Jillian Beaudry, Editor

I t's a great pleasure to announce the promotion of our Manag- ing Editor Jillian Beaudry to the position of editor. The change is effective immediately.

As editor, Jillian will take foremost responsibility for the content of the newspaper, the development of our news coverage, long-range content planning and so on. As a publisher with a long career in journalism, I will assist Jillian in this position but more as "an actor in a supporting role." Jillian will be the "actress in a leading role" to use a Hollywood metaphor, while I continue to help Larry Davidson in advertising and develop Touchet Valley Publishing, The Times' holding company, as a business and a cornerstone of our community.

Jillian's promotion is welcome, timely and well deserved.

After a year at The Times, Jillian has been instrumental in taking our small, but growing, weekly to a new level and works tirelessly every day to make our newspaper the best it can be for its readers.

She hinted that she might do this when she came aboard and said she was looking forward to elevating the quality and breadth of our reporting, something she does with the equally tireless help from Dayton Reporter Morgan Smith.

When Jillian arrived, The Times had 12 pages. She and I shared reporting duties with the seasonal help from former sports writer and photographer Tracy Daniel.

Now, Jillian oversees the work of a full-time reporter (Morgan) and a freelance sports writer/photographer (Dan Groom) and edits my editorials and occasional articles, plus the work of four columnists: Judith Henderson, Gary Hofer, Jeff Bartlow and Larry Davidson.

Each week, she lays out 16 pages of news, sports and ads in a format whose development she spearheaded and we voted on as a team. As though that weren't enough of a contribution to the The Times, Jillian began to cover more news in Prescott, making us a better news source for the Touchet River Valley from Highway 125 to the eastern border of Columbia County.

An editor has to be an ultimate multi-tasker. There are so many details to track: ads, legal notices, social announcements, stories, columns, photos, cut lines, classifieds, editorials, just to name a few. Most of these items don't arrive until Monday and Tuesday morning, which means the task of putting together a 16-page weekly need to happen in a day and a half.

Sometimes, there are breaking news stories on a Tuesday night like the top story two weeks ago about the The McGregor Company's expansion in Waitsburg, which means the editor will be changing the layout to accommodate this update so it doesn't come to readers a week after the fact. In that case, she also did the reporting and writing.

During most of the school year when there are high school sports to report on every week, Tuesday nights are usually late because we want to get the results of the games from that same night in the paper, again so you don't have to wait.

But the editor's work of updating you on the latest news doesn't end there. At least several times a month, The Times puts breaking news on its website and Facebook page so you can be among the first to know and don't have to wait until our print edition appears.

There too Jillian and Morgan have been enthusiastically proactive in making us a more cutting-edge and better-rounded news source.

Finally, we offer special editions and publications throughout the year: three seasonal sports previews, a special Harvest and Christmas edition, and two Touchet River Valley tourism guides per year. Their planning, content and layout also falls under Jillian's responsibility.

Jillian, who has a journalism degree from Linfield College in Mc- Minnville, Ore., and has worked at weeklies and a daily, took only a few months to grow into the demanding role of managing editor at the Times before she began steering the Times in a new direction for us. As journalists, we think very much alike. We both have a passion for reliable, informative and objective reporting of our local news.

With her appointment as editor, she will be fully at the helm with me merely standing by to consult and to help set the overall course for the ship of news.

Join me in congratulating Jillian on her new position.

Imbert Matthee

Publisher