Stories from behind the headlines

This blog is all about the “inside story” or the “story behind the headlines.” I always have been as fascinated by the people who put out the news as much as by the news itself. Besides telling the stories I know, I also hope to call on the experiences of other newspaper men and women.

Two of those people are the husband-and-wife team of Thomas “Tom” Taylor III and Sandra Baxley Taylor.

Tom, a former Press Register executive editor, retired in 1994. In June 2000, the Press Club of Mobile honored Taylor for his many contributions to the newspaper profession and Mobile community. Sandy is a former Press Register reporter and editor and also is the author of several books.

Tom and Sandy each wrote a column for The Mobile Press Register as part of its 200th anniversary series titled “We Were There.”

In “Mobile had its share of sensational murders through the decades,” Tom recalled some widely followed murders, including that of

newspaperman Arch McKay.

In “Newsrooms, news coverage change but the power of words will always reign,” Sandy recalls the newsrooms of the 1970s and ’80s and some of the colorful characters who worked in them.

Take a moment to read their stories and you will get a better sense of what is was like to work on the Press Register and report on some of the most important stories in Mobile’s history.