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Date: 9/20/2022
It’s been about a decade of work with Reminder Publishing and I now find myself in a position that is familiar and new all at the same time.
Recently, I began the transition from my previous role as the managing editor of Reminder Publishing’s Hampshire County bureau back to leading the team that covers the eastern portion of our Hampden County coverage. In a way, this is a homecoming as this is the coverage area in which I began my newswriting career. I have joked that I took a roundabout way to sit in a new cubicle.
This shift, of course, was set in motion because of the impending retirement of Executive Editor G. Michael Dobbs, which he publicly announced last week. For me, it’s hard to imagine The Reminder without Mike. It was Mike who took a chance on me when I was an out-of-work sports writer who hadn’t covered a news story since an editor at a paper that shall remain unnamed determined I looked young enough to be a college student and snuck me onto campus for student reaction after a tragedy closed the college (I got caught by campus police, by the way).
Mike’s guidance and tutelage has been invaluable to me. We have not always agreed on the approach to a story and certainly not politically, but those conversations have been critical to my growth and development as a journalist and later as an editor. And through everything, even disagreements, Mike has always had my back.
As his successor Payton North takes the reins, Reminder Publishing is, of course, in good hands. Having known her since her professional journey at the company began, I have enjoyed a strong working relationship with Payton. As Mike noted in his column last week, I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone with organizational skills or attention to detail as sharp and I feel confident in her clear vision of Reminder Publishing’s role in our communities.
As I’ve contemplated this move the past few months, I’ve come to appreciate how important this assignment is to me from both a personal and professional standpoint.
Personally, with the exception of a brief stint in Vermont for my first journalistic foray, I’ve spent my entire life in the area. I was born in Springfield and spend the majority of my childhood and early adulthood in Sixteen Acres in what is now the city’s Ward 5. I attended the now defunct Our Lady of the Sacred Heart School on Boston Road in Springfield and Wilbraham & Monson Academy before graduating from Minnechaug Regional High School in 2000.
My wife and I married in Holyoke and our first home was a small apartment in Ludlow off of Center Street near Hubbard Memorial Library. We purchased our first house in Springfield’s Pine Point neighborhood and renewed our investment in the city a few years later when we bought our current, long-term home in the Outer Belt. My wife is an educator in the Springfield Public Schools and our intention is to send our daughter to Springfield schools when the time comes.
Professionally, I’ve had the opportunity to see much of the growth, success, struggles and change of many of the communities here. For many years I specifically covered (and later edited) stories for East Longmeadow, Longmeadow, Hampden and Wilbraham.
I recorded the initial devastation from the June 1, 2011 tornado – including putting the paper together using two computers hooked up to a generator – and the resiliency of the communities as they rebounded and recovered. I was the primary reporter for former East Longmeadow Selectman Jack Villamaino’s attempt to commit voter registration fraud in his bid for state representative and subsequent prosecution. I witnessed substantial state and community investment in public education with the construction of the new Minnechaug Regional and Longmeadow high schools. The casino selection process and the surrounding community agreements – including Longmeadow’s lucrative deal and Hampden’s losing fight for designation – were the gift that kept on giving for a young newsman.
As time went on, my job duties shifted, including a change to managing the company’s four monthly magazines serving Springfield, Chicopee, Agawam and West Springfield, followed by more weekly coverage of communities west of the river. After a brief hiatus from news to dip my toes in the world of academia, I returned to journalism as the editor of the Longmeadow News and Enfield Press, which was then owned by the Westfield News Group. I continued in that role for a time after Reminder Publishing purchased the Westfield News Group until those papers were discontinued. After that, I was the primary editor for The Original Pennysaver and the Agawam/West Springfield edition of The Reminder before being charged with establishing our journalistic foothold in Hampshire County.
With all of that done, I’ve returned to whence I came, so speak. Having now shifted back from Hampshire County, I think it’s safe to say that few, if any, have the breadth of experience in covering as many Western Massachusetts communities as I, and I am thrilled to continue to be in a position to put that knowledge and institutional memory to good use.
Of course, things have changed a lot since my focus shifted away from this part of Hampden County. Heck, East Longmeadow still had a Board of Selectmen back then. Our territory has expanded greatly with our new Ludlow/Belchertown and Palmer/Monson/Ware editions. I’m somewhat familiar with some of these communities, but there’s a lot for me to learn and I’m excited to get to work. You’ll likely see more of me than you’d normally see an editor at first as I become acclimated to these new territories.
And, of course, as a Springfield resident, I have great pride in overseeing our newest papers that now serve the entire city. The fact that my 4-year-old was excited to see “daddy’s newspaper” in the driveway this week was indeed heartwarming, even if she was really just interested in the Big Y circular because she likes to help with the shopping.
What I’m most excited about is that I am able to continue to be a part of a community journalism movement that is unlike others in this region – one that has expanded in spite of the coronavirus pandemic and is bringing an unparalleled level of service and local coverage. Reminder Publishing is blessed to have an extremely talented team that boasts a mix of experience and youthful potential, as well as a leadership group with its eyes on the future.
Glad to be back. Time to get to work.