Long before The Augusta Press was even a germ of an idea, Debbie van Tuyll and I met aspiring journalist Stephanie Hill when she signed up for one of Debbie’s classes at (then) Augusta State University.
A decade later, Stephanie would be named managing editor of The Augusta Press.
In 2011, Debbie called me up and asked if I would like to help her put together a class project. WGAC radio, my employer at the time, was celebrating 70 years of broadcasting, and she thought the storied history of the radio station would make for great subject matter.
We talked on the telephone for about an hour, and I told Debbie about WGAC’s connection to J.B. Fuqua and the technical advancements made at the station over the years that ultimately landed WGAC on the cover of Life magazine.
After thinking it over, Debbie called me a few days later and told me that she thought we should expand the project and have the students craft a book that could be commercially published, something that is rare, if not unheard of, in undergraduate academia.
“I’ll shop the idea around and see if there is any interest,” Debbie said.
“I’m not holding my breath on that,” I thought.
Less than a month later, I was signing a publishing contract with The History Press.
The project became a real personal endeavor for me because I had decided to donate my royalties to Lexie’s Legacy, a scholarship fund in the name of my late stepdaughter, Alexis Cannon Hayworth.
While it was really neat to go back to my alma mater and give guest lectures, the entire project was truly like herding cats. The majority of the college students were excited at first to be given such an opportunity, but few of them were willing to put in the work.
Out of frustration, I almost told Debbie that we should scuttle the project.
However, one of those students who stood out was Stephanie Hill. I immediately took a shine to her because her sunny disposition reminded me of my daughter, Emerson. Unlike some of the other student’s work, Stephanie’s writing was spot-on, and she was more than willing to roll up her sleeves and commit to the research needed to produce a quality work.
“Augusta’s WGAC: The Voice of the Garden City for 70 Years” ended up winning the “best depiction of Georgia history” award from the Georgia Department of History and Archives.
The book is still available on Amazon and is stocked at Target and Walgreens. Proceeds still benefit Lexie’s Legacy and the Augusta University study abroad program.
Stephanie graduated from Augusta State University as a commercially published author and later went to University of South Carolina and graduated with a Masters in Mass Communication.
Rather than setting her sights for The New York Times or the Washington Post, Stephanie sought out smaller newspapers such as The Panola Watchman in Carthage, Texas, The White County News in Cleveland, Ga., and The Aiken Standard in Aiken, S.C.
Any seasoned journalist will tell you that the best place to start out in journalism is at a small newspaper in a small town. Instead of spending years on the obituary desk before finally moving up to copy editor for features, small newspapers give emerging journalists experience that large newspapers simply cannot offer.
“My favorite story was when this hat store in nearby Helen, Ga. placed a fake BigFoot out in front of the store, and this random citizen flipped out and claimed it was ‘obscene’ and not ‘family friendly’ because it did not have any clothes on. I mean, who puts pants on BigFoot?” Stephanie recalled.
Not only did she write two stories on the obscene BigFoot, she also found herself sloshing through knee-deep waters covering floods that sometimes occur in the mountainous regions of Georgia.
When Debbie told me that Stephanie wanted to move back to Augusta and had applied to The Augusta Press, I was thrilled.
Stephanie’s employment also came at a transitional time for The Augusta Press. Our original Managing Editor, Charmaine Brackett, after two years of dedicated service, decided to launch the Augusta Good News website, and we tearfully wished her well on that new endeavor.
During that time, The Augusta Press was not rudderless, as Debbie temporarily stepped into the role and kept a firm hand on the tiller as the newspaper searched for a new managing editor while continuing to expand the newspaper’s coverage.
While I’m not involved in the hiring or promotion of our staff, when asked for input, I am happy to chime in, and when Debbie said the search would take time because we needed “the right person,” I knew that to be true, and I agreed.
The managing editor for a newspaper is like that of an air-traffic controller and pilot combined. The managing editor not only assigns stories, but is ultimately one of those legally responsible for what is published.
Well, to make a long story short, the “right person” for the job was already in our midst.
Stephanie began in early August as our new managing editor, and in her short time navigating the ship, Stephanie has proved her mettle.
At our last staff meeting, Stephanie was proposing story ideas for months in advance, but once news that Hurricane Idalia would affect our area became clear, she switched gears and called all hands on deck.
Our staff immediately began gathering every bit of information possible, communicating with law enforcement and preparing to provide real time information on our various media platforms.
As a major provider of news for the CSRA, we were ready, come what may and that was all due to Stephanie’s attention to detail and sunny disposition in the face of storm clouds.
On behalf of all our staff, I would like to say we are proud to call Stephanie Hill the captain of our ship!
…it’s your turn to herd the cats, Stephanie!
Scott Hudson is the Senior Investigative Reporter and Editorial Page Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
