The more we change, the more we stay the same

With this week’s issue of The Healdsburg Tribune we announce a change at the top of our masthead. At the same time, we are letting our readers know not to expect changes anytime soon in how we gather, write and report the local news.
We are introducing our new managing editor, Ray Holley, who is taking the place of Kerrie Lindecker. After 10 years at the newspapers, Lindecker is joining the staff of new State Senator Mike McGuire. For Holley, it is a return to the newspaper where he served several years ago as a reporter and news editor.
Many Tribune readers will be familiar with Holley, both for his newspaper work and Main Street column and for his many volunteer endeavors in and around the community. With his naming as managing editor, Holley is now putting down his community activist role and picking up his notepad and journalist hat.
Moving from being a citizen activist to managing editor is not a big leap, but it does carry a very important difference in responsibility, relationships and ethics.
The changing of managing editors in our masthead does not signal changes in editorial direction or mission. Ownership remains in the hands of Sonoma West Publishers and is led by publisher and owner Rollie Atkinson. Holley joins a news staff also led by news editors David Abbott and Robin Gordon and Sports Editor Greg Clementi. In total, there are 10 news journalists that work for Sonoma West Publisher’s four community newspapers.
The Tribune, and our other newspapers, practice a specific style of journalism known as “community journalism.” We cover a very specific, local area and work to report as much news as possible on important public events and interesting personal stories. We put a very heavy emphasis on “local” but we also strive to inform our readers on crticial events in our surrounding Sonoma County.
Before Holley’s arrival, and long before Lindecker was here as well, this newspaper served as the primary news source for the community. This paper has a solid record of credibility and separating facts from opinion. But it also has a well-earned bias toward the health and prosperity of the Healdsburg community.
We have championed both organized youth activities and services for our elderly. We have endorsed economic development projects that enhance local businesses and living wage jobs. At the same time, we continue to monitor local government agencies and schools to protect the interests of local taxpayers.
When necessary, we have gone after the “hard story” that some readers may not have wanted to know. A change in managing editors will not change our call to hold local leaders and elected officials accountable. We will always insist on open government and the availability of an open community forum for everyone. We will salute good deeds and call out misdeeds by those in power or high positions.
Healdsburg is a very attractive place to live and work. The sense of community, good communications and shared efforts has been well established through hundreds of individual efforts and generational traditions. But, like changes to our newspaper’s masthead, our community is a work in progress.
Looking forward, this newspaper and the community it serves have challenging issues to face. Housing, drought-depleted water resources, preservation of our rural heritage, school improvements, downtown development and parking and local health care services top this list.
This newspaper may stand as the sole source of timely and trustworthy information, honest debate and civic leadership on these community-wide issues. We hope to be joined by activist citizens, skeptical critics, project advocates and responsive elected officials. Our new managing editor has a full plate and shares our appetite for solid news reporting that can make a difference.
— Rollie Atkinson