Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

L.A. Times and U-T stars take bow

Osborne, Perry accept buyouts, finish careers at the papers

One of San Diego's most trustworthy and knowledgeable reporters and a man considered by many to be the voice of reason on the Union-Tribune’s editorial board are taking buyouts offered by Tribune Publishing, owner of the papers.

L.A. Times reporter Tony Perry and U-T editorial writer William Osborne have accepted exit packages.

"They know so much more than what's in the clip files and the comfort they have with San Diego facts and history give them so much more perspective," said Tim McClain, a business journalist and entrepreneur who now works for county supervisor Ron Roberts. "I want to thank them for all their great word-smithing and for all they've done to contribute to and insist on informed public discourse."

Perry's last day is Wednesday (November 25), he said in a telephone interview from his North County home. He has worked for newspapers for 44 years, the last 28 for the Times and 8 years for the Union-Tribune before that.

Sponsored
Sponsored

"In 1971, I was writing a graduate thesis on Shakespeare's The Tempest and I thought I'd give a newspaper job a try," Perry said. "I never got back to The Tempest.”

Perry, 68, is a familiar figure in the journalism community, doing radio, PBS news shows, and his regular Times stories. He wrote about San Diego from a regional perspective — an out-of- towner's view written by a real insider.

Perry covered zoo animals and wildfires — including being on the Times team that won a 2004 Pulitzer Prize for covering the 2003 Southern California wildfires. When he wrote about the water wars in 1995, Perry found “the poet of Imperial Valley," rancher Rick Mealey, to write the lede around.

"He's a reporter's reporter," said Rick Rogers, a former U-T reporter who covered the Marines alongside Perry. "He is deeply respected by fellow journalists, and he is also respected and trusted by the Marines and the people he covered."

After the September 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S., Perry embedded with the Marines and went to Afghanistan seven times and to Iraq seven times for long stints reporting on the wars.

"I consider it a privilege that I was able to report on them," he said. "It's not about us. It's their story. I wanted their story heard."

He was deeply affected by what he saw.

"I wanted my readers to listen to these young men and women's voices and to know what kind of people we are sending out to fight for us," Perry said.

He remembers a 19-year-old from Texas — Aaron Austin — who told him "There's no place I'd rather be than here with my Marines." The next day, he died in the battle of Fallujah, Perry said.

Rogers, now the editor of Best Self San Diego, and other reporters (including me) think of Perry as the professor emeritus of San Diego journalism. He could be counted on to help his colleagues and competitors; and more than a few of us enjoyed a free meal from Tony.

"He was a jack of all trades," Rogers said. "Everything he did, he was good at — he was good at radio, he was good on television, he was good at interviewing, he was good at sourcing….

"It really is the end of an era for San Diego and for military journalism," Rogers said. "This is a tough beat; it takes time to develop the kind of trust and respect that Tony did and very few people can put as much of themselves into it the way Tony did."

Perry isn't mourning. His wife, Ann, has him preparing for his next projects, including freelance work and beginning a book he has long wanted to write on two Marine Corps legends. With a year's severance pay, he can afford to relax, he said.

"I've had a great career," Perry said. "For a decade, I had a slice of the biggest story in the world and I wrote about it for a first-class newspaper. I'm not the oldest continuously active byline in San Diego, but I'm close."

(corrected 11/24, 10:35 a.m.)

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Summit Fellowship wants to be a home of belonging

Unitarian Universalism allows you to be exactly who you are in the moment

One of San Diego's most trustworthy and knowledgeable reporters and a man considered by many to be the voice of reason on the Union-Tribune’s editorial board are taking buyouts offered by Tribune Publishing, owner of the papers.

L.A. Times reporter Tony Perry and U-T editorial writer William Osborne have accepted exit packages.

"They know so much more than what's in the clip files and the comfort they have with San Diego facts and history give them so much more perspective," said Tim McClain, a business journalist and entrepreneur who now works for county supervisor Ron Roberts. "I want to thank them for all their great word-smithing and for all they've done to contribute to and insist on informed public discourse."

Perry's last day is Wednesday (November 25), he said in a telephone interview from his North County home. He has worked for newspapers for 44 years, the last 28 for the Times and 8 years for the Union-Tribune before that.

Sponsored
Sponsored

"In 1971, I was writing a graduate thesis on Shakespeare's The Tempest and I thought I'd give a newspaper job a try," Perry said. "I never got back to The Tempest.”

Perry, 68, is a familiar figure in the journalism community, doing radio, PBS news shows, and his regular Times stories. He wrote about San Diego from a regional perspective — an out-of- towner's view written by a real insider.

Perry covered zoo animals and wildfires — including being on the Times team that won a 2004 Pulitzer Prize for covering the 2003 Southern California wildfires. When he wrote about the water wars in 1995, Perry found “the poet of Imperial Valley," rancher Rick Mealey, to write the lede around.

"He's a reporter's reporter," said Rick Rogers, a former U-T reporter who covered the Marines alongside Perry. "He is deeply respected by fellow journalists, and he is also respected and trusted by the Marines and the people he covered."

After the September 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S., Perry embedded with the Marines and went to Afghanistan seven times and to Iraq seven times for long stints reporting on the wars.

"I consider it a privilege that I was able to report on them," he said. "It's not about us. It's their story. I wanted their story heard."

He was deeply affected by what he saw.

"I wanted my readers to listen to these young men and women's voices and to know what kind of people we are sending out to fight for us," Perry said.

He remembers a 19-year-old from Texas — Aaron Austin — who told him "There's no place I'd rather be than here with my Marines." The next day, he died in the battle of Fallujah, Perry said.

Rogers, now the editor of Best Self San Diego, and other reporters (including me) think of Perry as the professor emeritus of San Diego journalism. He could be counted on to help his colleagues and competitors; and more than a few of us enjoyed a free meal from Tony.

"He was a jack of all trades," Rogers said. "Everything he did, he was good at — he was good at radio, he was good on television, he was good at interviewing, he was good at sourcing….

"It really is the end of an era for San Diego and for military journalism," Rogers said. "This is a tough beat; it takes time to develop the kind of trust and respect that Tony did and very few people can put as much of themselves into it the way Tony did."

Perry isn't mourning. His wife, Ann, has him preparing for his next projects, including freelance work and beginning a book he has long wanted to write on two Marine Corps legends. With a year's severance pay, he can afford to relax, he said.

"I've had a great career," Perry said. "For a decade, I had a slice of the biggest story in the world and I wrote about it for a first-class newspaper. I'm not the oldest continuously active byline in San Diego, but I'm close."

(corrected 11/24, 10:35 a.m.)

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Croome Brothers Trio, Jack Tempchin, Ricky, Swami & the Bed Of Nails, Kahlil Nash

Acoustic and electric in Del Mar, La Jolla, Little Italy, and City Heights
Next Article

2024 continues to impress with yellowfin much closer to San Diego than they should be

New rockfish regulations coming this week as opener approaches
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.