Serving the Community

Growing up in Loveland, CO I was part of what would be considered a small town. In this small but growing community, I felt close to all of my neighbors and can attribute that to my local newspaper. While the small community's population has matured to 59,563 citizens according to Loveland's online profile, I still feel that the Loveland Daily Reporter-Herald is working for the people to maintain a tight knit community.
In an effort to remind myself why I am choosing to obtain a degree in journalism, I went to my roots. I contacted the Loveland Daily Reporter-Herald to interview one of their reporters and was fortunate enough to get in contact with the city editor Jeff Stahla. Stahla shared his story on how he became a journalist with me as well as his personal opinions about journalism with his newspaper.
Stahla's journalist path began during his freshman year of college. As a math major, Stahla was not satisfied, so he searched for alternate activities to participate in that would be as he said, "more intellectually and spiritually stimulating." In his search, Stahla ended up volunteering for his school's newspaper and began to study communications. From there, Stahla took a job with a "small community newspaper in Wyoming," which he attributes for teaching him more about journalism then school.
Now as the city editor for the Loveland Daily Reporter-Herald, Stahla is able to mold the newspaper into a true community journalism medium and share what he believes is good journalism with the Loveland community.
"Good journalism makes readers smarter and empowers them to take appropriate action to have a more fulfilling life and better community," Stahla said.
Through out the questionnaire, it is evident that Stahla is devoted to serving the Loveland community and dedicated to bringing citizens "good journalism." Stahla and his staff have developed a relationship with the readers, so that the community will come to the Loveland Daily Reporter-Herald to share their story ideas with the reporters. This enables the newspaper to cover community activities that might go over-looked with a limited staff.
While Stahla admits that his newspaper is affected by the shift in how news is shared, he says that the circulation continues to grow. He gives the supportive community the credit for the Loveland Daily Reporter-Herald's ability to stay afloat; the public is willing to share their personal news with the community, which makes a difference when the newsroom is smaller then desired.
"I went into journalism because I am impassioned by the duty of making th people around me more aware of the world around them-- including matters of substance, like government and finance, and matters of more entertaining value, such as features on personalities and other topics," Stahla said.
Stahla reinforced my beliefs in journalism and reminded me of my motivation to become a journalist who writes for the people. I hope that I can channel my passion for serving the community into the news I share with them; Stahla's opinions have shown me that I can make a difference in the community that I write for.