It’s a big job, community journalism. It doesn’t pay well; there are long hours and holiday work. For every uplifting story we write about sacrifice, accomplishment and joy, there’s another one about betrayal, conflict and disappointment.
Yet, we truly believe we are privileged to write about you every week and we thank you for allowing us into your lives, your businesses, your achievements and sometimes, into your hearts.
We know that sometimes we delight you, tell you a story you never heard before, or retell an old story well. And, sometimes (maybe in the same week), we miss the point, tell you what you don’t want to hear or print an opinion that riles you.
We wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s a challenge to seek truth, to keep asking questions and keep making sense of politics, crime, cannabis, traffic, schools, growth, sports, fire and police, but it’s our job and our calling.
As journalists journey through life, they change jobs, get recruited by someone else, retire, take time off and sometimes, burn out. It’s a challenging job.
It’s also a wonderful job, filled with fine, fierce and funny people — in the community and in the newsroom.
We’ve had some turnover lately, and I want to introduce you to the latest configuration of our news team.
Publisher Rollie Atkinson left his East Coast daily newspaper reporting days behind in 1981 to seek mellow environs in northern California. It didn’t work. He jumped back into newspapers deeper than ever, first on the news team at the Healdsburg Tribune and eventually as owner/publisher of four hometown newspapers in Cloverdale, Windsor, Healdsburg and west Sonoma County and Sebastopol. With his wife and newspaper partner, Sarah Bradbury, he lives in rural Healdsburg near the Russian River.
Zoë Strickland is our Cloverdale Reveille editor. Zoë grew up in Sonoma County, left to go to college in Oregon and came back to wow us with her quick mind, appreciation for small towns and quiet competence. While enrolled in her undergrad, Zoë spent two years editing a literary magazine, three years in various positions at a weekly college newspaper and had a brief stint as a radio DJ. Before going into journalism, Zoë spent four years as editorial director of a freelance editing company. We’re impressed with how quickly she has mastered our quirky system.
Heather Bailey is a Sonoma County native, who has just been named editor of the Windsor Times after two years as a staff writer with the company. Heather is avid about people, animals and her community, and her writing style is often evocative and emotional. When not in the newsroom, she is board president and field services coordinator for a local equine rescue, and with her husband manages a farm that trains horses and breeds goats and chickens. She’s a mom and enjoys covering the school beat, meeting and working with the youth in our communities.
Laura Hagar Rush came to us from KRCB public media, but has had a long career as a print journalist, starting at the East Bay Express in Berkeley, where she worked as a reporter and columnist for 15 years. After moving north, she worked as managing editor at North Bay biz magazine. Laura has a sprightly, alternative press approach to news writing and finds stories that elude others. She became editor of Sonoma West Times & News at the beginning of August. She also loves graphic design and has been our webmaster since 2016, a job she’ll continue, in addition to her expanded editorial duties.
E.I. Hillin is an Oklahoma native, and graduated from the University of Central Oklahoma in 2013 with a bachelor of arts in mass communication. She began her journalism career at the Muskogee Phoenix, a daily newspaper in northeastern Oklahoma. She then worked for several community newspapers in the Oklahoma City area, as well as an online publication, The Red Dirt Report. Following her dreams to live in northern California, E.I. left her family and home state of 32 years to travel west. She covers challenging and complex beats, including public health, cannabis and local government. Her ability to learn is prodigious and impressive, and matches her ability to explain difficult topics in accessible ways.
Greg Clementi has been our sports editor for 16 years, covering five high schools in north and west Sonoma County with a genuine love and admiration for coaches, student athletes and prep sports. A native of Wisconsin, Greg is an avid fisherman, car enthusiast and a two-time finisher of the Boston Marathon. He’s been married to his wife Ann for 34 years and they have five daughters and five grandchildren. A pro in every way, he never misses a deadline.
Frank Robertson ranks as one of Sonoma County’s most veteran journalists, covering breaking news and offering commentaries for almost four decades, working with Sonoma West Publishers since 1995. Frank and his artist wife Mary Robertson live on the Russian River in Guerneville where Frank maintains an eagle-eye perch on the news of the day and the river that flows through it.
Katherine Minkiewicz is the newest member of the team. An experienced journalist and editor, Katherine has the challenging job of helping us grapple with, understand and conquer the world of social media. Katherine has worked at both print and digital publications throughout the North Bay and always starts with the basics: “who, what, where, when and why.” We’re excited to have a solid journalist leading our digital reader engagement efforts.
I’m the managing editor. It’s my sad job to say goodbye to good people who move on and my happy job to recruit talented new people who want to join us on the front lines of journalism. I started with the Healdsburg Tribune in 1998, switched from full time to freelance in late 2005, then returned in early 2015. I love community news — from meeting kindergartners on the first day of school, to chasing fire trucks down country roads, to helping you understand the latest shenanigans at city hall. I’ve worked in a variety of roles at five weekly newspapers in Sonoma County and I edit the Healdsburg Tribune.
While we each have a “home” newspaper that commands most of our attention, we also share. In fact, we have a policy that each week, each reporter/editor writes for at least two of our papers. This allows us to learn new beats and topics (and more than anything, journalists love to learn) and it provides you diversity in narrative voices and styles.
I can’t leave out our incredible columnists, who provide unique and knowledgeable voices, ideas and opinions to our coverage, allowing us to magnify, enhance and diversify what we offer you each week. We’re grateful for their dedication and contributions.
We are moving — at a pace sometimes too fast for us, but often too slow for you — into the digital realm, with constantly improving websites, social media accounts, and soon, a digital collaboration tool called Hearken, that we hope will allow you to be directly involved in story planning, once we implement it.
Don’t worry, we’re still print nerds. We plan to keep printing ink on wood pulp and delivering it to you each week, but we are also following the world online. Stick with us — it’s going to be an interesting ride.
Ray Holley is the Managing Editor of Sonoma West Publishers.
