The following is an extended version of the interview that appears in our July 2019 issue.

A former government and political reporter, Pamela Stallsmith returned to the newspaper as opinions editor in March. (Photo by Hadley Chittum)
As the opinions editor at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Pamela Stallsmith reads angry, or at least peeved, comments every day, and plenty of people in the peanut gallery think they could do her job better. But they shouldn’t fool themselves — it’s not easy.
A reporter at the Times-Dispatch from 1988 to 2007, the 56-year-old Stallsmith previously worked at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs before returning to the newspaper in March. She’s the first woman in the RTD’s 170-year history to lead the editorial section. We visited Stallsmith in May to get her take on the job and recent changes to the editorial pages, including signed editorials and the decision to stop endorsing candidates.
Richmond magazine: About signing the editorials, does it change how you write them or how you edit them?
Stallsmith: Absolutely not. We decided to move to signed editorials to promote accountability and transparency. The response that we have gotten has been overwhelmingly positive; in fact, it is not an exaggeration to say that several times a week, I hear from readers in the community saying how much they enjoy knowing who’s writing them. It hasn’t affected what we write whatsoever. We do represent the voice of the newspaper.
RM: You’ve announced that there will be a Community Advisory Board to help guide the opinions pages. What’s its status?
Stallsmith: I’m in the process of putting that together. We should have that formed and announced this summer. It’s not going to be a huge group. It’ll probably be about a dozen or so.
RM: What are your priorities for the board?
Stallsmith: We want to see people who represent the cross-section of the Richmond region. We want to see people who come from all the different neighborhoods, all the different constituencies. We want it to be geographically diverse, intellectually diverse, socioeconomically diverse, and we want this board to help inform us about what we’re covering, what we’re not covering, what are the community issues that are important to them. And it’s not going to consist of “leaders,” so to speak. We want it to be citizens.
RM: I wanted to ask specifically about diversity in age. Have you thought about having a board member who’s a teenager?
Stallsmith: Absolutely. We don’t want it to be the same people we always hear from. And when I say “diversity,” we want it to be age, gender, background, the whole gamut. Because what we pride ourselves on in the Times-Dispatch opinions pages is having that diversity of thought, and that diversity of thought comes from people of all backgrounds.
RM: Can you walk me through the editorial writing and selection process?
Stallsmith: Some issues, we’ll just write about that day, and some will take time. We want to be informed. We’re not going to react in a knee-jerk fashion. One of the luxuries of being an opinions writer is that you have time to react. You have time to think through an issue, because we’re not just reporting it. Our editorials, of course, do incorporate reporting. We talk to people. We structure our arguments about why we support something or why we have the view that we do, or why we don’t, and that is developed through research, through talking to people.
The Times-Dispatch had a survey last year. There were about a dozen issues [that people named] facing the Richmond community. Those issues include education, transportation, the environment, unity in the community. We have those issues, plus we’re also responding to the news of the day.
When Richmond City Council was considering its budget, we didn’t just come out with an editorial. We spent time talking to council members, we spoke to people in the community, we spoke to educators, we went to the town halls, so we were informed.
RM: How much do you interact with reporters, for instance Mark Robinson, who covers City Council?
Stallsmith: We’ll see him at meetings and we’ll talk, or if I need to fact-check something, like, “Was that $49 million or $51 million?” But our lanes are parallel, so he doesn’t know what I’m working on, and I don’t know what he’s working on.
RM: Do you find that people understand the separation of news and opinion?
Stallsmith: News reporters write about the news, and we’re offering opinions. ... We’re all part of the same newspaper, but there is still that separation.
RM: Concerning the decision last November not to endorse politicians, which was made before you came on board, how does the paper remain relevant in elections?
Stallsmith: We will interview candidates, we will discuss their stands. We can inform our readers, but we won’t tell them what to do.
RM: Do you feel like you have institutional support, because obviously newspapers nationwide are shrinking?
Stallsmith: Yes, we do have the support. Just the fact that we are hiring somebody else [and] we are going to have three full-time writers and an editorial assistant. The newspaper is committed to the opinion pages and recognizes they’re important to the community and to the national debate.
RM: Have you had any interesting reactions, whether positive or negative, to your being the first woman to lead the opinion pages?
Stallsmith: The response to my appointment as editor has been overwhelmingly positive from my friends, from colleagues, from people I’ve covered over the years. I personally don’t focus on the fact that I’m the first woman. To me, it’s just a historical fact. I don’t define myself as the first woman opinions editor. I recognize that I am, and I’m sure I bring a different perspective, but everyone brings their own unique perspective.
RM: Is the history of this position on your mind, including the newspaper’s support of Massive Resistance and other views?
Stallsmith: I’ve been a longtime reader, and I’m certainly aware of the history. The paper in the past has apologized for past stances, and we’re in a different time. Those aren’t our views anymore.
RM: Looking ahead, do you have any thoughts on the evolution of the opinion pages and how to make them relevant to younger readers or anyone who’s underrepresented?
Stallsmith: We want to be indispensable. Attracting younger readers is a top priority for us. We have a lot of loyal, longtime readers, but we also want to attract new readers. We still have our paper product, but we also have a big digital footprint. We want to write about issues that people care about. Not everything we write about is serious, because we want to have that blend, too.
We will certainly leverage the Public Square platform to advance those issues that community members care about.
RM: There was a cartoon run last year that people were angry about for mocking immigrants, and there was an editorial about mainstreaming autistic children in schools that people objected to. You want to take on hot-button issues but do so in an informed way. What are your thoughts on this?
Stallsmith: Well, those issues happened before I got here, so I can’t speak to those. What I can speak about is what we’re doing now. What we’re focused on now is addressing those community issues that people have indicated through our polling and their feedback that they’re interested in: education, transportation, the economy, the budget. That’s what people want to know about.
RM: How do you balance between local issues and national issues? I noticed there was an editorial about Venezuela this spring. It’s not an obviously local issue.
Stallsmith: Venezuela, for instance, is in our hemisphere, but Virginia has its naval base and our proximity to Washington. We’re not so parochial that we don’t stick our head out of the RVA boroughs. We do want our editorials to be relevant, and also the members of our congressional delegation have been involved in that issue as well. We want to make sure that if we’re writing about national issues or international issues that it has a tieback to Virginia.
RM: Are there broader themes that you expect to follow this year, like maybe the attitude of the country? It’s very polarized.
Stallsmith: Our focus is on the community and what we can do to make the community better. A way we can do that is to inform our citizens and engage our citizens.
RM: What’s the most effective way for you to hold elected officials accountable?
Stallsmith: I think the most effective way is by the proverbial shining a light on their activities. We do that by writing editorials about the importance of sunshine laws and accountability. We put a spotlight on activities.