I feel unworthy occupying this space, where David Brown delivered his observations as publisher for the past 23 years.
Friday was Brown’s last day at the Scout. All his publisher responsibilities – running the business, advertising, production and circulation – have been distributed to others, mainly Regional Publisher Rachel Hoskins, who is based in Franklin.
What that leaves is non-commercial content – news, sports, features and opinions.
As editor, they become my responsibility.
I am nowhere near as famous as David Brown here in Cherokee County, but I’m not new here. I’ve been at the Scout for just over three years (and for 13 months at the Graham Star in Robbinsville before that), and though my title has always been editor, I’ve really been more of a reporter.
Don’t get me wrong. I know how to be an editor. In fact, Brown’s resume and my resume look very similar up until the early 2000s, when he became publisher in Murphy and I became the news editor at the newspaper in Fayetteville.
I’ve done most things you can do in a newsroom. I’ve been a reporter, photographer, page designer, website manager, social media manager, mid-level editor and senior newsroom editor.
I’ve been pretty good, too. I’ve won around 80 state awards for news, features, design, commentary and photography – 20 awards in the past four years alone, and I didn’t enter anything one of those years.
My effectiveness has not gone unnoticed in the newspaper industry. I’ve been hired as a consultant to improve a half dozen other newspapers.
I’ve also been through change. The Scout is the 11th newspaper I’ve worked for full-time, and Paxton Media, which acquired the Scout in April, is the sixth ownership change I’ve weathered.
Paxton and Community Newspapers Inc. (CNI), the previous long-time owner of the Scout, have some similarities. Both are family-owned. Both are focused on rural markets. Both give local newsrooms incredible autonomy.
Paxton dwarfs CNI in size, however. It has developed a business model based on scale and centralization whenever possible and has helped many newspapers survive that might not have survived otherwise.
Our bookkeeping is being handled elsewhere, for example. But CNI was no different – it shuttered the Scout’s pressroom and moved printing to Franklin, for example.
The Scout has lost some good people in the past three months, some before the change, and some as a result of the change either by their own choice or the company’s.
Paxton’s goal is to preserve locally produced content – news, sports, opinions, features and advertising – and do so profitably.
We’re still in transition, however. Rachel Hoskins took over publisher duties from David Brown just Monday, and now it’s her job to figure out how best to deploy her local and regional assets spread over eight newspapers including the Scout.
I consider my role as transitionary. I’m in the twilight of my career (40 years in the profession), so I can’t promise longevity but I can promise experience.
And yes, there will be more changes, including some I decide.
Take letters, for example. I’ve revised the policy to loosen restrictions on length and frequency. At the same time, it puts priority on timeliness, brevity and whether a letter is about a local issue.
As we move on, I’ll look for ways to make the best use of the tools I have available until it’s not my responsibility anymore – however long that is.
I urge you to continue to support the Scout and have patience as we get through these changes.
Thanks for letting me take up some of your time.
Randy Foster is editor of the Scout. Contact him via editor@cherokeescout.com.