Hello there! I am told by our editor-in-chief that this type of column used to be known in the publishing world as a “Salutary,” so salutations!
You may remember me most from my days as investigative reporter for WGAC radio. I am a graduate of Augusta University (formerly Augusta State University) with an Honors B.A. major in political science and a minor in history. Along with radio reporting, I also wrote monthly for the Buzz On Biz; co-edited, along with Debbie van Tuyll, the book “Augusta’s WGAC: The Voice of The Garden City for 70 Years”; and published a book on the U.S. Constitution titled “The Contract On The Government.”
My role in The Augusta Press has me wearing more hats than just my trademark Fedora. As a subscriber, you will see my byline on investigative stories and general reporting that go through the same editorial process as do all other news writers for this publication. As our editor-in-chief, Debbie van Tuyll, notes in her salutary column, all of our submitted stories to the newsroom are subject to our company’s accepted code of ethics and are strictly edited to make sure this newspaper maintains the highest standards of credibility. We never want to be accused of “fake news.”
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As managing editor, I work daily with the editor-in-chief and our chief features writer Charmain Brackett in assigning stories to our writers. It is also my job to work with our crime reporter, Greg Rickabaugh of “The Jail Report,” to ensure that spot coverage of the crime beats appear on our social media platforms. Therefore, I highly suggest you like and follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to receive that coverage the fastest way possible.
Perhaps my most important role is that of editorial page editor. In my view, the editorial page for a newspaper needs to be a mirror of our community and should never be the domain of just one person. In starting this newspaper, we created an editorial board which consists of all four owners of this company: Joe Edge, Connie Wilson, van Tuyll and myself.
To construct our editorial page, we went through a deliberative process in choosing Sylvia Cooper, Michael Meyers and Austin Rhodes as weekly columnists. As an editorial board, we feel all three meet high standards of writing, thinking, and reporting, and they all are very much invested in the community and have been for decades. Our weekly columnists are not edited for content; they write what is their opinion, not necessarily that of The Augusta Press or its owners. Our opinion columnists provide their analyses under the agreement that our company does not have bail money!
Occasionally, you might see an opinion piece written by me as editorial page editor, but most editorials and all political endorsements will be signed by the Editorial Board as the official opinion of this newspaper.
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Naturally, we have reached out to all of our community’s elected leaders, and should they ever want to contribute a guest column, our door is open to them regardless of their political affiliation. We also would like to invite you as a reader and subscriber to submit letters to the editor that we will happily publish. Those will be subject to editing for brevity and legal concerns. Unsubstantiated accusations will never be published.
Crafting and launching Augusta’s 21st century newspaper has been a labor of love for all of us involved. We all come from very different backgrounds and have traveled very different paths in life. While we as colleagues are different individually, we have in common our love for this community. Indeed, this 10-month-long project of creating The Augusta Press has drawn us close to the point we view each other as family.
To you, our loyal subscribers, I would like to welcome you to our family!
Scott Hudson is the Managing Editor of The Augusta Press. Reach him at scott@theaugustapress.com
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