Storm Beat: A Journalist Reports from the Oregon Coast

As someone who spent some of the same years covering some of the same places as the author for a local coastal newspaper, I read this book as both a peer and a fan. She brought back memories of things I'd forgotten, told me things I'd never known about the things I remembered, and reminded me most of all of why the Oregon coast is like no place else on earth.Whether you come to this book is a fan of journalism, a lover of the Oregon coast, or just someone looking to understand either one better, this one is a must read. I can't honestly say it's the same as being there, but it's close enough - and a hell of a lot less likely to send you home with wet britches.

When reporters write non-fiction books, their stories usually center on their coverage of some major national or international event. Such works are often interesting because they provide extra insight into a situation that’s probably important as well as interesting.But what such books often don’t do is help the reader understand what it’s like to be a newspaper reporter, day in and day out, and how the job can shape someone. The job can be emotionally wrenching, mentally taxing and physically exhausting, sometimes with few rewards. As some journalists will tell you: “Journalism is really hard work, and the pay’s not that great, but at least everyone hates you.”However, Lori Tobias has written a different kind of book. A longtime reporter and columnist who worked in radio before turning to print, her book “Storm Beat” is an intimate memoir based mostly on the nine years she spent covering the 300-plus mile length of the rugged Oregon Coast for The Oregonian, the state’s largest newspaper. Stationed in the town of Newport, a postcard city and home to much of Oregon’s fishing fleet, her assignments included everything from covering fatal accidents involving fishing boats to huge storms to murders to tsunamis to serial killers.Tobias describes her evolution from a journalist who preferred doing softer features and even society stories to one who found herself required to cover breaking news, trials and hard news as well as the fluffier stuff. She makes it clear that it wasn’t an easy transition and that at times she really disliked some parts of the job. But along the way, she realizes that the beat toughens her and helps her expand her skill set.Tobias also does a good job of describing the unusual and sometimes unique parts of her job. While The Oregonian is a metro, based in Portland, she was working out of a home office more than 100 miles away. Reporting in the pre-Zoom era, she describes what it was like working with her editors by phone and e-mail and dealing with the loneliness and professional isolation of the job, which she contrasts with her days at the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, where she was working in the relative security and supportiveness of a newsroom full of other journalists.A polished writer (she has also written an award-winning novel, “Wander”), Tobias adeptly describes what it’s like to interview those who witnessed or survived incidents like the sinking of the charter boat “Taki Too” — an incident that 11 killed people — and trying to develop sources in cities strung out along Oregon’s beautiful but wild coastline.She details her fondness for one sheriff who becomes an especially good source and her relative personal disdain for for some in law enforcement who try to stand in the way of her reporting efforts.Another aspect of “Storm Beat” is that Tobias has a distant but informed view of the the trials and tribulations endured by journalists in the early 2000s as The Oregonian begins to slowly but steadily downsize during her tenure.She provides and insider view of what it was like to see staff emails announcing buyouts and layoffs, knowing that eventually she might also become a victim of the declining revenues of traditional newspaper companies. At times, she seems like a scientist watching evidence of climate change from a distance, all while knowing it may soon impact her life as well.

I read this author's novel (Wander) and really enjoyed it--her voice and style just pull you in--so I opened this book hoping I was in for another good read. I had no idea just how good of a read it was going to be. I started it just before dinner and my husband had to tell me three times that dinner was ready before I *finally* put it down. When he said he had work to do afterward, I was thrilled--I could get back to reading sooner than I thought. At 11:30 that night, 6+ hours after starting the book, I finished it. Suffice to say, I couldn't put it down. Tobias chronicles a job that demands she put herself in the middle of unrelenting heartbreak and sadness, and yet she manages to keep her humanity intact. How, I don't know. You feel her pain when her editor demands she contact a grieving family that just learned of a loved one's death, and she helps you understand that sometimes the family welcomes that interview as a way to tell the world about the special person it lost. And you root for her when she refuses to contact a woman whose husband just died because that particular situation feels too intrusive. You feel her courage at mastering (only for a moment) her fear of heights as she dangles from a helicopter, her pain when she says a final goodbye to her own father, her exhaustion when she's called out to witness tragic event after tragic event--capsizings, car accidents, murders, and murder/suicides. And on top of it all, you get a ringside seat to the death of newspapers: the loss of ads, the loss of jobs, the loss of an industry, the loss of an experience that many of us have known all our lives--reading the paper. The life of a reporter is clearly difficult, both physically and emotionally, but Tobias tells us her story in such a way that you feel like you're listening to a good friend. And in the end, you understand why she did it--and maybe you wonder what price she paid for doing it, too.