The Boundary Sentinel heads in a new direction
By Mona Mattei
When life brings you change it is often hard to shift gears to meet the new direction you need to head. Most of you have seen the new style of the Boundary Sentinel that arrived last week. The new look comes with a shift in the Sentinel as a whole.
After bringing the Sentinel to life three years ago, and nurturing the business to a triple award-winning news media, it was more than a little difficult for me to face the challenge of balancing all the different work I do with the growing demands of community news.
Many of you know me personally and know that I work in consulting along with heading the Sentinel. Over the past year the talents of Erin Perkins as a reporter have assisted in keeping the flow at the Sentinel to enable us to be the alternative voice of the Boundary, but due to changing commitments in my other work I had to decide if I could remain the head of a news agency that the community increasingly expects to be the leader for information. At the same time, Erin’s had to make some tough choices of her own about her ability to continue with the Sentinel.
So it is with regret, but also much pleasure, that I am announcing that Shara Cooper has stepped up to take on the Sentinel.
New to Grand Forks, the Sentinel was just the opportunity Shara was looking for to put her journalism talents into play. The timing couldn’t have been better as my decision to move into my consulting on a more full-time basis became more pressing.
Shara has been writing professionally since 2000. She graduated with her diploma in journalism and went straight to work as a community reporter. The years since her graduation have also been filled with travel, adventure and a nomadic lifestyle. She spent almost two years in Japan, where she worked as a paginator for the Daily Yomiuri, before teaching English as a second language (ESL).
After returning home, she found an ESL job in Chile where she worked for another year. After her overseas adventures, Cooper returned to community reporting. And now she’s taking on the Boundary’s news!
The old adage that when one door closes another opens holds true, and while my time with the Sentinel comes to a close, I am confident Shara’s energetic, enthusiastic style will carry on the tradition of quality, timely news that we have established.
It has been my deep pleasure to have served the readers and advertisers of the Boundary Sentinel and to have created a highly respected, independent news agency for our region. Both Erin and I will be missing our connection to our community through the Sentinel, but don’t worry readers, I’m sure you’ll continue to hear our voices in cameo appearances!
Thanks to all of you who have made the ride we’ve been on for the past few years at the Sentinel a most interesting experience! Please keep reading as the Sentinel evolves and continues!
Mona Mattei
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