I was not expecting to write this column this soon.
After a bit more than 18 months as editor of The Observer, Iâm returning from where I came â the East Oregonian â to be the news editor.
My stay here has been something of a blur â settling in during winter 2019-20, ready to get to know La Grande and Union County as the coronavirus hit, then changeover in our newsroom since November 2020. And just as we are at full staff and beginning to see the fruits of that, Iâm heading out the door.
Yeah, itâs a selfish move. But it is one I really didnât imagine myself doing. And then, I never quite imagined myself as an editor during most of my career as a reporter.
For the first time in months The Observerâs newsroom is operating with a full staff.
Diligent sports editor Ronald Bond left in October 2020 to take the helm of one of our sister papers, the Wallowa County Chieftain. Soon after, we had Kaleb Lay here and cranking out stories, but he then departed Feb. 5 for other endeavors. We had other changes in between those events.
But we hired Alex Wittwer on Feb. 8. His photography skills made an immediate improvement to the look of the newspaper.
But the rub is, the EO Media Group, our parent company, hired Alex as a multimedia regional journalist who would produce content for all our related publications in Eastern Oregon. Weâve not been able to move him into that role because our newsroom was one reporter shy.