Well, it’s time for me to write the last Naomi’s Notes for the Hillsider. This is both an exciting and a sad chapter in my life. By the time you read this I will be the editor of the Duluth Budgeteer News and the Hillsider board will be working to hire someone new.
This is exciting for me because I still get to stomp around in Duluth, the city I love, and I still get to mix with “my peeps.” It’s sad because I care about providing a way for those who rarely get news coverage to be heard. The Hillsider belongs to you, the people. It’s fun giving you a voice. It’s also fun to provide an alternative, cheaper forum for small businesses and non-profits to advertise.
I hope that as editor of the Budgeteer News I can help to bring a nice mix of community stories to a larger audience than I do at the Hillsider. Someone else will worry about selling and designing ads, so I’ll have more time to focus on editorial content. It’s also exciting because my new bosses like my photography, which is my passion.
The Budgeteer News is owned by the Duluth News Tribune and Forum Communications. My office will be on the first floor of the Duluth News Tribune building on First Street.
I started as editor of the Hillsider in May of 2006. The first issue that I produced came out June 15. It didn’t take long to realize that there was more than enough community news in the Central Hillside, East Hillside, Chester Park, Endion and Observation Hill neighborhoods for this paper to be issued every month, rather than only every other month.
Soon, the board and I decided to add Lincoln Park to our catchment area of stories. We noticed that the people of Lincoln Park often faced the same issues as those of the Hillside. Of course we took ads from any neighborhood. A few years later we added new distribution spots in neighborhoods further out. We found that even though our stories focused on Duluth’s core neighborhoods, our news was of interest to people in many of Duluth’s neighborhoods.
I know that people love the Hillsider, by the reaction I get when I tell people of my move to the Budgeteer. People tell me, “Congratulations,” and then almost immediately ask, with worried looks on their faces, “But what’s going to happen to the Hillsider?”
The Hillsider board is working with a person who will be the interim editor. Please give the board and this person your support. You can help by purchasing or encouraging others to purchase advertising, by giving story ideas and by helping with distribution. Our snail mail address will remain the same, but the email is now hillsider.news@gmail.com. The new contact phone number is (218) 724-5220. You may also contact Scott Yeazle at (218) 260-5390 or scottyeazle@charter.net, or any of the board members, who are listed on page 2.
And I’ll see you in the Duluth Budgeteer News.
