Editor’s note: Managing editor Charmain Z. Brackett reflects on 12 months of The Augusta Press
It’s hard to believe it’s only been a year since The Augusta Press launched. We’ve accomplished so much in just 12 months’ time.
Jan. 11, 2021 was a special day for all of us at The Augusta Press. That day I stepped into territory that was both uncharted yet familiar at the same time.
As features editor, I started writing stories about people, non-profit organizations and businesses in our community. We were still under many pandemic restrictions so there were limited events and performances taking place.
Those types of stories were familiar to me. I’d been writing them for 33 years with publications such as The Augusta Chronicle, Augusta Magazine, The Signal and Columbia County Magazine.
What was uncharted was this local, digital-only newspaper
I spent my first few months explaining to everyone who we were and was greeted with blank stares that yielded many positive responses once they heard me out. People said Augusta needed a source of community news, and they were excited about it.
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I admit being a little shocked the first time I met someone I didn’t have to explain myself to because the person was already a subscriber. I remember sending a text to Joe Edge, our publisher. I met a subscriber. Multiple exclamation points were probably included. That’s a joke between Debbie van Tuyll, editor-in-chief, and me. Associated Press frowns on that particular piece of punctuation, and we remove it whenever a reporter includes it in a story. (Psst: Debbie wrote the headline and added that pesky sentence ender.)
Over the past year, we’ve brought you great community-based journalism including in-depth stories on the mayor’s woes with receipts over the My Brother’s Keeper fund. We filed open records requests on numerous occasions to find out more about the hiring of the Richmond County fire chief and we settled our lawsuit with the Richmond County Sheriff’s Department to receive information given to other media outlets.
Tyler Strong has gone in-depth with the cheating scandal with Augusta University head basketball coach, Dip Metress.
We broke the story about the death of George Hall, the local attorney who died in the IronMan competition, as well as the recent accidental shooting on the movie set in Warrenton, Ga.
We’ve introduced you to our new Columbia County School Superintendent Steven Flynt, said goodbye to Richmond County Board of Elections Executive Director Lynn Bailey as she retired, as well as mourned the deaths of two shining lights on the Augusta stage – Debi Ballas who died in October 2020, and Richard Justice, who although he died from complications with COVID in August 2020 was remembered in a service May 2021.
We’ve published 162 stories about murders in our area, more than 670 stories about local government and 993 articles about schools for a total of more than 4,100 articles about people, places and events in the Augusta area. I wrote 621 of those stories during that 12-month span.
On the lighter side, we took you behind the scenes of the film “Agent Game” starring Mel Gibson and Dermot Mulroney, and we introduced you to Rickey Hill whose life was made into a movie right here in Augusta. We picked up local cartoonist Rick McKee’s cartoon strip almost from day one, and we’ve published dozens of photo stories by two local photographers, Mike Adams and St. Julian Cox III.
As events began to open back up, I previewed many of the concerts and plays at arena theaters and arenas.
In the fall, we began bringing you high school sports and college basketball coverage.
Two things caused my heart to burst with pride; first was our coverage of the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. When I saw the PDF Joe Edge put together for 9/11, I cried. It was a beautiful sight to behold. Also, our Veterans Day package, which featured profiles of veterans from World War II through the recent conflicts in the Middle East, brought all our talented staff members together.
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With the feature columnists, Ann Beth Strelec, Danielle Wong-Moores, Steven Uhles and Francie Klopotic, we hit the hot spots of food, beverage and local entertainment options.
Nowadays, when I mention The Augusta Press, I don’t get the blank stares that I received a year ago.
We have an amazing staff of reporters who work on a daily basis to bring you the news. Scott Hudson, Dana Lynn McIntyre, Sandy Hodson, Skyler Andrews and Tyler Strong have all worked to raise the level of this newspaper. We have others behind the scenes including Anna Virella and Patrick Bird and freelancer Ron Baxley Jr. And last but definitely never least, we have columnists Sylvia Cooper and Michael Meyers who often spark lively debates among our readers.
Now as managing editor, I am looking ahead to an exciting 2022. We pledge to do our best to bring both breaking news and in-depth coverage. I’m hopeful of both the expansion of our staff and the expansion of our coverage as 2022 unfolds.
But we wouldn’t be where we are now without you – our readers. I’ve met a few of you who were subscribers from day one, and I’m glad you’ve stuck with us.
Thanks for reading The Augusta Press, and happy 2022.
Charmain Z. Brackett is the Managing Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach her at charmain@theaugustapress.com
