If you saw last week’s issue of both The News and The Local, you saw our big news. After decades, the newspapers have been sold.

Now those who know me well know that I struggle with change ... heck, I think most of us do. My stomach has been in knots these last few weeks with this transition facing me. And part of the reason it has been in knots is that word ... ‘me’.

With the sale, my longtime support staff will change; the people I have relied on every week to help me get these newspapers out. You may know them:

In the office, Bobbi Turner, Kate Klein and Marge Garrison have been invaluable. I can’t tell you how often I get emails or calls about subscriptions, ads, obituaries, legals and the like. I always send them right off to one of those capable ladies. All all those ads that keep a newspaper afloat? They’ve been selling them, thus enabling me to have a paycheck.
There’s also the man who has made The News and The Local so ‘pretty’ for all these years ... almost back to when he started with us barely past his teenage years. Jason LeRoy is a talented graphic artist who has not only taught me much about technology, but, literally, put the paper together each week and got if off to the printer. He’s also the wiz behind our websites and social media pages. In recent years he’s had help from Jessica Barr, a friend and also a talented graphic artist.

And then there’s my Cornwall duo -- Jason Kaplan and Ken Cashman. While Ken retired two years ago, giving me the opportunity to serve as editor of The Local as well as The News, he’s been steadily feeding me sports stories weekly for those two years. He just loves sports. Ken also reads through the papers every week, looking for the invariable typos and grammar errors. I make many. And Jason, well, like Ken, everyone in Cornwall knows Jason. He’s a strong writer, willing to cover any event, and is patient enough to sit through meeting after meeting just so he can then write about them. I’m hoping that Jason will still be writing for us; I’ll never have his Cornwall ‘institutional knowledge’.
There’s also Dylan Wendt. He’s our delivery driver on Thursdays, taking papers to the post offices and businesses which sell them. He’s always been reliable, and, more importantly, cheerful, in his work. I don’t even see him that often ... but I’ll miss him.

And, finally, Matt Lawney, who five years ago stepped in to take over management of the newspapers when Joe Gill retired. He knew nothing about newspapers then, but knows probably way more than he wants to now. Matt kept us afloat through COVID, and has continued to during the ensuing years, which have been rough on not only small newspapers, but many small businesses. I can’t thank him enough for those five years, and always having my back.

Like I said earlier, I’m sticking with you, readers, and while you’ll see a different looking newspaper next week, you’ll still see a newspaper, and I think that can be considered a win for us all. My 36 years with The News of the Highlands Inc. went by really fast; I’m anxious to see what happens next!
Be well this week....