Mike McLean, deputy editor of the  Journal of Business, has retired from a 37-year career in journalism in the Inland Northwest. 

McLean, 65, started out his career at a North Idaho weekly newspaper called The Priest River Times, followed by a stint at the Daily Bee in Bonner County. In 1993, he joined the Coeur d’Alene Press, starting as a beat writer in environment, natural resources, and courts and cops. He was then promoted to the paper’s outdoors editor and general assignment reporter, where he managed award-winning reporting projects in complex cultural, legal, and social issues.   

By the time McLean joined the Journal in 2005, he had won over 40 awards in journalism, including a national award for his coverage of the 1992 Ruby Ridge standoff between the FBI and a small group led by white separatist Randy Weaver in North Idaho. During his time at the Journal, McLean reported on a wide range of stories from real estate and construction to finance, architecture, and education, all through the lens of a business beat. 

McLean was born in Bozeman, Montana, and grew up in Seattle. After a couple of years at the University of Washington, he transferred to Washington State University, from which he received a degree in communications with a focus on journalism and made the Inland Northwest his home. 

The Journal sat down with McLean on his last day to talk about his career, advice, and his plans for retirement. 

Did you always know you wanted to go into journalism?

No, not really. I actually started delivering the Seattle Times when I was 12, and I think reading the paper I was delivering subconsciously taught me how to write a lede. That was during the time of Watergate, and there was the Patty Hearst kidnapping, and the Sunshine Mine disaster.

But my grandparents were always saying I should be a writer. They lived in Montana, and I used to write them letters. Some of the letters had fishing stories in them, and they always thought early on that I should be a writer. 

How many different beats did you cover in your career? 

There was a time when I had five beats simultaneously at the Coeur d’Alene Press. When I started at the Priest River Times, we did everything. For my childhood friend Bill Buley (current city editor at the Coeur d’Alene Press) and me, it was our first job. We didn’t really know what we were doing, and the paper was in really bad shape. But we were both photographers and knew we could make it look better. 

I know reporting on Ruby Ridge was a competitive environment. Can you tell me about that coverage? 

That happened when I was 32, early in my career, and I knew while it was happening that it was probably going to be the biggest story I’d ever have. There was national and international coverage on it, so there were hundreds of journalists there. I just considered it was in my backyard, so I had to work harder not to write the same story everybody else was writing. 

The Spokesman did a really good job. They sent, like, 11 people up there and rented an entire motel for their employees. For me, there were days where I was the only one from my company covering it. So I felt like I had to do more. I was just driven to work it harder. Sometimes it paid off, and sometimes it didn’t. 

Did that end up being the biggest story of your career? 

As far as national and international implications are concerned. But I remember telling my daughter this story that I wrote once about a person who was put in jail because she had some kind of psychotic episode. That story was used down in the Idaho Legislature, and they changed the law so that you wouldn’t automatically be thrown in jail.  They would first try to get you into a hospital if you had a psychotic episode.

My daughter had worked really hard at something and didn’t win a prize, so I was just explaining how some stories are important even though you don’t win prizes or anything for them. 

How has the industry changed during your 37 years? 

It’s changed a lot. I do have some concerns about the future of journalism, because I always thought this country was based on, the truth wins, even going back to self-evident truths. I always thought that’s what this country is based on, but now, I think it’s overplayed that everybody has their own truth. I think it's fine that everybody has their own perspective, but I think truth comes from shared perspectives, and if we’re kept divided and the truth is lost, then I’m worried not only about journalism, but about the country. 

I try to balance that with hope. Because our system was built to be flexible and become more perfect, and I just have hope that’s going to happen. 

How was it coming to the Journal?

Coming here to the Journal changed things for me. It’s a whole different system from working for a daily newspaper. When I was working in Coeur d’Alene, it was long hours, and I was commuting every day. So when I came here, that really made a big difference with my family, you know, being able to come home for dinner. It was good for the whole family to have this opportunity. 

Do you have any favorite stories from working at the Journal?

I’ve always been competitive, so if I had a story that somebody else would pick up, those are some of my favorites. We did a story about Costco moving north of the city, where they are now. We included information on what it meant for sales tax implications for the city, which was losing a share of the sales tax, and the county was gaining it. 

When the first Amazon building was built here, that was really big because we caught wind of that before the next issue came out. So we were holding onto it for two weeks, hoping nobody else would get it, and putting the story together without tipping off other media. That was a pretty big one.  

What advice do you have for anybody going into journalism? 

Write tight. You can say a lot with short words. I always try to be economical with the words that I use.

What do you hope to do in retirement? 

I’ve been telling everybody that I’m going to dress more like Jimmy Buffett, shave more like Billy Gibbons, and learn some Chuck Berry on guitar. And of course, I’m really hoping there’ll be a lot more fishing. 

Throughout my career, Lori, my wife, has really sacrificed a lot, because for a lot of the time we were raising the kids, we were living on one journalist's salary, which is really tough. Also, her family helped out and enabled us to be homeowners. I think if we didn’t own our home, I wouldn’t be able to retire.

So, I think I need to take time to pay it back. Lori’s parents are getting older, and I think we’ll be able to pay them back with some help.