In Gratitude

This is the 600th edition of the North Coast Journal that I’ve had some hand in publishing as the newspaper’s news editor. It will also be the last.

For more than a decade, just about every Tuesday of my life has been consumed with finishing up the week’s paper. It’s been a regular ritual, the culmination of a week’s work, that includes getting its stories finished and edited, its captions proofread and its page numbers double checked, helping put together an edition that honors readers’ trust and gives them the information they need to live their best North Coast lives. I lovingly call it “putting the paper to bed,” which conjures the image of tucking it in for a night’s sleep before seeing it rise on newsstands a couple days later. But after 11 and a half years on the job, I’m ready for a change, and next week will begin work as a press education specialist for the nonprofit First Amendment Coalition, helping provide support and training to journalists across the state.

As I prepare to step away from some 20 years of local reporting, I’m feeling many things. I’m honestly tired; the daily and weekly deadlines, the post-deadline doubts that interrupt sleep at 3 a.m., and the fatigue that comes with regularly hearing of people’s worst moments and exploring society’s faults without power to do much more than tell people about them all having taken a toll. I’m frustrated, too, that I’ve watched investment in Humboldt County journalism wither, recalling that when I started at the Times-Standard, it had nine full-time news reporters (and another daily down the street had nearly as many), while today there may not be that many paid full-time journalists in the entire county. Frustrated that I took a pay cut 20 years ago when I left the dog kennel I was working at to write for the Times-Standard, and that reporters today still start at minimum wage with few going on to make much more. And I’m angry to see journalists vilified and dismissed, not just nationally, but locally, our email inboxes evidencing a decaying trust in the people who overwhelmingly work long hours under high stress for little pay with the simple goal of being accurate and fair, and keeping a community informed.

But the thing I undoubtedly feel most acutely as I prepare to leave the North Coast Journal is gratitude. Profound gratitude. It has been the honor of my professional life to help guide the news side of this paper for the time it has been entrusted to me, and I’ll forever be grateful to have had this experience.

I’m grateful to my family, who have consistently sacrificed in ways big and small to enable and support me to do this work. I’m grateful to everyone I’ve worked with at the North Coast Journal over the last 11 and a half years, each of whom has contributed to our ability to serve the local community and to my ability to do this thing I’ve loved. I’m grateful to our publisher and owner, Melissa Sanderson, who has purchased two iconic print newspapers in recent years, not with illusions of riches, but simply recognizing that the community needed them to continue.

I’m grateful to you, our readers, who have supported this work, have found value in what we do, have picked up the paper and frequented its advertisers. I’m grateful to those of you who have written in, either to contribute your thoughts to our opinion pages or just to let me know what you felt. I’m especially grateful for those who wrote to say I got it wrong or missed something (most especially those who did it respectfully and kindly), for those are the notes that pushed us to be better, to rise to the challenge of reflecting and chronicling a community as complex and special as Humboldt.

I’m grateful to my sources, the people who trusted me to tell their stories with care and respect, and to get them right. Over 20 years, it’s never ceased to amaze me the ways people have opened their lives, homes, camps, offices and hearts to me without promise of anything in return other than my best effort to accurately portray their views and experiences. You’ve told me of your triumphs and tragedies, your hopes and fears, opened up about your ideas and passions, shared your wisdom and knowledge, often with profound patience as I struggled to keep up and make sure I was understanding correctly.

I’m grateful to the elected officials and appointed government employees who have been giving and generous with their time and expertise, and who have been kind and gracious amid unflattering stories and coverage of things they did not want to talk about. I appreciate that you took my calls simply because it was right to do what you could to help maintain an informed electorate.

Last but certainly not least, I’m eternally grateful for the talented, inspired, driven, caring and deeply passionate journalists I’ve had the privilege to work with over the years. There are too many to list individually here, but I believe you know who you are, and know that your contributions have made me a better editor and person, the North Coast Journal a better newspaper and Humboldt County a better community. Thank you.

Among those, I need to single out our current editorial staff, who together comprise the heart, mind and soul of our newsroom. Calendar editor Kali Cozyris is the heart, her passion for this community and dedication to the paper apparent to everyone who crosses her path, her kindness and compassion providing much of the glue that’s held us together. Former digital editor and soon-to-be assistant editor Kimberly Wear is the mind, her institutional knowledge of all things Humboldt County having provided invaluable context and saved us from countless errors, her stalwart attention to detail elevating the quality of every single edition she’s been a part of. Former arts and features editor and soon-to-be managing editor Jennifer Fumiko Cahill is the fiery soul, her moral compass having ensured we’ve been on the right side of every ethical issue and stance since I’ve been here, and her unmatched skill, wit and insight having allowed us to showcase the best of Humboldt, even in the hardest of times.

With Jennifer Fumiko Cahill at its helm, and Kali and Kim by her side, the Journal will continue to grow in its mission to be a more vibrant and invaluable newspaper, and one that reflects the entirety of the North Coast, with an editorial leader who will not flinch or falter. And for that, there are no words to express my gratitude.

Outgoing news editor Thadeus Greenson’s (he/him) last official day with the Journal will be July 3 but you’ll continue to see his byline in the coming weeks as the paper publishes several in-progress stories, and perhaps some of his freelance work in the future beyond that.

This article appears in A Place to Stop and Rest.