Member Spotlight

Sue Kidd
Queen Of Grunge, and Your Copy Chief

Interviews with emerging bands like Nirvana and Sound Garden and free tickets to tons of cutting-edge gigs—who wouldn't be tempted into a career in journalism after such an introduction?

The reporting bug first bit self-proclaimed Grunge Queen, Sue Kidd during a stint at the Green River Community College radio station, KGRG in Auburn. Back in the late '80s, the student-run rock station was riding the wave of grunge rock, and Sue soon decided that her future lay in music journalism.

A little over a decade later, Sue is an established features writer juggling enough elements in her busy life to qualify her for the center ring at Barnum and Bailey's Circus. She is a key figure on the Writergrrls zine, mother to 14-month-old Ben, wife of six years to Ken, and still finds time to indulge her own rock star fantasy.

With her sights set on broadcasting, Sue began her studies at Western Washington University. Her first assignment in a news reporting class involved covering a heated student meeting on whether Playboy magazine should be banned from sale on campus. Her teacher singled out Sue's piece as the article which best caught the moment. "That was it," explained Sue. "Within a quarter I was news editor of the school newspaper, and in two more quarters, I became editor."

Sue began her career as a hard news reporter with three years on the education beat in Federal Way. Her ambition eventually refocused on feature writing. Traditionally, it has been difficult to break into such sought after newspaper jobs, but then along came the internet.

"In 1997 and 1998, a lot of writers abandoned journalism for tech writing, and that really opened the door for a lot of journalists, and probably me too." Sue now recognizes the irony that many writers are now returning to their old newspaper jobs.

Taking advantage of the sudden exodus, Sue landed a job in the features department of the Eastside and South County Journals, two community-focused newspapers with a combined circulation of 65,000. Eventually, she also started writing for the Women's Journals and entertainment sections of these papers.

It is a job of endless variety. "I write about everything from new restaurants to Peking acrobats to breast biopsies. This morning I did an interview with a Pilates instructor," said Sue. "I get to see and learn about so many cool things."

Despite all the wonderful perks, including free meals and complimentary event tickets, being a features journalist is not the ultimate cushy job.

Sue contends that it can be just as tough as hard news. She gives the example of her recent in-depth series on midwives, which involved months of careful research and focused on important issues. Another big challenge is avoiding the cliché trap, particularly when covering the same themes year after year, such as the best Super Bowl food or romantic places to celebrate Valentine's Day. Sue is thankful to be working with creative people whose office conversations often help her generate and develop ideas for features and figure out new spins on old ideas.

Writergrrls has provided Sue with an important sense of community. She was among the first people to join the list when it launched in 1998. "I thought it was a great opportunity for me and other women to network. Until then, there had not been a lot of opportunities for writers in this area to connect."

Sue became actively involved a year ago when she joined the team of volunteers re-launching the Writergrrls zine. The primary aim was to enhance her resume with on-line experience, so Sue volunteered to be copy chief. She uses her fine organizational, detail, and people skills to keep writers, editors, and proofers on schedule, and the copy flowing smoothly. In the process Sue is learning about HTML tagging, web publishing, and working in a virtual environment.

"It is an awesome product to see my name on and wonderful to be able to say on my resume that I helped launch the zine and organize it. And I am meeting some really cool chicks," she added. "It is a great project with really excellent, intelligent women. Writergrrls in general is such a welcoming, civil community."

Sue's life could easily be all work and no play, but she wisely reserves a good portion of her time for letting her hair down. She sings the praises of husband Ken, who does at least an equal share of the domestic duties and childcare.

For a clue about how she relaxes, remember Sue is the Grunge Queen. So, of course, she regularly gets together with a group of her musical girlfriends for jam sessions. "We pretend we're rock stars," she laughs. Just don't expect to see them featured in Sue's newspapers' entertainment sections.

Emma Marl is a legal alien who favors the right brain. She volunteers as a Zine Editor and is a member of the Writergrrls Founding Board.