By LACHLAN MOORHEAD
IF SHE hadn’t worked at the Dandenong Journal, Susan Riley reckons her life would have taken a vastly different path.
The Deputy Lord Mayor of Melbourne and respected publisher credits her time with the 150-year-old newspaper for instilling in her a love for the written word and a passion for connecting with the community.
As well as a short stint with the company to begin with, Susan Riley was asked to come back and work for the Journal after living interstate for a period.
After joining the company for a second time in the late ‘70s, Susan made the Journal her home for the next decade.
She has never forgotten the Scott Street office.
“I had many roles at the Journal, being in accounts and distribution … a whole range of roles,” she said.
“What I learnt there was amazing – I didn’t think at the time that ink got in your blood, but it does.”
And ink has remained in Susan’s blood long after she left the Journal to pursue other exploits. The Melbourne City councillor delved into the world of publishing in the early ’90s and in 2015 still oversees around 11 publications circulated throughout the city.
“I would never have had the guts to do that had it not been for the Dandenong Journal,” she said.
“I was PA to the Managing Director who oversaw 13 suburban newspapers back then, and they all reported back to my boss at the time.
“You can imagine what a lively, thriving place it was.
“It’s the best community spirit of anywhere I’ve ever worked, apart from Town Hall.”
When asked about her fondest recollections of the Journal, it’s a person, not a particular memory, that comes rushing to the front of Susan’s mind.
When Susan first started on at the Melbourne City Council 10 years ago, the late Marg Stork sent her a congratulations card.
“She was my hero. I always went to Marg,” she said.
“Marg was just one of those ladies who typed away on an old Olivetti, she never got into computers, and she’d type away on this old rattly machine and she had a mind that you’d only have to say a person’s name once and she’d remember it.
“She was really in my eyes an amazing, amazing lady.”
While much time has passed, Susan is candid in her appraisal of the Journal and its influence on her life.
Quite simply she admits she wouldn’t be the Deputy Lord Mayor of Melbourne, and a publisher, without her grounding at the paper.
“I wouldn’t have ended up Deputy Lord Mayor, because through publishing the magazines in the city, I got to know the city,” she said.
Even more than that, she wouldn’t be the Susan Riley that the community has come to respect and trust.
“Community newspapers are exactly as it says – they are for the community, to please the community,” she said.
“Could I have gone into publishing without those skills – the answer is probably no, never, I would not have had the courage if I didn’t have that grassroots experience.”
