Cutler

In previous stops during my career in print journalism, one of the questions I usually field when I’ve met someone or been introduced for the first time has been, “How are you enjoying (fill in the blank of the community)?”

I’ve always initially take that question to mean how I’m enjoying the area, the city or the people. So when I respond that I am enjoying that particular community, and all it has to offer, ultimately I find the question usually has more to do with my thoughts on my job and that particular newspaper.

For the record, I am enjoying being the editor of the Wallowa County Chieftain and being a small part of a very hardworking staff.

The people I have met so far in Wallowa County have been very welcoming and very passionate about their newspaper, and that’s a good thing. Once that passion from the community is gone, you might as well close down shop. It’s apparent so far from the feedback, however, we are a long way from that.

The staff of the Chieftain have all gone out of their way to make me feel welcome. It’s a great staff who tries hard every week to put out the best product possible.

However, that doesn’t mean we don’t have challenges here at the Chieftain. As I’m going on my second month as the editor here, I’ve had to adopt a first-things-first approach to tackling some of our issues. As anyone who’s known me for more than five minutes can tell you, I’m not a terribly patient person. I want things to be fixed immediately, if not sooner, and in this business, and probably any other, that is just not possible.

Performing triage

So I’ve had to do some triage and pick and choose what to tackle and what to leave for another day. Hopefully, you’ve noticed some changes and improvements in the product you are holding. But maybe you haven’t, since some of the changes have been fairly subtle.

The main challenge at the moment for my newsroom is finding someone to help us provide additional coverage.

It’s been apparent since I arrived that we sometimes lack the horsepower on any given week and can be extremely top heavy in news out of Enterprise, but lacking on Lostine, for example. One of my goals since taking the position has been to find a couple of freelance writers who could help us bridge that current gap in our news coverage matrix.

We have tried our best to make sure all of the communities and entities that make up Wallowa County are part of the newsroom matrix when we can but, quite frankly, we don’t always have the bodies to provide consistent regular coverage of everybody.

The goal is quite simple. I’m looking for a couple of individuals who would be interested in taking on some coverage of things going on in Wallowa County, whether its a city council meeting in Joseph or a feature story in Lostine. If you are interested in becoming a freelance writer for the Chieftain, and have a background in writing or journalism, I encourage you to send me an email at acutler@eastoregonian.com.

In the meantime, we are going to do our best to continue to provide the best coverage we can and to make sure we are doing our part for Wallowa County.