And that's the way it was

Laurie Hertzel, the Star Tribune's books editor, got her start at the Duluth News Tribune, where she landed a job as a newsroom clerk at age 19. With determination -- and a little luck -- she got a spot on the copy desk and then, finally, won her own reporting beat, covering the northernmost parts of Minnesota.

Next week, Hertzel's memoir, "News to Me: Adventures of an Accidental Journalist" (University of Minnesota Press, $22.95), will be released. Freelance writer Alyssa Ford met up with Hertzel in her book-crammed cubicle to talk about her blog, her book and why being bad at making coffee can be good for your career.

Q Why did you write a book about the news business?

A Well, about three or four years ago I started a blog [lifewiththreedogs.blogspot.com/] to kind of get back in the habit because writing had gotten difficult for me. I had kind of lost my voice. So I started writing little blog entries about my early days as a reporter. I wrote four or five of them. People who read the blog really liked them and kept asking for more of these stories.

Q As the reporter covering the Iron Range for the Duluth paper, you wrote lots of "end of an era" stories about the region's transition from boom to bust. Do you see your book as its own end-of-an-era story?

A I think the end of the era comes in the middle of the book when the old guard reporters started retiring, and they got rid of the pneumatic tubes for shooting copy through the ceiling, and they brought in Atex computers, and they started bringing in the young people who were all college-educated and had chosen this as a career path.

Q So do you think the time of the tough-talking, hard-drinking newspaperman is gone?

Q Your book includes funny stories and anecdotes, including the one about your love/hate relationship with coffee. Can you share it with us?

A I got out of making coffee by making it really badly. I was the clerk and I was supposed to relieve the drudgery of the newsroom, but I saw a distinction between running up and getting court records and typing up obits, which is actually work, and making coffee, which is something a wife would do. I decided this was not my responsibility, so I made this wretched coffee, which wasn't much of a feat since I wasn't a coffee drinker.

Q You wrote about the 1970 census, when Duluth city officials worried about being surpassed in size by Bloomington. Duluth lost the battle to Bloomington long ago. Are there still hard feelings?

A That was a long time ago. I remember folks saying, "Oh, Bloomington. That's not a real city, that's just a suburb." It was the first time I learned the word suburb. But I think Duluth pretty quickly got over it.

Q Some of your descriptions of the city don't sound like the Duluth I've visited. Has the city changed a lot?

I felt that people didn't appreciate Duluth. But I don't think that's true anymore. Back then, all the traffic on Fridays went toward the cities, and on Sundays it all came back north. Now people are fleeing the cities for the beauty of the North Shore, an interesting reverse.

Q There are so many rich details in the book, like the restaurant critic who wears three-piece suits and takes taxicabs to his assignments. Or the reporter with anchor tattoos on his forearms. Or the fact that the union printers took their break at 9:30 on the dot. How did you remember all of this? Did you take notes?

A No, I didn't take notes, but I did do a lot of interviews. I read old clips, I looked at old photos. But you have to remember that this was my first job other than shelving books at the library and it made a huge impression on me. It was imprinted on me.

Q It's funny you say that. You wrote this book more than 30 years later, but it seems to be written from the perspective of someone young and starstruck. Oh, the reporters! The newsroom! The drama!

A It was like that! I was very quiet, very shy, and very young. I just soaked it in.