(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of The Augusta Press.)
The Augusta Press turns two years old today, a remarkable feat for a publication that started during a pandemic with an editor who was in treatment for cancer and a senior reporter who had COVID-19.
Some people may believe that The Augusta Press came out suddenly out of nowhere on Jan. 11, 2021, but the truth is that this newspaper was the germ of an idea that incubated for well over 10 years.
Not only did it take a decade, it took the right chemistry of partners to make a reality.
Dr. Debbie Reddin van Tuyll (now retired) is the kind of college professor that most students either love or hate. She is demanding, she is unwavering and she does not take to sob stories about missed deadlines very well.
As a student at Augusta University (then Augusta State University), I was accepted into the honors program and not only ended up with Debbie van Tuyll as a professor, but she also sat on my thesis committee.
Debbie van Tyull never gave me an A in any of the courses I had her for. No matter how hard I worked, the woman never gave me an A.
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In terms of my thesis, she pushed me, goaded me and demanded I meet her requirement of a truly interdisciplinary thesis. So, I responded with a 400-page fictional novel, a play adaptation of the novel and a full album of recorded music where I played every instrument, composed every song and sang every note.
That summer, in 2006, Debbie Van Tuyll still gave me a B+ in, of all things, her course on media law and ethics.
However, my thesis became the largest thesis ever submitted to ASU, and my understanding is that it always will be as the university has now placed a limit on the size of and number of pages a thesis can contain. It is an honor I share with Henry Kissinger who will always have the longest thesis at Harvard because Harvard, like AU, changed the rules and limited the number of pages allowed for a thesis after he delivered his tome to his university committee.
I really should have hated Debbie VanTuyll, but instead, I grew to love her. She pushed me towards excellence. She demanded excellence, and I was inclined to try and please her even though I consistently, in my mind, came up short.
What I did not realize at the time was that Debbie was not just grading me. She saw some kind of potential in me, and she was grooming me.
I know that word has a bad connotation in modern lingo, but Debbie did “groom” me in the most positive sense. She was an educator who challenged me to think and learn beyond the textbook. She saw potential in me, and we ended up becoming life-long friends.
Throughout all the years I spent studying under Debbie van Tuyll, I never knew what her political views were. I did not know if she was a Republican or a Democrat. I attended many holiday parties at her house where there was a giant assortment of folks from many backgrounds and political bents, and I enjoyed robust conversations with all of them.
In 2010 or so, Debbie called me and asked if I would like to take part in a college group project writing the history of WGAC radio. As a longtime member of the WGAC staff at the time, I readily agreed.
Debbie and I discovered together that the process of trying to get undergraduate students to write a book was like herding cats in room filled with candles, but we somehow managed to produce the book, Augusta’s WGAC: The Voice of the Garden City for 70 Years, which was published by the History Press and is still available at your local Walgreens and Target.
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The book also won the award for Best Book on Georgia History from the Georgia Department of Archives, and all of the proceeds continue to benefit the Augusta University study abroad program and the Lexie’s Legacy scholarship fund.
Over the dinner table and on the phone, Debbie and I have mused about starting a newspaper many, many times. We talked about how Augusta was becoming a news desert and about how we felt news should be presented, and we both agreed that reporters needed strong editors to eliminate bias from reporting.
Debbie and I also agreed that a newspaper should have a strong editorial presence; however, that editorial presence should be governed by a board and not just one individual.
My faith teaches me that God opens doors when he knows it is the right time. I firmly believe God decided that it was time to open a door for me to fulfill my purpose in life, and he had me paired with Debbie van Tuyll.
I called Debbie and told her that Connie Wilson and Joe Edge had agreed to meet with us, and she, at first, said, ‘Do I really need to be there?’
What I did not know was that Debbie was battling cancer at the time, but she showed up to the meeting with a nice scarf covering her head and had the same air to her as I had always known. She is the person in charge, cancer be damned.
Debbie was my ace in the hole when I went about asking Joe and Connie to commit an absurd amount of money to create The Augusta Press.
That meeting, which lasted well over the hour we had planned, was God, in my mind opening up yet another door. In the meeting, it became clear that Joe and I have a lot in common. We are both dreamers.
Meanwhile, Connie and Debbie are a lot alike in that while they do have their creative sides, they are also both realists. Those two women are a perfect check to Joe and me who tend to take off like unleashed great danes at the dog park.
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Sometimes doors do close, temporarily. I thought that my longtime friend Neil Gordon would end up being a part of the partnership, but it simply was not meant to be. Neil was definitely one of the building blocks of The Augusta Press, but he spun off in a different direction.
He decided that The Augusta Press was not a fit for him and went on to create Augusta Business Daily which is about to celebrate its two-year anniversary as well. We are all very proud of Neil.
Charmain Brackett was also a driving force in creating The Augusta Press. Charmain listened to me go on and on about how we were going to create the 21st century newspaper, and her response was, “How are you going to pay for it?”
At our interview to bring her on board, Charmain’s first question was, “So, who is in charge here?”
Charmain would go on for the next two years working around the clock making sure a quality newspaper went out the next morning and greatly expanded our sports coverage and features reporting.
The job of managing editor for a newspaper is a tough position, but Charmain handled it with grace and the occasional curse word. She has now gone on to create Augustagoodnews.com, and I could not be prouder of her.
Last year, The Augusta Press ended up winning the highest award from the Georgia Press Association, the Freedom of Information Award, which is unheard of for a newspaper to win in its first year of publication.
So, yes, this thing took over a decade to come to fruition, but now The Augusta Press is established as the source for news in the Central Savannah River Area, and we will continue in the role without fear, favor or bias.
I am so blessed to be the senior reporter for The Augusta Press, and guess who my editor is?
Yep, the lady who never gave me an A.
Scott Hudson is the senior reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
