Many daily community newspapers, like The Herald Bulletin, have a significant amount of employee turnover in the newsroom. This can be particularly true among news reporters.
Reporters often have the psychological makeup to change jobs frequently, moving to different parts of the country or trying a different beat at a different paper for variety and experience. Some leave for jobs that pay more at other papers. Some get out of the professional altogether and into professions that pay more or better suit their lifestyle.
The Herald Bulletin has had a significant amount of turnover among reporters during my three years as editor of the paper. In fact, only one of the news reporters we had in 2007 is still working at The Herald Bulletin — and he’s taken on additional responsibilities.
Some of the reporters who’ve left have been difficult to replace because they have the qualities that make a really good newspaper journalist — integrity, a strong work ethic, writing ability and reporting skills.
I’m very proud of the reporting staff we’ve built now and the high level of their professionalism and performance. Two of these reporters have been added to our staff in the past year, and we’ve moved reporters around to different beats to match their skills, knowledge and experiences to various subject matters.
Here’s a summary of the beats of our current news reporting staff:
- Justin Schneider reports on breaking news that happens in the early morning and manages the content on our website. Justin also helps cover county government. He can be reached at 640-4809 or justin.schneider@herald bulletin.com.
- Brandi Watters covers education across our coverage area and also reports on government in the Pendleton area. Up until recently, Brandi covered county government and communities in Madison County. She can be reached at 640-4847 or brandi.watters@heraldbulletin.com .
- Dave Stafford covers the City of Anderson after reporting on education and the Pendleton area previously. Dave can be reached at 648-4250 or dave.stafford@heraldbulletin.com.
- Christina Wright covers public safety — fire, cops and courts. She can be reached at 640-4883 or Christina.wright@heraldbulletin.com.
- Abbey Doyle covers business and communities in and around Madison County. She can be reached at abbey.doyle@heraldbulletin.com or 640-4805.
While each of the news reporters has his/her own beat, each of them routinely writes articles about subject matter that falls between beats or fits into another reporter’s beat description. We have to shift personnel around to cover the news as it happens.
In addition to our news reporters, many other members of our staff — features and sports writers, as well as editors — also write news stories for the print edition of the newspaper and our website. And we have a set of local correspondents who contribute to our news report, as well.
If you have a story idea, please contact one of our reporters. About half the stories we publish were suggested by people outside of our newsroom. We don’t follow through on some readers’ ideas, but most of the ideas we receive give us insight into our readers’ interests and can influence our decisions about how to use our reporting resources.
Editor Scott Underwood’s column appears Mondays. Contact him at scott.underwood@heraldbulletin.com or 640-4845.
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