Remembering a friend who shared a sports passion

Gene Bryson

By Dave Hughes
Delaware State News

“It’s ERRRN-HART! NOT EEEERNHART!”

“The National League is clearly better!”

“Miami Hurricanes. Coolest uniforms in football.”

“Oh, you’re late for the game in Laurel? Well, then, I guess we better stop cruising around Kent County.”

“Don’t lean against any of the cars while you’re in the garage. If they fire up the engine, you won’t like it.”

“Blue Hen football is overrated. All they do is play chumps every week.”

The day I was hoping would never come — losing a close friend — finally arrived last week.

When I got the call about Gene Bryson, I was stunned to the bone. Sure, I’ve lost loved ones in recent years, including my dad in 2005, but there’s something sacred about a friend, someone close to your age, someone with whom you’ve shared many special moments and shared a wild and crazy passion for sports.

I knew Gene very well for nearly 30 years. He was someone I broke in with professionally in this wacky newspaper industry, a person whom I admired and trusted greatly. Cool, calm, totally professional, a little opinionated and critical of the world but always completely on target, cutting through the fog and seeing the story clearly. That was Gene.

And suddenly, in an instant, he’s gone and isn’t coming back. It’s a blow from which I’m not sure I’ll ever fully recover.

Yet there are the memories — oh, and are there ever plenty of Gene memories, which I will cherish the rest of my life. They are the crutch upon which I will try to support myself in this difficult moment, and beyond.

Gene and I shared a love of sports that led us both to nearly 20 years of covering ball games, prominent athletic figures in Delaware and the professional sporting world for the Wilmington News Journal, where we both began our careers the very same week in April 1979. It also prepared both of us for an editing career years later “down the dual highway” at the Delaware State News, with Gene serving as my supervisor and mentor.

He was greatly helpful to me as I tried to reinvent myself as a news copy editor, when I saw a whole other side to him, possessing a depth of knowledge about the political and social landscape of lower Delaware that amazed me. I marveled at his ability to write headlines and the uncanny knack for picking the best photo out of the bunch.

It was a rather unlikely pairing in the beginning. I was the slightly cocky preppie from suburban Baltimore, an outsider who invaded the Delaware sports scene. Gene was a laid-back, Skoal-chewing, small-town Downstate native from Smyrna, a loyal hometown guy to the core. But we hit it off instantly, with the sports world as our common ground.

The priceless moments I shared with Gene have come flooding back the past few days like a tidal wave. There was the night we spent together at Veterans Stadium covering Steve Carlton’s departure from the Phillies. There was the day Earl Weaver returned as Orioles manager. There was the time we drove in a blinding snowstorm to Media, Pa., to meet Harry Kalas to go over banquet arrangements.

We saw future NFL star John Taylor, then playing for Delaware State, shake and bake his way to a lengthy punt return touchdown at Franklin Field. “Watch this,” Gene boldly predicted the second Taylor caught the ball. “He’ll take it all the way.”

There were Miami-Temple games in Philadelphia (he insisted on watching his beloved Hurricanes whenever they were even remotely in the area), or the Eagles-Colts game at The Vet, back in the Bergey-Jaws-Vermeil days when he had season tickets and when “my” Colts were still in Baltimore. More recently, there was the first Ravens game at the new stadium.

We used to argue loudly and incessantly about which league was better, the National or American. He insisted the NL and the Phillies were superior to the AL and the Orioles, and wouldn’t give in. The argument extended to Mike Schmidt (with whom he shared the same birthday, Sept. 27) vs. Brooks Robinson at third base. We never did resolve the issue, but we sure had a great time yapping about it.

One year when we were sharing a summer house in Dewey Beach, we went out to a bar to watch the All-Star Game. On the first pitch of the game, Gene made some wisecrack about the NL being a better league, and for the next three hours we argued nonstop about it. Much to my dismay, the NL won in the 13th inning on a hit by Tim Raines, which was fitting because Gene always thought Tim Raines was baseball’s best player during that era.

One of his great memories was interviewing Gaylord Perry before a game in Baltimore, when the notorious spitballer extended a friendly hand filled with Vaseline. Gene was sporting a full beard at the time and Gaylord declared, “When are ya gonna shave?”

Carl Yastrzemski once nastily turned me down for an interview in person, then the next year Gene got the Red Sox P.R. department to set up a phone interview with himself and the retiring superstar. “See how easy it is?” Gene joked.

Gene used to criticize me for the way I pronounced Dale Earnhardt’s last name. “It’s Errrn–hart, not Eeeern-hart!” he would scold me. He loved to relate the tale about how he got the modest Intimidator on the phone for an interview. “Gene? This is Earnhardt,” was how the legendary racer would introduce himself in unassuming fashion, like he was talking to his next-door neighbor.

NASCAR, the 20th century version, was Gene’s obvious first love, which led to his authoring a superb book on the history of Dover’s speedway. He took me in the garage one time the day before a Dover race and warned me about getting too close to the cars. Sure enough, someone started up an engine and I jumped a Monster Mile. I looked at Gene and he had that typical “I told ya” grin on his face.

He wore that same grin after getting a dirty look from Salesianum’s football coach when he decided to ask me what angle I was going to take in my game story. This normally wouldn’t be a big deal, but the team was conducting its postgame prayer at that moment and we were standing only a few feet away.

I used to arrive late to every Downstate high school football game I ever covered for the News Journal, because Gene and I would go out to dinner beforehand and we’d end up cruising around in his IROC across half of Kent County. I didn’t mind the late arrivals, though, because I greatly enjoyed those drives, and, ever the Downstate native, he always pointed out some interesting place or historic tidbit that I was unaware of, maybe near the waves at Woodland Beach, perhaps in Clayton or by the tracks in Wyoming.

Then we’d go out and have a few beers after we pounded out our stories on deadline, and finally would stop by a closed mini-mart in the wee hours, rip open the papers that had been delivered for the next morning, and critique each other’s stories and complain about the headlines in the freezing cold. “Hey, you misspelled Bob Cuthrell’s name!” would be a likely comment from him.

We were headed to the beach one hot summer day and, in bumper-to-bumper traffic, he rear-ended the car in front of him and caused extensive damage to his Camaro. He certainly was upset, but not so much about the car. He was about to miss a good day at the beach.

He was a great journalist but wouldn’t have made a great meteorologist. He simply despised cold weather, and I can trace that hatred to a high school football state tournament game played at his alma mater of Smyrna High, circa 1980. Gene woke up to balmy 60-degree temperatures that morning, but failed to realize the forecast called for frigid and wind-whipped conditions to come rolling in by early afternoon. While the rest of us arrived wearing heavy coats, hats and gloves, Gene was stuck in the miserable press box with just a light sweater and had to sit and suffer in the bitter cold all afternoon, not to mention do interviews and write an extensive story afterwards.

All of us who knew him are well aware of the things he loved, which included Skoal, the “old” NASCAR, license tag No. 29, his swimming pool, Coca-Cola (only the giant bottles), Miami Hurricanes football and the color orange, Bruce Springsteen (who he once saw for five concerts in a six-day span), Pink Floyd, Richie Hebner (touted by Gene as the ultimate cool baseball player), Johnny Callison (his favorite Phillie as a kid), “The Rockford Files” (the intro of which he taped to use on his answering machine at home), Bob Newhart and “M.A.S.H.” (taped every episode).

His passion for the Hurricanes (which wore out several of his VCRs) stemmed from an unlikely assignment to Penn State to cover the Nittany Lions vs. Miami around 1981. Gene saw what the rest of the nation was about to see, a South Florida football program that was prepared to dominate the national spotlight for the next couple of decades. And he just loved those uniforms.

Things he hated: New Castle County (“would never live there”); Delaware football (an unsolved riddle in my mind, because I never could quite figure out his source of Blue Hen dislike); suntan lotion (not forbidden by him at poolside but almost); wintertime (he often expressed a desire to live in Florida).

Gene, I miss you. I wish you were back here right now, arguing with me about baseball, critiquing a story or headline, discussing “The Sopranos” or whatever, casting a giant presence over those around you.

I won’t get over your loss easily. But I have gained greatly from you being part of my life.

Editor’s note: Dave Hughes is a copy editor for the Delaware State News.

Lost for words without Bryson

By Andrew West

Delaware State News



DOVER — Gene Bryson loved a clever headline.



He wrote some gems during his time with the Delaware State News. Remember these?



Noise laws lower the boom



Sunday liquor plan gets round of boos



Gene loved the play on words.



For a story about the Dover Downs Hotel, he came up with “Vroom with a view.”



He must have repeated that 50 times that night for effect.



We’re going to miss that.



Gene died suddenly Tuesday in his Dover home. He was 51.



We lost a good friend and a newsman with almost three decades of experience.



As senior editor, Gene had a hand in just about everything we do. He coordinated assignments; coached reporters, photographers, designers; collaborated with editors; and readily spoke his mind.



Sure, he was demanding. But it was his way of pushing for the best.



He joined the Delaware State News in 1999 and took on a behind-the-scenes news career that was quite a bit different than his nearly 20 years of work as a sports writer for the upstate paper.



He edited with a keen, critical eye.



He challenged and mentored writers and never offered phony praise.



Gene fought for what he thought readers deserved.



If a reporter didn’t ask the “why?” question, Gene would get agitated.



Talk of tax hikes and referendums raised his conservative ire. He would tell you he might as well just send his whole paycheck straight to the state of Delaware.



He hated cold weather, too. Sometimes he would twist his rant and turn it into a joke about how he needed to move somewhere warm — and where they didn’t have taxes and government.



The truth is, Gene probably would have never left Delaware and certainly never would have moved north of the canal.



He knew Kent County.



While he wasn’t one for rubbing elbows with politicians, he kept close watch, perhaps feeling obliged to do so given his father’s involvement.



His father, George Eugene Bryson, was Smyrna’s mayor from 1967-75 and 1979-81 and heavily involved in Republican politics. His mother Alice’s father, William Matthews Jr., was a state senator in the 1930s.



“We grew up on politics,” said Rick Bryson, Gene’s brother.



We couldn’t tell you how often Gene inserted context and background into our stories.



Many people were surprised by Gene’s talent once he became a news editor.



Gene would readily tell you that sportswriters were among the most talented and versatile people in any newsroom. He appreciated the pace and pressure.



All of that showed in his commitment to the newspaper.



With Dover buried in a foot of snow on Feb. 12, 2003, Gene was one of few people able to come to work. He picked up copy editor Craig Horleman that day and with the help of page designer Sheri Sussman they built a newspaper.



Unfortunately, we never printed it. The snow was too high for it to be delivered. He made it home and back to work the next day when the snowfall had reached two feet.



He also reveled in helping with other Independent Newspapers Inc. (INI) publications. There were a number of times when he edited the Okeechobee News, our company’s daily in Central Florida, from the Dover office when the news team there was hunkered down during hurricanes.



In 2007, INI awarded Gene with a prestigious Excellence Award for leadership.



He had a cut-to-the-chase work ethic, advice and experiences to share. For every event, there was a memory.



A longtime beat writer covering Delaware State football, Gene followed the Hornets all over the south to such places as Tallahassee, Fla., where tailgating is so legendary that the pregame press notes once described the weather as “hot and smoky.” He loved to tell that tale.



The man loved sports, especially Miami Hurricanes football and just about any major college football he could watch on his high-definition television.



He and Dave Hughes, a member of our copy desk, started their sportswriting careers at the same time and enjoyed running arguments ever since about the National and American leagues and whether Mike Schmidt or Brooks Robinson was the better third baseman. Gene sided with Schmidt and the Phils.



On NASCAR weeks, we had the best resource in the state in our newsroom. Gene wrote about racing for nearly two decades.



In recent years, Gene shunned the press box, preferring to sit in the grandstands to take in the fumes and let the bits of Goodyear rubber and grit pepper his face. He wouldn’t go on Sundays because he hated the crowds and the traffic.



Gene got a lot of mileage out of his personal Dale Earnhardt story.



You have to picture Gene sitting by his pool, baking in the hot sun and enjoying every minute of it when the phone rings.



“Gene ... Earnhardt.”



“Talk fast,” Earnhardt told him.



Only in NASCAR, the old school NASCAR, could you get a superstar to return a phone call for an interview. He got calls from Rusty Wallace and Jeff Gordon that same day. In the mid-1990s, you couldn’t have done better.



We would often walk away as Gene was still telling the story, having heard it many times before.



“Talk fast.”



Gene would keep right on saying it, mimicking Earnhardt.



“Talk fast.”



Andrew West is managing editor of the Delaware State News.

Profits, Layoffs & Our Future

Email the CEO to share your ideas

There's a great deal of "gloom and doom" in the newspaper industry these days --- including some at Independent Newspapers. Let's discuss what's happening and try to put things in perspective.

INDUSTRY OWNERSHIP. Because newspapers have historically been quite profitable, most of them have been bought up by huge corporations whose primary interest is profit instead of service. In fact, some of them have been snapping up community newspapers as pure “financial plays” --- to squeeze out profits and get them ready to spin off to some other financial player. They think nothing of laying off people ruthlessly to fulfill their unrealistic promises to Wall Street.

INDUSTRY PROFITS. It's perfectly natural that newspaper profits aren't as high as they once were --- and they shouldn't be. The truth may be that newspaper publishing will never be as easy, or as profitable, as it once was. Newspapers no longer enjoy a monopoly. (In the long haul this change will be good for us and good for the country.) There has been a proliferation of new sources of information, and new forms of merchandising. And there are emerging technologies that are sure to change newspapers even more, and to threaten those that fail to change (or that make the wrong changes). Wall Street had better get used to lower (but still quite acceptable) profits, or they're going to kill the goose that lays the golden egg.

OUR OWNERSHIP. Independent is owned by a non-profit journalistic trust. We don't have to meet Wall Street's profit expectations. Because we don't have to pay dividends, we can thrive on modest profits. We're free to reinvest every penny of our after-tax profits back into the company and its journalistic mission. Further, this company's ownership is structured to ensure that it should never have to be sold.

OUR TRENDS. Still, Independent isn't exempt from the advertising slump that is hurting our entire industry. This is a tough time for us, too, for a variety of reasons: First, we recently made large investments in our new company-wide systems and the new printing plant and presses in Delaware, and in the new presses that will be arriving in Arizona this summer. While we are steadily building the volume that’s needed to support these investments, we then got hit by the national economic slowdown, with many advertisers slashing budgets.

OUR PROFITS. Like the rest of the industry, we are scrambling to improve our profits. We need profits to pay for the investments we have made, and to invest in the company's future growth. Our values preclude layoffs, so we're doing a variety of other things to reverse the unfavorable profit trends as quickly as possible. Our new presses are more efficient than the old ones, so they can do more work with less newsprint waste. We have been able to tighten our news holes without reducing coverage, thanks to the unlimited space at our newszap.com community websites. Many of our newspapers are using “go green” e-subscriptions to increase readership for our advertisers without increasing our printing and distribution costs. All these things will help, but payroll is our largest expense….

OPERATION SILVER LINING. We are holding every individual accountable for his or her personal productivity. Everybody has to contribute, and nobody can be a drain. As vacancies occur, we are not hiring from outside to fill even essential positions. Instead, under a program we call Operation Silver Lining, we ask people to transfer from other departments --- or even other offices --- to fill those positions, at least temporarily. Wherever practical, we're borrowing people from non-revenue-producing areas to help us stimulate sales.

OUR PEOPLE. I feel terrible that we have also been forced to freeze compensation or even reduce it in some cases; and to forego the usual company contribution to the 401k plan. We took these drastic measures only because we felt it was essential to everybody’s long-term future. Yet even in this tough economic climate, Independent's people are remaining positive, focused and committed. They are aware of the many other companies that have chosen layoffs as the path to profit improvement, and they're appreciative that their company rejects such "easy" solutions and instead pursues more creative and compassionate approaches. I'm SO proud of the willingness or our people to make these sacrifices so we can avoid layoffs, and I know that all INIers are proud of the company's history of over 40 years with no mass layoffs!

WE'LL BE STRONGER THAN EVER. The advertising slump is a natural part of the country's economic cycles, but we also know that some changes in our industry are more than just cyclical. Regardless, we will emerge stronger than ever. In fact, the investments we've made in our new systems and presses will provide a solid platform for the company's future prosperity and growth. We are going to serve our readers and advertisers more effectively and efficiently than ever. These investments are going to make us "leaner and meaner" --- and therefore much tougher competitors in each of our marketplaces.

VALUES WILL DRIVE US. Some people will still be able to do well in this business. These will be the people who understand that newspapers are a community institution, not just a profit center. The people who embrace the internet because they understand that newspapers and websites can be powerful complementary products instead of competitors. The people who are passionate about providing journalistic service to the community, not just draining it. The people who are values-driven rather than just profit-driven. This means you: Independent's people.

THE FUTURE IS EXCITING. We are fully aware of changing society trends, and quite excited about them. If fact, the internet suits our empowerment of communities so well that we are positioning ourselves to thrive in a fast-changing new media world. We are embracing the internet to create a new line of products to complement our newspapers, expanding our service to even the smallest of towns with serious, useful, informative community websites, forums, community calendars and online marketplace directories.

WE HELP BUILD COMMUNITIES. Meanwhile, however, we're living in a society that, as John Naisbitt predicted years ago, is drowning in information but starving for understanding. It has also become a society that is drowning in narcissism but starving for meaningful involvement. Our newspapers and websites can excel at helping people create communities and get involved. These are our strengths. Our job is to provide people with the information, understanding and involvement they need to make intelligent decisions in their community in our free society. (And if we are the place where people are making decisions, we’re also the natural place for them to make their buying decisions --- which presents a golden opportunity for our advertisers.)

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS? Do you agree or disagree with the thinking outlined above? Do you feel your company is taking the right steps to improve profits, to ride out the economic slowdown, and to prepare for a prosperous future? Do you feel we’re doing a good enough job of reinventing the work we do (instead of just asking everybody to do more with fewer people)? As to your specific job, are there some things we should stop doing entirely, and/or some things we could do better? Do you have concerns that aren't addressed here? If so, I'd love to hear from you --- and I promise that I will consider each suggestion carefully and that I will reply personally to each and every message.

(Joe Smyth is the board chair and CEO of Independent Newspapers, Inc. He can be reached by email at JoeSmyth@newszap.com.)

Ashley Smith joins Clewiston News/Glades County Democrat/The Sun staff

Ashley Smith

New part-time staffer Ashley Smith has been working in newspaper production for about two and half months at the Clewiston office.

“As news clerk, Ashley and has become a very dependable member of our staff,” stated News Editor Jose Zaragoza.

She is responsible for mining and processing copy for The Sun and the Clewiston News, in addition to paginating.

“I love my job,” said Ashley. “I enjoy building the pages and I love the friendly environment.”

Ashley maintains close communication with Okeechobee, namely Dee Hamilton, who gathers copy for the Glades County Democrat as well as state and regional stories.

“I feel that here, we all work together pretty well,” said Ashley. “Everyone is willing to help.”

She often volunteers to cover events and supply us with pictures and she turns almost mundane occurrences into opportunities to display photographic flair.

Caloosa Belle/Immokalee Bulletin

The Caloosa Belle and Immokalee Bulletin staff includes, from left: Advertising Consultant Shawn Strawser, Ad Services Barbara Calfee, Editor Patty Brant and Ad Sales Coordinator Dale Conyers.

Western Hendry County is a place in transition. Emerging from a strong farming, ranching and citrus culture and economic base, the area is going through a series of growing pains. As recently as the past two years, the economy was on zoom – the real estate market was on overdrive.

New buildings and businesses were mushrooming in LaBelle, the county seat and Caloosa Belle turf.

As with the rest of the country, though, the real estate bubble popped. The town and its residents are now regrouping – looking for a stable and sustainable way into the future. LaBelle residents have seen this before – it was the real estate boom, and then crash, of late 1920s. The CB (known as the Hendry County News) was there to help the area through those tough times and remains a strong cohesive influence in the community.

The Caloosa Belle has been Western Hendry County’s community newspaper since 1922 when, as the Caloosahatchee Current, it was a driving force in carving Hendry County from the eastern portion of Lee County.

An interior, rural county, Hendry is emerging from its Old Florida past – looking for ways to retain its historical and cultural richness while feeling its way into a prosperous future. The area’s hometown newspaper is still here, with a tiny group of mostly veteran newspaper people working together to build a strong twin core of advertising and editorial.

With just a four-person crew in LaBelle, the Calooa Belle staff enthusiastically tackles the challenging tasks of newspapering in a changing economy. The advertising staff includes salesman Shawn Strawsser (the new kid on our block with about a year at the CB). Shawn came to us from Sunshine Printing, where he was Assistant Post Press Supervisor for about a year before INI closed down the plant in Lake Placid.

Ad Sales Coordinator Dale Conyers has been with the Caloosa Belle for 12 years. He is the office graphics artist, but his duties also include sales, office computer guru as well as assisting with pagination.

Barbara Calfee keeps everything straight from the front desk with customer service, data entry and some sales. She’s been with the CB for nine years and is the face everyone first sees when they arrive at the office.

Editor Patty Brant has been with the CB for 23 years. She is handling editorial duties on her own these days, writing stories, taking photos and representing the newspaper in the community.

As with all the Florida publications, the CB is relying heavily on our readers to send in copy and photos while Patty tries to cover the hard news. Dee Hamilton in the Okeechobee office takes care of processing the bulk of copy and photos that come in from the community. Dee also keeps in touch with community volunteers via email and phone to keep that much-needed pipeline of information flowing. Circulation duties are handled from Okeechobee by Janet Madray. A Thursday publication, the 7,500 copies of the CB hit the streets weekly.

Most recently the CB staff switched over to the InDesign program with pagination returning to the individual papers. Since Patty and Dale both had previous pagination experience with Quark, the transition has gone quite well.

When INI bought the Caloosa Belle in 1987, the LaBelle staff took on responsibility for the Immokalee Bulletin as well. With no office in the tiny unincorporated town of Immokalee, the Caloosa Belle staff – with a major assist from Dee at the copy desk in Okeechobee - keeps churning out this weekly paper with a circulation of 3,500. Dee has developed a great group of volunteer contributors in Immokalee and has developed a special affection for the little town, even though she has never been there. Many weeks the entire paper is made up of contributed items, as the community has really taken ownership of “their” newspaper.

As is the case in LaBelle, Immokalee’s roots are also strongly agricultural and it is also caught up in the challenges of a sluggish economy while planning for the future. Located in the northeastern portion of Collier County, Immokalee is very affected by the environmental issues of the Everglades.

The small staff of the CB and IB continues to take on the challenges of the sluggish economy, using technology to bridge the gaps in what used to be a more face-to-face business.

Tom Byrd, Florida VP of Operations, had this to say regarding the CB/IB group: “The Caloosa Belle division, being most heavily dependent on real estate advertising, and being closest to the economically plagued coastal markets of Southwest Florida, has faced the most challenging sales environment of any of our Florida papers over this last year.

“However, though sales revenue has been substantially off last year, the division has remained profitable,” he continued. “That is thanks to the efforts of the local team, but also the news service team in Okeechobee.

“ A great success story for us this year has been remarkable ability of news staffers in Okeechobee to expand our news reach and connectivity to individuals and groups in both LaBelle and Immokalee. In particular, Dee Hamiliton, is to be commended for the job she has done cultivating community sources and information streams from these areas.

“Using largely email and keeping in close touch with contacts, Dee has actually been able to increase our ‘names and faces’ in both Immokalee and LaBelle. With local community editor Patty Brant focusing on LaBelle, Dee has actually been the primary contact for news gathering in Immokalee, as we have no news staffer there ‘on the street.’ The results have shown up in the paper with plenty of useful local content.

“In turn, this has supported our advertising thrust in Immokalee, where our new sales person Shawn Strawser has made many new calls,” he continued. “In fact, Immokalee advertising revenue for the year is actually up 6 percent over last year, and the improving news content has combined nicely with the more focused local sales effort being provided by Shawn Strawser. Another impressive accomplishment of the team that I am proud of is their rapid embracing of the new editorial software and the decentralized pagination model. That is consistent with the overall strategic direction we are headed, and makes puts the CB/IB group in a better position to do what they do best.”

East Valley office photo contest awards best of the best

Independent Newspapers/Terrance Thornton

The May 2008 winner of the East Valley office's Photo of the Month contest was Jill Adair, news services assistant, for her published Cat in the Hat girl photograph.

By Richard H. Dyer

We’ve always had topnotch, creative photographers on staff at the East Valley office, but we’ve kicked it up a notch or two with an in-house monthly photo contest.

The winner has bragging rights for a month and can put a traveling trophy on his or her desk labeled “East Valley Photo of the Month 2008.”

The criteria for the contest are simple: The photo must have been in that month’s printed Apache Junction/Gold Canyon, East Mesa or Queen Creek Independent; and the digital image must be placed in the editor’s pics folder, by month, by midnight of the last day of the month.

Three or four judges are conscripted in the office and they choose their top three pics. From those, a winner and one or two honorable mentions are chosen. News services team member Jill Adair coordinates the contest, including rounding staff members up for presentations and printing off “Photo of the Month” certificates for winners. We also snap a photo of the winner for the weekly Arizona INI bulletin.

The contests have been held since December 2007. Two special contests focused on the annual Lost Dutchman Days Rodeo.

All have benefited from the contests, using extra care in placing subjects in the frame, maximizing depth-of-field, creating interest in a main subject by being off-focus in the foreground, and – of course ­– snapping pics with lots of faces. Jill completed an advanced PhotoShop seminar earlier this year, passing along her knowledge to the staff members, ensuring that the photos are bright when in full color and with contrast when in black-and-white images in the newspapers.

We’ve also sent out “Outstanding Volunteer Photographer” certificates to show appreciation for great photos that come in from our volunteer submitters.

East Valley office winners by month have been:

*December 2007: Winner, Richard H. Dyer, for Boys & Girls Club wrapping party.

*January 2008: Winner, Terrance Thornton, for AJ mayor; honorable mention to Angela DeWelles, for Gov. Janet Napolitano.

*Lost Dutchman Days Rodeo special contest: Winner, Jill Adair, for cousins’ ride; honorable mention, Twyla Knudson, for royalty parade; and honorable mention, Angela DeWelles, for cowboy kids.

*Lost Dutchman Days Richard vs. Terrance special contest: Winner, Richard H. Dyer, for steer wrestling; and honorable mention, Terrance Thornton, for bucking bronco.

*February 2008: Winner, Angela DeWelles, for library girls; honorable mention, Richard H. Dyer, for team roping; and honorable mention, Todd Hoover, for Holocaust survivor.

*March 2008: Winner, Richard H. Dyer, for tractor show.

*April 2008: Winner, Richard H. Dyer, for utility workers; and honorable mention, Jill Adair, for golf course.

*May 2008: Winner, Jill Adair, for Cat in the Hat girl; honorable mention, Richard H. Dyer, for graduating high school students under an umbrella; and honorable mention, Jill Adair, for first graders performing at a Dr. Seuss family night.

Brian Keller joins North Valley team

In May, Brian Keller joined the Independent Newspapers’ North Valley team in Arizona as an outside sales manager.

Brian came from the beverage industry, and was most recently with Red Bull Desert Sales for 6 years in account management and sales, rising to the level of sales operations manager.

Prior to that, Brian worked for Coors Distributing in Denver, Colorado.

Brian is a native Arizonan and grew up in the North Valley, attending Chaparral High School as a High School All American swimmer. He also swam competitively in college.

Brian’s experience also includes work with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Scottsdale as the Barker Branch athletic director.

He lives in Scottsdale and has two children.

The team welcomes Brian and celebrates his early success in bringing in new and returning clients to the two North Valley publications, the North Scottsdale Independent and the Town of Paradise Valley Independent.

Brian’s positive attitude and seemingly endless supply of Red Bull have already made a terrific impact on the team!