20 Under 40 - 1998 Profile: India Leigh Miller

PRESSTIME

By Presstime Magazine

First Published: December 1998

When India Leigh Miller entered a high-school English classroom as student teacher, she expected a "Dead Poet's Society" experience. She did not get it. The kids couldn't have cared less about the literature she loved.
Only 21, she didn't return the second day. "I knew it wasn't what I wanted," Miller says now. Her goal had been to teach high-school English and write fiction. She decided to move writing to the top of her list—though newspapers were at the bottom.
"But I was offered a job at a newspaper, and when I realized I could write every day and get paid for it, I decided to go for that. In the first few days, I fell in love. I get to make a difference in people's lives. The pace is nonstop, demanding."
Miller's ascent at the Times-Georgian in Carrollton, Ga., was swift. She came to the daily after working at weeklies. For two years she was a health and lifestyles reporter, but in June 1997, she jumped to features editor.
She still wrote a story each day and, after teaching herself QuarkXPress, she also designed and laid out the features section. Six months later, management tapped her as news editor. In that job she designed and laid out the 10- to 12-page A section each day, assigned and edited stories and coached reporters .
In November, Miller took on a new job, that of city editor of the Clayton News Daily in Jonesboro, Ga. In this position, she will concentrate on developing reporters as writers.
Miller says that she has had what amounted to a "crash course in editing"—the "most grueling experience" of her life—but "it was exciting to know that I can just jump in and handle things."
Chris Joyner, managing editor of The Villa Rica in Villa Rica, Ga., which like the Times-Georgian is owned by the Paxton Media Group Inc. in Paducah, Ky., says, "Her rise through the initial rungs of her career ladder are through sheer force of will."
Miller doesn't expect to get rich, which is probably a good thing. "You don't make a lot of money at a community newspaper. But then, I wouldn't trade my job for another with a higher salary that I didn't find as exciting."
Still, she would like to see managers who control the purse strings "value news more, value people more and not just worry about how much money the newspaper can make."

Education: 1993, B.A., English; 1994, graduate studies, secondary English education, Huntingdon College, Montgomery, Ala.
Career: 1994-95, reporter, The Henry Neighbor and The South Fulton Neighbor weeklies in Georgia; 1995-1998 reporter, features editor, news editor, Times-Georgian, Carrollton, Ga.; 1998-Present, city editor, Clayton News Daily, Jonesboro, Ga.
Personal: Age, 26. Born, Biloxi, Miss. Single.
Diversions: Creative writing.
Connections: Clayton News Daily, 136 Church St. Box 368, Jonesboro,Ga.30237;phone,(770)478-5753;fax, (770) 473-9032.