Clay Bailey was looking at retirement. Then, a new opportunity came his way at the Daily Memphian.

“The Daily Memphian definitely extended my career,” says Bailey.

Bailey’s newspaper career spans back to his days at the University of Memphis (then Memphis State). Bailey played baseball in high school, but knew he was not good enough to play in college. He enjoyed writing and was good at it, so he decided to answer an ad in the University’s college newspaper, the Daily Helmsman, to become a sports reporter. Bailey covered baseball and worked in the Sports Information Office. His first job out of college was at Jackson Daily Newsin Jackson, Mississippi as a sports writer, except he did not end up covering sports.

“I graduated on a Saturday, but wanted to stay in Memphis for a couple of days longer,” recalls Bailey. “I got to Jackson and they told me to report to the metro desk. It turns out there was a baseball game that Sunday after graduation and another reporter they hired ended up covering it. So he got sports and I got news.”

Bailey covered the city of Jackson, cops and the Lynyrd Skynyrd plane crash. He spent 18 months in Jackson before moving to Little Rock, Arkansas to work for the Democrat which at the time was in a newspaper war with the Gazette to become the state’s largest newspaper. In 1980, Bailey moved back to Memphis to work for the Memphis Press-Scimitar. In 1983 when the Press-Scimitar ceased operation, Bailey walked down stairs to work for the Commercial Appeal.

In July of 2018, after 35 years at the Commercial Appeal, Bailey left to become the News Editor and now the Sports Editor of Memphis’ new daily digital newspaper. He joined CA veterans Otis Sanford, Geoff Calkins, Chris Herrington, Jennifer Biggs and others in an exodus four years after Gannett, the owner of many newspapers including the Tennessean in Nashville, the Knoxville News Sentinel in Knoxville and USA Today, bought the paper that used to be Memphis’ primary source of news.

“The CA lost its way,” says Bailey. “Gannett’s Tennessee Network approach wasn’t working for Memphis. I saw a John Adams (of the Knoxville News Sentinel) story on the UT Vols on the front page of the CA. If a Geoff Calkins article appeared on the front page in Knoxville, they would burn the place down. It was a tone deaf approach to the city.”

According to Bailey, the purpose of the Daily Memphian is to provide readers of the city the news of Memphis and Shelby County. The paper is focused on sports, business, food, government and politics.

“We do not cover the crime of the day,” says Bailey. “We cover a major crime or crime trends and stats, but we aren’t the crime blotter.”

The Daily Memphian is only available in digital formats, and Bailey says that is where journalism is headed.

“Your paper isn’t lying in a puddle. You don’t have to put on your shoes and robe and go out in the cold and get it. You can roll over in your bed and read it on your phone or you can read it at the table with your coffee and your tablet,” says Bailey. “And if you want a print copy, you can hit the print button.”

The Daily Memphian is still coming into its own in the Memphis community. It recently added obituaries and will soon launch an app for mobile devices. As far as the reporting is concerned, readers can trust their reporters will cover the gray area, but will not be out in the extreme on any issue.

“I hope readers trust my sources, accurate quotes and fair reporting,” says Bailey.

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