I consider myself blessed to not only live in the place I love, but also to be able to make a living by doing what I love best – covering the stories of Tahoe. I started covering these stories when I first moved to Tahoe in 1998 as Editor of the North Shore’s former weekly newspaper, Tahoe World.
I’ve worked mostly in hard news for most of my career and relished the opportunity to not only cover our community, but also to delve into issues that you don’t normal cover in your typical small town weekly – the environment, affordable housing, development and, of course, Lake Tahoe, among others.
I became disillusioned with the politics of working for a community newspaper, however, that had lost its sense of community and focused solely on the bottom line with directives being made by corporate big wigs based in Colorado. Making money and community-based journalism are not mutually exclusive; but executives too often focus on the first and trample the second. I could not continue and decided to leave.
I only told two people of my decision before my resignation in 2001 – Ed Miller and Tahoe Weekly’s former Associate Publisher Patrice Parsons. Within a week, I had an offer from former Tahoe Weekly owners Dale and Shirley Good to be the Editor of Tahoe Weekly. They wanted to increase their outdoors, events and arts coverage, and I agreed these areas were lacking. Tahoe Weekly was already doing a stellar job covering the entertainment business under the leadership of the late Joy Michiel.
I went to work exploring the trails, waterways and little-known places of Tahoe. I started most days with a hike to explore and ended many afternoons on Lake Tahoe cruising or sailing. I loved my job, but after a few years I missed the fast-breaking, hard-hitting nature of a newsrooms.
So, I took a job running the newsroom of a daily newspaper in Mississippi in 2003 and left Tahoe for a few years, as many of us do. But, Tahoe’s siren call was strong and my sister and her family had settled in Tahoe, so I made my way back home in 2007. Having no idea where I would go, I called Joy and asked if Tahoe Weekly was looking for any freelance writers. They offered me a freelance gig immediately and a few months later asked me to become the Associate Publisher. Then, in 2013 the former owners approached me to see if I wanted to buy the magazine. They wanted to retire but wanted someone who cared about the magazine to take it over.
Now, it’s been nearly 7 years since I purchased the magazine. And, we’ve made many changes to the magazine but we have never veered far from our first edition in 1982 when founder David Mogilefsky declared “Don’t Nobody Bring Me No Bad News.” Today, I usually say we “Cover the Fun,” but the sentiment is the same.
I hope you enjoy this and every edition of Tahoe Weekly. We strive to inform, while making sure locals and visitors alike have a great time in Tahoe, and I hope to do this for many, many years to come.
I am grateful to everyone who has donated to us in the past few weeks and your generosity has been overwhelming. We still need your donations to help Keep Tahoe Weekly Alive through the pandemic and keep covering the stories of Tahoe.
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Checks to Tahoe Weekly | P.O. Box 154, Tahoe Vista, CA 96148
