‘A Wonderful Profession’
‘A Wonderful Profession’ | American Journalism Review
Both writing and editing have their charms for Scott Kraft.
“There’s really nothing better in this business than to be a writer, being a correspondent, especially,” says Kraft, 57, who became deputy managing editor of the Los Angeles Times at the end of August. “Being an editor is very challenging as well, and I have influence over many more stories than as a writer.”
“The most fun an editor can have is to work with talented reporters and editors,” he adds. “There’s many talented people here. It’s so much fun to watch talented journalists do their thing.”
Growing up in Oklahoma and Kansas, Kraft always knew he wanted to be in journalism. When he was in elementary school, he started a newspaper in his Ardmore, Oklahoma, neighborhood.
“Being a journalist, you have this wonderful excuse to ask people anything, to nose around, find stuff out,” he says.
Kraft, who majored in journalism at Kansas State University, worked for the Associated Press for eight years before joining the L.A. Times in 1984.
Kraft was attracted to the paper because it was considered a writer’s paper and because it had a large roster of foreign correspondents. Kraft wanted to be one of the latter. “I’ve always been a correspondent at heart,” he says, “I was just enamored of foreign correspondents and their lifestyle. I thought it would be a wonderful way to discover the world.”