, he is free to write other stories as well.

“I get to write as often as I can prove to my editors that I’ve got important news that they’ve got to get in the paper,” he said.
One specific moment that stands out in Jurkowitz’s mind is his coverage of the 1998 resignations under fire for allegedly fabricating material of Patricia Smith and Mike Barnicle—two top Globe columnists.

“Covering your own institution in a moment of crisis and turmoil, when every other media outlet in the country is covering it, is a very interesting, unique challenge, and I’m not going to forget that,” he said of the experience.

Jurkowitz may not be able to tell the future, but he is sure of one thing: “For better or for worse, in some way or another, I’m going to be involved in covering, writing about and thinking about journalism.”