Scott Cole (SC), Rebecca Cole (RC) and Ed Pierce (EP)
EP: We used to put out a hurricane section and this was very important in Miami. And it was a double truck, which was two pages in the newspaper, we had a big map of Florida and then all of the islands in Cuba. So that hurricane section was printed and some of the guys were looking through it and then they called me over, Hey, we got a problem. There’s about eight spots on this map that’s got the wrong names on the island and coast and there’s already printed, 500,000 papers, you can’t do anything…
And so they all were throwing up their hands and then I came up with a–probably my greatest achievement as a managing editor–I sat down and wrote a story, and I said, we here today have a hurricane section, and we’re going to give a prize of $100 who can find the most mistakes. And the son of a bitch found six more mistakes than we thought we had.
SC: So, was there a certain aspect of newspapers that you liked more than the other?
EP: I loved the idea of getting out a paper every day. It was a challenge every day. One fella asked me, Did you ever put out a perfect newspaper? And I said, No, I’ve never put out a newspaper that I couldn’t have done a better job if we’d had another two hours. So no I don’t think it was ever, a newspaper was never complete because news is never complete.
SC: What do you think is the best advice that you can impart and what you’ve learned in your 88 years?
EP: In 88 years, I’ve learned it’s best not to give advice. I think each person has to live their own life, have to make their own decisions. But I would say, if I were going to give it, is to work hard and work for a purpose, and not necessarily for money but for the pleasure of the job you do. And try to enjoy it after you have done it. So I, I, I never went to work that to me it wasn’t a lot of fun. Had a hella of a lot of opportunities to do good and to try to print the news and do it accurately and do it honestly.
