This is the last weekday paper in my tenure as Winnemucca Publishing's Managing Editor.
What a whirlwind of a year it has been in this country, in my own life, and in our three counties.
In May, I was asked to stand in as interim Managing Editor when the previous editor moved on. She told me, at the time, that she was confident in my ability to do the work. I was incredibly excited to take the helm.
That is, until I started doing the work and realized how difficult it was to run three community newspapers, even with a dedicated editorial staff of eight.
It took me several months to find my footing. There was a two or three month period when I was here every single day, learning and working.
In my time here, we've changed things, just a little bit. We brought on three new writers. We changed our format. We all took classes and tried to learn more and do better.
In the meantime, I got married.
I learned about managing a team of creative, passionate individuals.
I learned that being the boss comes with some uncomfortable responsibilities.
I learned that asking for help is less a weakness than a requirement for leadership.
I learned how other newspapers in Nevada run their businesses, and how we might do things better.
I hope that I have served you well, dear readers. This has been both the most difficult and most rewarding period of my life.
Still, all good things must end. My husband has taken a position in upstate New York, and while I've loved my time in the desert, the opportunity to see another part of the country was too exciting for us to pass up.
So we're packing up our junk and our cat and making our way east.
You probably won't notice much different. We've still got our excellent team, hard at work finding you local news that's important to you and your family. They're not going anywhere.
There will be a new editor, or rather, an old editor, back to continue her long history of putting out solid community news. Jen Anderson will return in the new year. We're all excited to have a local, veteran editor running things in our editorial department again.
I personally am relieved to hand the reins to someone who cares so deeply for these communities.
I'll miss you, readers. I wish you nothing but peace and happiness as we head into 2018. May it be a brighter time, and may we all strive to make it so.
Fondly,
Cheryl Upshaw
Managing Editor
