I made my television debut last week when 12News aired their interview about me buying and running the newspaper. The story was good but it left out what I consider the most important part of the story: my team.
As full as my hands are with the business, I could never have carried the baton that has been passed for 116 years without being dropped if it weren’t for my incredible staff. Dani O’Callaghan, our graphic designer, is endlessly creative and hardworking. Her designs are constantly complimented—whether I’m shopping at the grocery store or walking around town, people stop me to praise her work.
Our sports team, Greg Perkins and Kathy Conner, make it possible for us to have a sports section in our paper. That coverage is invaluable in communities like ours, because these kids deserve, and often aren’t given the chance, to be celebrated. They deserve to feel the pride of seeing their accomplishments shared in their hometown newspaper.
Our reporter, Talaina Kor, covers government meetings and civic life, making sure our readers stay informed on the decisions and discussions that shape our community. Her dedication to accuracy and detail ensures that the public record is preserved and that our coverage lives up to the role of local journalism.
On the business side, Debbie Barger ensures that things run smoothly. She has the herculean task of taking the tangled ball of wire that is my brain and organizing it into manageable pieces. Debbie, along with her husband Matt—the paper’s previous owners—have been generous beyond measure in helping me take on Matt’s father, Paul Barger’s legacy. Their support has been instrumental in making this transition possible.
And then there is Linda Kor. Linda is our editor and has been with the paper for 18 years, she was the one who encouraged me to and gave me the confidence to buy it in the first place. She has patiently kept everything in line every step of the way. There have been several tough times over her nearly two decades when the paper simply would not have survived without the late nights and elbow grease she poured into it day in and day out, while being a single mother of three I might add. Linda has been my mentor since the day I started here and I can only hope to carry forward the legacy she has built at The Tribune.
The progress we’ve made this past year has been a team effort. I’m still a pretty young and admittedly naïve guy early in my career and my employees have had to put up with a lot of my missteps, trial-and-error and regular bouts of chaos. Let’s just say there’s a reason I email my copy to Linda instead of doing it in person, if I were standing next to her the thousandth time she caught the same grammatical mistake, I’d probably have a brick-sized dent in my head. Through it all they’ve shown patience, resilience and dedication far beyond what I deserve and I could never thank them enough for sticking with me and helping keep this 116-year-old paper alive and thriving.
