A Big, Fast-Paced Adventure

A fter having served for four years as your publisher, where do I even start to sum up what this time has meant to me? Perhaps the easiest way to say it is: a lot!

From the moment the Bakers took our photo in front of the old Linotype ma- chine in the back room when our purchase was announced just before Thanksgiving 2009 to the pictures I took at the last Hometown Christ- mas parade this December, my time at The Times has flown by as one big and fast- paced adventure.

I'm melancholy closing this chapter in my life. I've been a newsman for many years and I'll probably suffer withdrawals. I already long for the sidelines at sports games, the bench in court rooms, a seat at council meetings and face time in- terviewing local artists and entrepreneurs, not to mention the hot pursuit of a fire truck to a field fire.

But I feel that I'm leav- ing the newspaper - for 135 years a beacon of information for the Touchet Valley - in very good hands with Ken Graham.

First, his ownership keeps The Times independent. Nowadays, so many news- papers, even weeklies, are part of a larger corporate chain where decisions are often made from a distance. You don't need to worry about that with Ken. He'll be present as he has been for more than a decade and a half, much longer than me in fact.

As a resident of the valley for 17 years, Ken has been an about-town businessman with a big heart for the val- ley, including the past seven years in the publishing field as owner of the Blue Moun- tain News, as a reporter for the Walla Walla Union Bul- letin and, most recently, as editor for The Times.

Just as it did with me, the buck will stop at Ken's desk. He and reporter Dena Wood will be everywhere covering news in Waitsburg, Dayton and elsewhere as they have for some time now. But now Ken is also in charge of The Times as a business and as such, he deserves your local support as a local business and he'll make decisions locally.

Second, Ken is a fair and balanced journalist. He and Dena report the news factu- ally, listening to all sides of a story without sensationalizing their coverage. That's the best community news cover- age you can ask for. And Ken also has a reputation for reporting on business and economic development in a way that brings awareness to the need for our communities to embrace new indus- tries, new projects and new opportunities.

Of course, Karen and I wish Ken the best as the eighth owner of one of the best and oldest little newspa- pers in the state. For as much work as it was to update the newspaper and its the build- ing, it was a labor of love and we had a lot of fun getting to know our advertisers, our sources and our readers.

For the news is mostly about people (except that we loved writing about our many animals here too) and the valley has some of the most interesting, innovative and hard-working people we've ever met.

For all the big newspapers where Karen and I worked before in big metropolitan areas and in big newsrooms, neither one of us would trade our experience for anything. We both have a new ap- preciation for what makes small towns tick and the challenges they face.

We know Ken will be bringing the news to readers in the same heartfelt way and we plan to come to town as often as we can to cheer him on. We hope you will do the same. Here is to the New Year and to the new owner of The Times. Cheers and good luck!