A few years ago, too long absent from journalism, I returned to the field as a breaking news reporter in Southern California. Mostly I covered wildfires, fatal crashes, homicides. Occasionally my editors let me report outside my beat, but when that didn’t happen enough I decided to seek an expanded role elsewhere. That’s how I landed in Montana, first in Libby and now in Boulder.
Some wondered why I would move from a large media market to a small one. Some asked what sort of stories could I possibly find to report on. And wouldn’t I be bored? There are important stories everywhere, I’d respond. Too many for one person to get to, though I can try. Certainly far too many for me to be bored. (And having grown up in Maine and interned in Illinois farm country I know rural living, I’d add.)
I started writing this on Monday for the Wednesday edition you’re reading, four weeks to the day since I first walked into the Boulder Monitor to take over as editor as Jan Anderson retires and Keith Hammonds assumes the roles of owner and publisher. This serves as a letter of introduction, though I’m happy to report I’ve already met many of you in the newsroom, on assignment or at the community dinner Jan and Keith held last week in the Jefferson High School cafeteria.
