It’s now been six months since I took on the position of regional editor for the Black Press Prairie Division. I’m still the editor of Ponoka News and the Bashaw Star, I’ve just taken on additional responsibilities.
I’ve enjoyed mentoring and training new team members, coordinating coverage and providing support for our other community papers’ editorial staff. It’s definitely been a learning curve.
One of my favourite parts of the job has been getting to know my co-workers better. Though physical distance separates us, we’ve been working more collaboratively than ever to bring reliable, local news stories to our communities.
Each and every one of them are dedicated, hard working and passionate about telling the stories that matter to their readers. They’re all good at their jobs, but beyond that, they’re smart, funny, talented, adventurous and unique individuals with lives and hobbies beyond their newsrooms — journalists are people too!
I’ve enjoyed the opportunity to have more conversations with them and learning more about them during our chats and as they share tidbits about themselves with readers through their opinion columns.
Soft-spoken Reeti is a bit of a thrill seeker and likes to go sky diving and considered a career as a race car driver. She’s thoughtful and methodical and puts great care into her work.
Shaela was a lifeguard for seven years before swapping a whistle for a notebook and pen, and is no wallflower; she’ll stand her ground. She’s passionate about issues and isn’t afraid to take on hard stories.
Kevin was an EMT, is an advocate for mental health and is currently working through online post secondary courses. He’s got a twisted sense of humour and a knack for covering municipal councils — or any other community news story.
Christi has a whole other life outside of work, filled with holding down pigs to trim their hooves and the struggles of getting a seven-year-old boy to clean his room. She puts out content in record time and keeps the rest of the team smiling with her upbeat, quirky attitude.
The COVID-19 pandemic hit businesses hard and Black Press was no exception. However, strong leadership and innovative solutions have carried us through.
We’ve got a good team — all of us are dealing with positions that carry more responsibility than they used to and some of us are still pretty new, but we’re a good team.
However, like all regular mortals, we aren’t perfect. Just please remember that we’re doing our best, we believe in what we do, and we’re people too.