It’s been a furious first four months as the editor of this newspaper.
It hasn’t been without its rocky shores. I’ve made some small errors that I’ve been called out on, like forgetting relevant information of which city council was talking about sports complexes or whose seat was being appointed on the Mount Vernon City Council. They were examples of me forgetting the tenet of journalism that every time you cover a story you need to give your readers all of that information again, because every time someone picks up a newspaper, it may be their first time reading a story. And they aren’t the only errors I’ve made or will make.
The other mistake that has upset me was the way we failed to adequately cover our girls’ wrestling team in Mount Vernon until mid-season. That was a glaring oversight by this editor, no one else.
When Jennifer Tischer sent a link to one of her Mount Vernon wrestling albums, and I saw two of the girls wrestling at a co-ed meet, it was a reminder that we missed a sport in our coverage. With girls’ wrestling being sanctioned next year, that will definitely be in our coverage moving forward. But to the girls’ team this year, this editor heartfully apologizes for our lack of coverage until near the end of your season. It was never my intent to miss celebrating your accomplishments in your hometown newspaper.
Speaking of wrestling – a huge thank you needs to go out to Tischer and Carolyn Kilburg for many of the photos from that event you’re looking at now. Due to their help with photos this season, we’ve been able to have a presence at several home basketball games. Without that help, there would have been countless harder choices of what events do we cover when multiple sports were in town on the same day.
That help goes back to one of the core messages I stated when I took this editor position. This community’s support for this newspaper is what makes this job easier. I can’t do it all on my own, and many people in this community have helped in small ways to remind me again and again that this newspaper is the community’s newspaper, and these are the things they want on the pages.
Your investment and continued help with this newspaper are always appreciated.