Mary Jo Pitzl has reported for the Arizona Republic for more than 40 years. Here's what stands out

Come Monday, the Arizona Republic will be losing some longtime voices.

Among those who recently took Gannett’s buyout is Mary Jo Pitzl, who’s been a reporter at the Republic for more than four decades. She’s covered everything from education to the environment to child safety to the state Capitol, among other beats.

When she came by KJZZ's studios to chat recently, she emphasized that it was her decision to step away — although she also said this isn’t really a retirement for her.

She also talked about what comes to mind for her when she thinks about her time at the paper.

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Full conversation

MARY JO PITZL: Oh, my goodness. I mean, so many things. And it'll probably hit me, you know, after, after I formally leave the paper in early September. But just the change, you know, how much has changed. I mean, I've worked in two different buildings. We've moved from one to another, and the newsroom's, I think, is going to be moving to a new location next year.

But, you know, I came onto a staff as a fresh out of college kiddo from Nebraska into this big staff. I was hired at a time of a lot of expansion of the newspaper, which opened up a lot of opportunities.

So my first beat was covering north Phoenix. You know, I remember writing about a big tree that was a gathering spot for young kids in Bruce Babbitt's neighborhood. Years later, I was in a courtroom, Bruce Babbitt's son — who remembered the tree all grown up — an attorney, he stopped me and said, I remember that story. ...

So that's one thing that strikes me, is that what you write, you just never know what's gonna stick with people. I mean, this was, you know, it was a little neighborhoody kind of story. But it made an impression on people, and it's nice to have that be recognized,

MARK BRODIE: I'm sure. Well, and you've done so many different things. I mean, you've been covering the Legislature and state a few times. You've done education, you've done a lot. Neighborhood stuff. So many different things.

How do you transition? How did you go from covering one thing to something totally different?

PITZL: Well, sometimes reluctantly. [LAUGHS] But I've really never had an assignment that I didn't fall in love with. And I still look very fondly like on the environment. That is just the greatest assignment to have because it's in this fantastic state. And I loved all the wildlife stuff, particularly. But my first week or two on the environment beat, the Rodeo–Chediski Fire went out.

I knew nothing about forest fires.

BRODIE: And that's the challenge, right? You get assigned to a new beat, and you may or may not know who to talk to. You might not even know, like, what's happening.

PITZL: Yeah. So you scramble, you know, I mean, we're, you know, we do get training. We are professionals. And so you just, you sort of jump in and you just. You scramble, and it's good.

Arizona Republic

BRODIE: You must have met, over the course of your career, some just truly fascinating ...

PITZL: People, of course, I guess, for bragging rights because I have been asked this over the years. You know, probably the most famous person I've ever interviewed was Mother Teresa. ... This was back when she was opening a convent up in northwestern New Mexico. And they flew myself and a photographer up there to write about it. And while there, guess who flew Mother Teresa up to northwestern New Mexico? Charlie Keating.

But, yeah, lots of people. You know, I mean, I spent a lot of time doing child welfare, like, in the last decade.

And those stories stick with me because they are intensely human and usually fraught with a lot of, you know, drama and emotion. And I keep in touch with some of the folks that I've reported on from that era.

BRODIE: Let me ask you about your time at the state Capitol, because you've had a few different stints there over the course of a few different decades. And I'm wondering, when you look at, for example, the way the Legislature works now and you think about it in sort of generations past, with different governors, different crops of lawmakers. What do you think are some of the biggest differences now to the way it had been in the past?

PITZL: Because I first went out to the Legislature after Fife Symington was elected governor. So that was 1991. So I wasn't there for the days that people talk about, like, "Oh, when we all, you know, we put our political differences aside." And, you know, Sandra Day O' Connor talked a lot about that from her time in the Legislature, but that was well before I got out there.

But I would say, if you look at it where we're at today, we are intensely — the Legislature is very partisan. The specter of bipartisanship is a hard one to conjure up on anything that's of great significance. It's made a difference having a divided government with, in this case, a Democrat in the governor's seat and a Republican Legislature. That has forced some compromise, which, you know, hopefully is for the betterment of Arizona.

But I would say that what struck me most is that the partisanship, and then things are just more locked down. And that's I mean, physically locked down. I mean, Mark, when you and I were out there at one time, we could walk down the halls.

BRODIE: Yeah, you could pretty much go anywhere.

PITZL: Yeah. Talk to the members. You can't do that now. And I understand that there's security concerns, but it makes it a little more difficult to get people to trust you because trust is built on interactions. And when your interaction is limited, and you're reduced to text messaging or leaving voice messages, it's harder to develop those kind of relationships where you might have a trusting relationship and to understand issues.

BRODIE: Yeah. When you got here from Nebraska, did you think you would still be here all these years later?

PITZL: Oh, goodness, no. It was my first job out of college from the University of Nebraska. And I thought, "Oh, I'll work here and then I'll get on with the Associated Press, and then I will get the AP to send me to their foreign desk. And then eventually, because I have these wonderful French language skills, I will be dispatched to some French-speaking foreign country."

And guess what? That never happened. I never intended to stay. But dang, this is a great state for news. There's just so much going on. The growth in this state, the environmental challenges, the time I spent with education, the politics, of course ... nationally known.

BRODIE: What do you think about when you — I mean, you've been at the Republic this whole time, which has obviously had some changes, especially over the last number of years here. How has sort of being there over the last, let's say, eight to 10 years been different than when you first got there?

PITZL: Oh, well, you know, we've seen a shrinking of the staff ... which is happening not just at the Arizona Republic, but, you know, especially at a lot of legacy mainstream newspapers, but also in the journalism realm writ large. So you've just learned to, you know, roll with it.

BRODIE: Do you think that shrinking will continue?

PITZL: It's really hard. Yeah, probably. I mean, I think it's somewhat inevitable while we try to learn other ways to get the news out and try to do it in a quick and meaningful way. But it does seem to be the way that we're going.

And I certainly hope that the Arizona Republic stays around for a long, long, long time. I'm a big walker in my neighborhood. I used to see a fair amount of driveways with newspapers. Mmm, very few.

BRODIE: Did you, when you saw those papers, would you put a little sticky note on them saying, "Your neighbor, check out page six. Your neighbor wrote that?"

PITZL: No, but I remember once being at the vet to pick up our cat. And there was a — she was in a kennel and there was a newspaper lining the floor. And it had my byline on it. [LAUGHS] ... Just a coincidence.

BRODIE: Oh, no.

PITZL: It was a very humbling moment to make you realize like, how temporary, you know, news is. We write it, people digest it, and you move on.

BRODIE: Yeah. Oh, my gosh. Do you have moments when you think back on your career that you are the most proud of or that really stand out to you? Like, that was really good. I'm really happy with that. I'm really glad I got to do that.

PITZL: Yeah. I think when I look back, I think covering the 1990 gubernatorial campaign —

BRODIE: With Symington and Terry Goddard.

PITZL: Yeah. Which was sort of epic because I had to go to a runoff, which had never happened before, has not happened since. So a lot of drama there. And then covering that, especially that first term of Symington. You know, a businessman who came into office who wound up having a lot of real estate problems at the same time.

I really look back, it was a very intense time for me. But I'm proud of the coverage that I did. And I'm proud of some of the work that we did with child welfare, trying to raise awareness about the challenges that the system has and that Arizona families have.

BRODIE: All right. That is Mary Jo Pitzl, longtime reporter with the Arizona Republic. Mary Jo, thank you so much for everything. We really appreciate it.

PITZL: Well, thanks for the conversation.