Interview with Karen Mathis

Decades in the Making

Karen Mathis is the Editor at Large for The Jacksonville Daily Record. Her journalism experience spans time and news organizations. She put in the man-hours, working for the Florida Times-Union, Bailey Publishing and Communications, and The Jacksonville Daily Record (formerly the Financial News and Daily Record).

With every article, Mathis showcases her talent for research, knowing what matters, and conveying why. She has her finger on the pulse of opening dealerships and distribution centers. Her reporting covers public notices, permits, and city projects. If you spoke to her today, she could tell you about the progress of the Nocatee SoFresh restaurant, the proposal for a Carvana on New Kings Road, or which Southside office center properties are for sale.  

If I were so well-connected, established, and intelligent, I might lose interest in ordinary things. But Mathis is not like that. I get the impression that she consistently communicates with a sense of equality, esteem, kindness, and composure. I may have mistaken her manners for timidity. Observing further, I discovered her tenacity. She is polished, precise, and intentional. She knows exactly which comma is necessary and which heading will grab readers. 

I asked her how it all began and where she got her start. Mathis had journalism in her sights early on.

"I decided, when I was about 11 or 12, I was either going to go into drama or journalism," she said. "So I looked. I did my research. I was a library rat. I lived in mid-Missouri. Drama was either New York or Los Angeles. The best journalism school in the country is the University of Missouri School of Journalism. Two hours down the road, that made more sense."

So she pursued reporting and continued doing her research.

Covering the Jacksonville Beat

While I imagine the world of publishing, it's through rose-colored glasses of Hollywood glamour and daydreaming about hard-hitting journalism happening in fast-paced newsrooms of chain-smoking writers. Mathis’ portrayal was different. This wasn’t an Action News piece about City Council. I wasn’t getting the skinny on financing the Jags stadium or JEA incentives. This was the perspective of a professional who has spent decades observing Jacksonville evolve.

Mathis witnessed phase after phase of change. When the Matthews Bridge opened, there was a huge demand to live in Arlington. Arlington was the place to be. That shifted as roads were built and more places opened. The shopping epicenter moved from downtown to Regency Square Mall, to The Avenues, to St. Johns Town Center. In 2005, Town Center opened with the goal of bringing tourists to our city. It was redeveloped in 2007, 2014, and 2024. 

Downtown used to be for paper mills and shopping, she told me. She’s seen companies crumble, but also create space for entrepreneurs. She owns some priceless pieces of history—items she collected when businesses closed their doors. She keeps art that tells a story.

Five Counties of Interest

In interviews, I like to ask questions like "What about your work are you most passionate about?" and
What interests you?" I soon realized this was not the right approach. This reporter's interests are tied to facts. It’s not about whether she likes a topic. News exists; her opinion is external, tangential. If it matters to the city, it matters to Mathis.

She is invested in the well-being of the counties covered by the Daily Record: Duval, St. Johns, Baker, Nassau, and Clay. The publication covers city government, county government, regional government, the legal community, retailing, commercial development, healthcare, and anything that pertains to economic development.

"We focus a lot on Duval, because that's really the center of commerce," she said. The Daily Record includes development and redevelopment in places like Springfield, Riverside, Brooklyn, San Marco, and Northern St. Johns County.

Aim, Precision, & Accuracy

She described her research process and the type of data mining required to produce news. I learned about the countless hours - which do translate to passion, after all -  that go into good reporting.

"There is no one source or two sources. You have to know the websites to go to, when it comes to research. So we do a lot of original research in our publication." She trusts certain sites for fact-checking and knows what sources to avoid. She relies on The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Bloomberg and its affiliated sites, trade publications such as Nation's Restaurant News, and websites on restaurants, retail, and supply chain. 

She reminded me that we all need editors, no matter how good we are. I learned that journalism extends from accurate research to precise grammar and diction. 

"We always had editors. Everybody has to have an editor. Where we are now, we have two or three sets of eyes, at least. And some, in some of the major newspapers, you don't have that level anymore. You have one or two levels. We make sure that we have at least two layers. It doesn't matter how fine of a reporter you are or how skilled a writer you are."

More than Ordinary

I appreciated that she was down-to-earth. We talked about TV and how she is fascinated by script development. She likes cooking shows, like Chopped with Bobby Flay. We talked about Law & Order and Family Law. She didn't have much time for leisure writing or reading.

She grew up loving reading. One of her favorite books is A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. She enjoys Anne Rule and Stephen King. We talked about Cujo, Carrie, and creepy stories. Her husband, former Circuit Court Judge E. McRae Mathis, reads James Patterson.

She and her husband love parks. She mentioned how helpful it was for them to explore parks during the COVID-19 pandemic. They are proud parents of two boys. I asked about parenting with the demands of reporting. She described balancing work and raising children with relative ease. She recalled the happy times she spent on the field when the boys were young, coaching and keeping score for T-ball. 

I asked if she had a desire to write a book one day, to which she quickly responded, “No.” She doesn’t have a secret dream of becoming a novelist. I liked learning that, as academics often plan to write the great American novel in their free time or during retirement. I don't think she needs a book, as her North Florida narrative has already been printed in daily excerpts. 

Bylines Before Bots

Prior to the interview, I attended a presentation on the capacity of artificial intelligence. The presenters, two professors, boasted about an AI agent’s ability to quickly summarize data. They showcased this ability by having an AI agent summarize a 500-page report about Jacksonville's growth and challenges. Seconds later, we viewed a real-time result. It was fast, current, and impressive.

But Karen ‘newsed’ it better. Her pièce de résistance came in her portrait of 2023’s economic landscape. She summarized current needs and opportunities, unemployment, developing tech, housing demands, and booming real estate. "To keep growing, Jacksonville needs the infrastructure to support that growth,” she said. "There needs to be affordable housing." She highlighted the need to develop new talent, provide jobs for recent graduates, keep talent, and meet the demand for companies relocating to North Florida.

She quickly presented a snapshot of the five counties she covers without breaking a sweat or rebooting.