This will be my final column as business editor at The Augusta Press. I have accepted a position with the PGA Tour that will have me traveling – a lot.
I wanted to write a letter to our readers before I go, and new managing editor Charmain Brackett encouraged me to do so.
In my final business column of 2021, I recapped the past year of coordinating the business coverage for the newspaper. I wrote about how much I had learned and mentioned some of the community leaders that helped me along the way. I won’t rehash those same lessons (you can read that column below), but I did want to thank the readers of The Augusta Press for the groundswell of support myself and the other members of the staff have felt over the past year.
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The staff was able to gather for the first time in months around the first of the year, and I can tell you that nobody in the room imagined what the newspaper would be just 12 months after its humble beginnings. Scott Hudson, Charmain Brackett, Debbie van Tuyll, Joe Edge and Connie Wilson all had ideas about what it may look like, but the growth and the change came faster than anybody could have imagined.
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And that is all thanks to you. You, individually, reading this column. You thought this newspaper was a quality resource for local news produced by local people, and your show of support has helped grow the publication beyond the staff’s wildest imaginations.
Thank you for that. And I can tell you that it’s just getting started. The folks up top have so many ideas to make the coverage better and more efficient for you, and I have full confidence that mission will carry on without me at the business editor helm.
I had no idea what I was getting into, but I have learned more in the past year than the rest of my 20s combined. What an honor.
I must express deepest gratitude to Debbie van Tuyll, my former professor and current editor-in-chief, for believing in me and allowing me to come on this journey. I would have never signed on the dotted line had she not been involved, and she was her wise, pragmatic self even when it came to me stepping away.
Appreciation must also be paid to Scott Hudson, Charmain Brackett, Dana Lynn McIntyre, Skyler Andrews and Anna Virella. These teammates showed patience and grace with me as the young kid on staff, and I will miss working and fellowshipping with each and every one.
I am not going away completely. I will be traveling for periods of time, but then I will have down time at home. As the staff allows, I want to remain involved. I’ve been so proud of what we have accomplished, and I want to contribute in whatever way helps the paper. That will most likely take the form of sports coverage, an area the newspaper staff definitely wants to continue cultivating.
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On the flip side – I know too much about the business rumblings in town now to go away quietly. There are more stories to tell. And there are stories I’ve covered that are still very much in progress that I will just have to see through.
Again, that will all be contingent on what the staff sees fit, but I hope to return to these pages very soon.
There were some long, long nights that stretched into early mornings over the past year, and we had our fair share of crises and disasters. But I have relished the opportunity of being here for the humble beginnings of The Augusta Press.
I cannot wait to see where the newspaper goes next. I’ll be reading. I know you will too.
Tyler Strong is the Business Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach him at tyler@theaugustapress.com
