Captain’s Log — Covering It All

We went from launching the new paper in Eureka last week and going from 8 pages to 12, covering the car show and homecoming, to a power plant and street beautification in Fernley, an open meeting violation in Lovelock, the tragic death of a young woman in Winnemucca, wild horses in Battle Mountain, mental health in Fallon, and fall festivals across the board, to the voter guides and candidate features, statewide energy development, and how to start a new business in rural Nevada. From good to bad, we get a chance to tell the stories every week across these communities, and we vacillate every day with the highs and the lows of the stories we’re writing. It’s such an interesting roller coaster of an emotional ride when you stop and think of each story on its own. From the unimaginable grief of families losing children to the sweet, traditional joy of kids in parades and celebrating the changing of seasons, this tough little crew of ours travels from broken hearts to hearts bursting with gladness. We sort of take for granted the continual beat of the regular news and get a little complacent, but then something at either end of the happy/sad scale will happen and rip us to shreds. Sometimes people will remark along the lines of, “What would you cover out there in the great empty expanse of the Nevada desert?” and I just laugh. There is so much going on we cannot cover it all. But we’re giving it a heck of a shot. We were talking the other day in the shop about different stories and the communities and all the things going on, and someone made the observation that even though we all share similar experiences and happenings, there still is a very distinct personality to each one of these rural towns. We laughed as we agreed and recognized the “quirkiness” that each place has — and makes each place special in its own unique way. As we grow and learn each community, we’re also starting to develop a solid team of talent across the central part of the state. There is quite a lot of hidden, untapped talent that has begun to come out of the woodwork and it’s really fun to meet these little gems as they reach out and offer their help. We hope that you, too, will reach out with any story ideas or let us know if we’re missing anything. We’re always happy to hear from our readers and we encourage letters to the editor and guest columns. Just shoot us over a note to [email protected] anytime. We love to hear from you. So while we ride the unpredictable, always exciting wave of local, community newspapering, we’ll always be right here… …Keeping you Posted. Rach