Bridgewater State was the perfect school for me. It was the right size. ...There were times that I struggled, but then I found my place at the Hard Times Press and felt that I belong here.
Joe Burns, ’75, traces his career in journalism back to a story about a jazz concert he wrote for the Hard Times Press, an alternative newspaper at Bridgewater State that competed with the more established Campus Comment.
As a rock-and-roll fan, Burns knew little about jazz, and he had minimal experience writing news articles. But his editors at the Bridgewater State newspaper saw a budding reporter in the sophomore from Worcester.
“Bridgewater State was the perfect school for me,” said Burns, who started out studying biology, switched to education and graduated as an English major. “It was the right size. ...There were times that I struggled, but then I found my place at the Hard Times Press and felt that I belong here.”
Today, Burns is a freelance writer specializing in health care. He covers the health reform and insurance beat for the Association of Health Care Journalists and has written for many newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times and Hartford Courant.
But the Hard Times Press is where it all began.
“I remember thinking that sounds interesting,” Burns said of joining the newspaper, which published at Bridgewater State in the 1970s. “They were the most interesting people I met at school. They were smart, they were funny, they were very engaged in what happened.”
As a junior, he became the paper’s editor, a position that required handling all facets of publishing a newspaper. The Press maintained a friendly rivalry with the Campus Comment, which continues to this day providing BSU student-journalists with hands-on experience.
Burns also appreciated his English classes, including a course on the nuts-and-bolts of journalism. He still follows the advice of English professor Charles Fanning.
“He said that you can’t revise a blank page,” Burns recalled. “That’s so true about journalism. You’ve got to get something down on paper and revise and revise.”
After graduating, Burns worked for weekly and daily newspapers in Connecticut before eventually becoming editor-in-chief of the magazine Business & Health, which served employers who manage health care benefits. His work for the Association of Health Care Journalists helps reporters make sense of complex topics that they will cover.
“I was hooked on health care because it is just a fabulous beat,” he said. “It’s so rich and detailed and it’s very consumer oriented. You’re writing to help people.”
It’s an important and meaningful job rooted in Burns’ Bridgewater State experience.
“Bridgewater had a big, big impact on my life,” he said. “I have a soft spot in my heart for Bridgewater. It gave me a great start to a great career.”
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