Charles Apple

Here’s wishing the happiest of VizEds birthdays to Jonathan Kleinow of The Kansas City Star. Jonathan turns 24 today.

Jonathan has been at the Star just over a year. He’s a 2006 graduate of Webster University in St. Louis. (School fight song: “Whatchoo Talkin’ ’bout, Willis?“) Jonathan was editor-in-chief of his school paper, The Journal.

In addition, Jonathan got married late last year. Dec. 21, as a matter of fact. Here’s a nice photo of Jonathan and Natalie that I stole from his Facebook gallery:

See the little kid on the left? That’s Jonathan and Natalie’s son, Michael. He’s probably four now.

What? How can a 24-year old recent graduate, starting only his second year as a designer, have a four-year old son?

Hey, that’s just a start. They also have a daughter who should be one year old now.

Jonathan wrote about it on the Poynter web site last summer, after he graduated but before he started at The Star:

When I look at job openings and consider applying, the first thing I do is search the Internet to see if there’s a three-bedroom house at a price I can afford. One bedroom for my wife Natalie and me, one bedroom for our 3-year-old son Michael, and one for our daughter, who is due next month.

Before you cock your head and lecture me for doing this the wrong way, know that I realize I’ve gone about this thing called life in a backwards fashion. At 22, I have a wife, two kids (almost), but not a job. But the hospital won’t take Michael back, even though we saved all the paperwork.

I’m well aware that college-track kids aren’t supposed to become fathers at 18. But I made it through high school, into college and onto the dean’s list. I graduated with honors and made it into this fellowship. Natalie is finishing her political science degree and works long hours at Costco folding clothes and greeting customers. And now I’m going to start my career, in a low-paying field with awful hours and a reputation for sparking divorces and breaking up families.

…I try to work in the fact that I have a family when I interview at papers. Part of me fears that employers will see it as a liability - that the new kid, fresh out of college, will ask for holidays off and other special dispensations when he hasn’t earned them. But it could be an asset, as well. Once I land my first job, I don’t want to uproot my family for a bigger or better paper as soon as the opportunity arises. They deserve some stability. I know that some workers without families mutter under their breath about the demands placed upon them by their co-workers with awkward schedules that orbit their family life instead of the newspaper.

But I know what my priorities will be, what they have to be. And I know that, more than anything else, I have to make sure my kids know that they are my first priority.

Nick Lucchesi of The Telegraph of Alton, Ill. posted this comment to Jonathan’s essay:

What a thing to read at 10 p.m. when my shift is over after two meetings in a night. Your kids will be great — and hopefully adopt your snappy sense of style.

I agree with Nick. What you’re doing isn’t easy. Hell, I’ve struggled with one daughter that I had at age 31.

You’ve got guts, kid. You’ve got guts.

I asked the Star’s Charles Gooch for a quote about Jonathan. The Gooch-meister responded:

What kind of quote? I could go really inside or I could go really sarcastic …

I’m looking right at him and think it might be better to do a bit of both:

“He’ll be a really good designer … some day.”

Here are a few examples of the work Jonathan has done at the Star:

See more samples in Jonathan’s NewsPageDesigner portfolio.

Jonathan shares a birthday with Bill Gaspard of The Las Vegas Sun, Actors Sam Waterston and Ed Asner, artist Georgia O’Keeffe, Judge Joseph Wapner, the original star of The People’s Court, and recording artists Petula Clark and Bill Fries, better known as “C.W. McCall,” the guy who recorded that C.B. radio song way back in 1975 or so.

In addition, today is National Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day. Seriously.

Best wishes, Jonathan, for a happy 24th birthday!

And lucky for you, the traditional gift for your first anniversary is paper. Take her a bundle of papers, dude!

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 15th, 2007 at 9:31 am and is filed under Getting a life, Happy birthday, News design, VizEds Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.