In 2013, I took a buyout after 25 years as a reporter and editor on the Reno Gazette-Journal. I received a name from Reno Mayor Bob Cashell, a Texas transplant who turned one among Nevadas favourite sons.
Youre too younger to be nailing the outdated coonskin to the wall, Bob drawled. I instructed him Id nonetheless be workingwriting books, instructing and performing in Chautauqua. Id made a residing telling tales for many years, I famous, and I wouldnt cease spinning yarns. However Id sworn off full-time jobs ceaselessly, particularly one listed on the high of a newspapers masthead.
Seven years later, COVID-19 disrupted everybodys lives, finally killed 1.1 million Individuals (and counting) and erased numerous companies. The Reno Information & Assessment shut down in March 2020. I used to be employed weeks later to maintain the RN&R alive on-line for about three months till the pandemic ended.
In the course of the first 12 months, I felt like a lone defender on the partitions of the Alamo. (Cashell, who died in 2020, would have appreciated the simile.) The job was each a burden and a blessing. Because the nation was roiled by contagion, financial woes, poisonous politics and civil strife, I used to be again in my factor, reporting from the streets, not trapped at residence as information broke out throughout.
When former editor Jimmy Boegle purchased the paper final 12 months, I stayed on as editor/reporter to assist shepherd it again into print. I at all times deliberate to return to initiatives Id placed on maintainand now I’m.
That is my final challenge as managing editor. Veteran Reno journalist Kris Vagner will take the conn.
Ill stay a contributor, so Ill nonetheless see you within the humorous papers. It has been an honor, a privilege and an surprising final hurrah to be on the helm of the RN&R these previous 40 months.
And now my watch is ended.
Associated
Originally posted 2023-09-08 21:16:12.