[00:00:00] Speaker A: Daily Gazette reporter Chad Arnold returned to the podcast studio. But instead of talking about comic books and Schenectady County News, he came on to talk about a new, exciting role that he will begin with the Gazette News Group. Shortly after working with Chad for the past four years, there were things that I didn't know about him, and it was a pleasure for him to explain his own journey into journalism. Coming to the Daily Gazette and now his newest role within the company.
Welcome reporter Chad Arnold as he tells me his story.
All right, Chad Arnold, welcome back to the podcast studio.
[00:00:38] Speaker B: Yeah, thanks for having me, Stan. Good to be here.
[00:00:40] Speaker A: So I like to think that I call myself the Dean of Fun and I like to bring people in for good news.
And this is like kind of a good news day as you're going to be taking on a new role here shortly within the Gazette Media Group and Gazette News Group. One or the other or both.
[00:01:01] Speaker B: Yeah, we're.
[00:01:02] Speaker A: It's one of those.
[00:01:03] Speaker B: Exactly. We are also local news, right?
[00:01:06] Speaker A: Yes, yes. So just you're starting a new role and this is part of the Community Journalism Fund, which the company and the building we're very excited to take to kick off and talk about. So, you know, what's going to change? What are you going to be doing here in the coming weeks that's different from what you're doing that we know you for today, covering Schenectady County.
[00:01:30] Speaker B: Yeah. So in the coming weeks I'll be stepping into a new role, as you said. I'll be covering healthcare for our entire readership area, really our entire region and supported by the Community Journalism Fund, which really quickly. It's a nonprofit know, kind of entity, wing of, of the, of the Gazette Gazette News Group. And it's, you know, supported by donations is really the philanthropic effort is what it is. And so I'll be covering healthcare really kind of, kind of in depth healthcare. Right. Like, what does, you know, there's so much you could do with this, but there's, you know, so what's going on? What's the in and outs of what's happening at the hospitals? What's going on, you know, with things like Medicaid and what's going on with the insurance companies, the world of mental health, you know, addiction support services. And there's just so many. I'm sure we could sit here for the next half hour and just list all the possible topics, but there's just so many things that we'll be covering and so we'll be doing a little bit deeper, dive into all These topics as we kind of get into it a little bit. And so it's, it's an exciting. Right. It's a little bit overwhelming because again, there's just so much. But I also think just the scope of what can be covered is what kind of makes it all exciting.
[00:02:38] Speaker A: And I know just from saying that the to do list has got to be almost pages long on that, the whiteboard of story ideas.
So does that excite you or is it apprehensive like, but which one do I tackle first? Or is it just, it's, it's really a, you know, locally, it's something that has not been covered in depth like this. So is that part of the excitement, you know, for this new role?
[00:03:06] Speaker B: Yeah, I do. I think there's, there's a lot to be excited about. Like you said, it's a long list. So right now we're in the midst of a government shutdown, right.
And a big, that's, you know, health care and, and you know, health care subsidies is, is a, is a huge, that's what's driving this. Right. And so, you know, so there's so much changes on the federal level right now too. And then obviously we have, state lawmakers are going to be coming back to Albany come January. So there's just so much, so much going on in healthcare. And you know, healthcare is one of these special, you know, I don't want to say it's a specialty field, but it almost kind of feels like a specialty field. Right. Like, I think for so long local newspapers have kind of been focused on just really covering the local government community, things that happen. Like, we, you know, I could tell you here at the Gazette, we, we've definitely covered healthcare. I've written a lot of stories about healthcare, whether it's, you know, concerns about staffing levels and things like that. But it was never really the in depth coverage. Right. It was always kind of, we covered it when we needed to and then we kind of moved on to what, you know, what our, our readers are accustomed to. So this is really again, I think just an opportunity to do really a deep dive and just focus solely on healthcare and really kind of explain what's happening and really what this means for individuals, our readership and our larger community. And so I mean, like you said though, the list is just, it's never, it just, it continues to grow. It's one of these things that continues to grow.
So that's where it's going to be having conversations with other reporters and other editors and just Trying to figure out, all right, what's, what's the next best step. And it's something too. I think we want to hear from readers as well. That's something I'm looking forward to talking to when we get this off the ground is what do people want us to cover? What are their concerns? What are their questions? And we kind of build it from there. So a lot to do, but very exciting time.
[00:04:50] Speaker A: What has been your journalism journey? And we've been together, you know, in the building for a couple years now together.
But you know, what's been, you know, your journey, you know, not only to the Gazette, you know, but, but in, in this wonderful industry, the gift that keeps on giving in journalism. So what's the, the hit, the, the story of Chad?
[00:05:15] Speaker B: Yeah, so I have, I have a unique story.
You know, I'm not one of these. I'm 35 right now and I've been a professional reporter now for six years.
So when I graduated high school, I had no idea what I want to do with life, right. It was 2008, I didn't know where I was going with life.
So I didn't go to college right away. But one of the things my parents told me I had to do was like I need medical, I needed to have some kind of health care. Actually. It's kind of, kind of funny now that we're talking about this, but there was no Affordable Care act at the time. So it was, I believe it was. You had one year after you graduated, then you had no insurance. And so I ended up getting a job at a local UPS warehouse, kind of a part time gig. And I got insurance after six months. So that kind of got my parents off my back a little bit there. And I was working a retail job and I was originally going to become a driver, driver for UPS. But you need to have a CDL license. You can't get that until you're 21. And I was this long haired, 18 year old kid and so I was kind of, I call it my, my treading water years, right. Because I just wasn't really doing it. And I had no idea. I had this plan, but I couldn't execute that plan. But then as I started to work in the warehouse, I started talking to drivers and then there's. Everyone kind of told me like how terrible the job was. But then the next thing they said was like, you should definitely do this when you turn 21. And I was like, what are you talking about? You just told me it's terrible.
And so we I kind of. I kind of floundered for a couple years. But one of the things the company did is they offered tuition reimbursement. So I got myself into a local community college and I was originally going to. I was thinking about communications because I was really into heavy metal at the time and so it's fun. I started to like write about heavy metal bands for fun and I kind of got a little bit of following and I had some friends. So I was going to do public relations for heavy metal bands. That was the dream, right?
But then I got to community college. I took a class about. It was called Journalism Democracy and started talking about the importance that journalism has within a democracy and all this stuff. And it kind of just resonated with me, right, because here I was, wasn't really doing anything with my life and then it was like, oh, I could make a difference. And I took an actual journalism class and the writing kind of clicked a little bit and so these pieces started to kind of come together.
So eventually from there I graduated and then I moved on to University at Albany because I kind of wanted to be where the government was, right? I kind of. This is what I want to do now. So I figured there'd be opportunities here.
I found my opportunity. I got an internship at the USA Today Network's Albany bureau. Work with Joe, Joe Spector and John Campbell, two really phenomenal reporters who really just fantastic mentors and did that for. It was a one year internship. They asked me to stay on for two years and then Covid hit and I didn't think I was ever going to get a job. But luckily the postar was hiring still somehow.
So I got a job there up in Glens Falls. And I was there for about a year and a half and then Miles Reed, the editor here at the Daily Gazette, sent me a DM on Twitter. It was like, hey, we have an opening, are you interested? And I said absolutely. And I've been here since 2021. Started off covering the city of Schenectady and then I transitioned about a year later. And now I cover the towns of Sketchy county, so Glenville, Scotia, Rotterdam, Duanesburg, and the.
The county government as well.
[00:08:32] Speaker A: What's the transition like? Because in that heavy metal rock, you know, again, favorite movie, Almost Famous. Everyone should see it, you know, following the bands and that whole dynamic, that environment really transitioning to the button down business casual.
For some people, including myself, I view the hardest part is the mundane, the meetings and things like that. And that minutia so important because if you can read the tea leaves and comprehend all these things that are coming at you, that's where you can deliver that message to the readers.
Was there an automatic in this town type of thing that you were like, oh, I get this too?
[00:09:19] Speaker B: Yeah. So I really kind of started to wake up in that moment. Right. Cause I was, you know.
You know, you're following the bands, you're reading all that stuff and that. That's great. But, you know, at the end of the day, that stuff is.
It doesn't really matter. Right. So then it's just a matter of. I started to really kind of started to read more local news, started reading more national news, and I started to kind of pay attention to everything that was kind of going on and. And kind of why it mattered and things like that. And so, you know, switching to local government, I mean, I would tell you first, it was. It was a little bit of a daunting task. I will say. The. The editors at the Postar were very generous with their time. I mean, the first budget story I ever had, I was just like, what. What is this? What are these lines? What are these numbers? I don't. You know what I mean? I was so. I was so lost and so confused.
Luckily, I had some really good colleagues there, and I was able to ask them some questions, and they were really patient with me.
And we kind of just, you know, at some point, though, eventually just clicks, right? You know, I mean, I can't remember an actual.
Oh, you know, I can't remember the actual moment it clicked, but I just remember my third budget story. Writing that year was a lot easier than my first. Right. So eventually you start to kind of pick up on things. And, you know, as you build more relationships, people start talking to you more. And then again, you just ask them questions and they kind of understand it and everything like that. And. And so that's really what it kind of came kind of came down to, is just kind of building these relationships, not being afraid to ask these questions, and really just kind of reading as much as I can, try to understand what's going on.
But again, luckily, I've had some really good people along my career have been able to help me out.
[00:10:55] Speaker A: I think there's. And I want to see if we share this same type of journey.
When you read about people, you see people on televisions and things like that, there's that Persona that people have that you see in print and you see on tv. And then in our roles, we talk to people. We talk to people a lot and what I found a long time ago was that when I was in college, I had to cover hockey.
College hockey. Ken Shadow loved this story.
I knew nothing about hockey. The high school I grew up in and I graduated before some of our colleagues were born, didn't even have soccer.
We had football, we had basketball, we had baseball. That's it. We were a class E school. Right now they go AAA, down to D. So I mean, we were at E. So we're a. Dot Hancock, New York. So I go to college and I'm writing in school, and it's hockey. And I'm like, I have no clue. I've seen it. I know the sport. I was sports writer. I loved it.
But when you have those questions of coaches and I sat down with four hockey players in the study hall and they went over the game and things like that, and talk about dumping the puck and things like that, and you talk to coaches about the 2, 3 defense in basketball, things like that.
I have found as a reporter, if you're willing to say, I don't have a grasp on this, I want to get it right, can you help me? And my journey has been, I've been very fortunate in sports that 90% of the coaches are also educators, and they've been very helpful and things like that. And I. And again, I'll have subjects I'll see and I'll cover. You know, ev. The EV Industry on Sunday, everybody from Link. Well, was so welcoming and things like that. Is that kind of like the same thing like, you're talking about? Like, again, you see all these lines. And now as the business editor, like, I've leaned on you a couple times already, and that's not going to change.
People want you to understand what they're trying to get at.
[00:12:54] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:12:54] Speaker A: Not necessarily the message, but they want you to get it right as much as you want to get it right. So is that. Do you think people are sometimes surprised at that? Like how welcoming a council member, a mayor?
I found some of the best people are, you know, behind the scenes, the planners and things like the planning board members have been absolutely phenomenal.
Did that help?
[00:13:16] Speaker B: Yeah. Oh, absolutely. I mean, it is, I would say, my experience just about everyone in these positions, whether it's a planning board, whether it's a town board, village board, whoever it might be, or they're there because they care about the community.
[00:13:28] Speaker A: Right.
[00:13:28] Speaker B: They want to serve that community. And if you're there and you're making an effort and you're trying to ask questions and you're. You're being as earnest as you possibly can is something that they. They pick up on right away because it's. And also, I think people really also understand the impact of a newspaper, believe it or not. You know, I know there's a lot of people in this day and age who are like, oh, who bothers with that? It's like, you be. A lot of people bother with that. You know what I mean? A lot of people care about that.
So I think they understand that, you know, maybe they have a message and if you're gonna get. They'd rather have. Take the time talking with you, get. Make sure the message is accurate. At least things from their side are accurate as opposed to having an inaccurate story and having to deal with the fall of that. So that's something that is, you know, really kind of a. It's a great thing to see that people really do care and it does mean a lot.
But I. In every interview I do, and to say thank you for your time. I really appreciate it, as always, you know, that that's how I end every single interview I do, regardless of who I'm talking to.
Because, you know, sometimes it takes a while. You know what I mean? It's like, why. Hang on a second, let me. Now. You know what I mean? Let's go back for a second. You know what I mean? So, I mean, that's. That's great. You know, that's been pivotal in my career. I think every reporter will honestly tell you that these kind of relationships and these types of experiences are something that's played a pretty big role in their career.
[00:14:39] Speaker A: I've stolen a line from Tom, Tom Demopoulos, and he's great. We've been around doing this for decades.
And Tom has a favorite line when he gets into something like this that's kind of like out of the, you know, out of the wheelhouse. And he goes, okay, talk to me like I'm 10.
[00:14:56] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:14:56] Speaker A: And Todd said that. And. But he's. But it's. It's that humorous way of like, I need to explain this to our readers.
So the more I comprehend it, the more I can deliver the facts and the information and make it digestible. It's not the infamous never dumb it down. Never.
[00:15:17] Speaker B: Right.
[00:15:17] Speaker A: Just make it available and digestible is, I think, the rule.
[00:15:22] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. And what I like to do, I mean, like, the thing I tell any young reporter now that I talk to, is just make sure you fully understand it, because you're going to have to be able to stand by every single word that you write. And that's something that was really kind of imparted on me while I was in college, is like, you got to be able to defend this. Right? Every single word. You got to be able to defend. And so I do now with the budget story, I sit time, I sit down with it, hour, hour and a half, however long taste go by line by line. I get the numbers where I write, and I call whoever I'm going to call, and I say, all right, let's talk about this. Here's what I got. Kind of give them my notes. Is that your understanding? If it's.
[00:15:57] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:15:57] Speaker B: Like, okay, let's move on. If it's. No, like, well, hang on. What did I miss? What do you have? And then we can kind of go compare notes that way. But it's just being able to be like you said, you got to be able to explain it so everyone can read it. The worst emails you get are when somebody says, I understand what you wrote. You know what I mean? Then it's like, what are you talking about? Makes sense to me. Maybe not that. Right. Which is why I have, like, an editor, too. And the number of times I've had conversations with editors over the years where it's just like, I think I know what you're saying, but I think we can make it clear how can we do it? And then we kind of just go from there.
[00:16:26] Speaker A: And those are. Those are the unseen.
[00:16:30] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:16:31] Speaker A: The most valuable people in the industry are those editors, which.
Which we're losing institutional knowledge, we're losing talent and things like that, at times, it's hard.
It is hard. I've had great editors when I was back at the Saratoga and the Troy Record, and unfortunately, things thinned down. It got really hard and not a lot of time. And then I came down here and Michael Kelly, who I've known for over a decade as a Shenandoah baseball player, as a reporter, and then as an editor, I was in a situation where I thought the first month he hated me, but it'd been the first time someone read what I wrote before we put it out. And he made me such a better writer. That still continues with Miles Reed and Andrew Puglis and even. Even our. Even our peers taking a first glow through in the copy desk and things like that. So do mistakes happen? Sure. I fixed a typo online.
You know, it was one of those we correct. We changed the headline for our purposes, but it ended up being just a minor thing. But we did it. Yeah, it happens. It always.
It's never going to go away. There's no magic brush. AI still going to put stupid things in there, even if we. Everything was done by AI.
[00:17:44] Speaker B: Right.
[00:17:45] Speaker A: But those people are unsung heroes that I think need to be credited and take it with a grain of salt, because people want to jump on everything they see on Facebook. And a lot of times for us, yeah, they're only going to get the headline because if they're not a subscriber, they're not going to get the whole thing. And, you know, we're going to get that, which is just what we have, and that's the way it is. But there's a lot of blood. Blood and sweat that goes into almost every story.
[00:18:09] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. And there's a lot of. I could tell you, speaking of editors, I mean, they've saved me a lot of heartache. I'll be with a story, like a big story, and I'm like. I feel like I'm overwhelmed. I'm on deadline. I sit down, I talk to an editor, like, I'm having trouble with this, and they go, well, why don't you just do this? And I sit there and I go, yep, you're right. That's what I'm gonna do. But before that, I'm gonna go for a walk, clear my head, and I'm just gonna go, just move on. You know what I mean? So we have some really good editors here, for sure, and I'm glad that we can give them the attention that they deserve.
[00:18:34] Speaker A: So, back on the upcoming coverage and things like that, why do you think local health care coverage is important for our readers in our five daily publications? And I think that's what's important for people to realize that you're a regional healthcare reporter. So what's important to the families in Fulton and Montgomery county are just important to the families in the Catskill, in the Greene county, the area, as well as Saratoga, Schenectady and beyond, and on the Web. So why is that important?
[00:19:11] Speaker B: I mean, health care impacts everyone, right? I mean, there's not a single person who's immune to it. Right. Maybe if you haven't gone through some issues with healthcare yourself, you definitely know somebody who has. And so being able to kind of explain, you know, maybe some. Some of these changes that are happening, you know, well above all of our heads, whether it's on the federal government, the state level, maybe issues with your insurance company or your local hospital, or maybe just a dearth of providers in the area so you can't get the care you need. I mean, These are all things that need to be kind of put out there for people to understand, shine some light onto it. Right. Again, you hear the, the old adage, the sunshine is the best disinfectant, right. So, you know, there's some changes that are being made that are adversely impacting people.
It's important that people know about what's going on, you know what I mean? And have these people kind of explain, you know, the powers that be kind of explain to their decisions.
For me, yeah, that's really what it comes down to. And I want, I want whatever work I'm going to be doing to be really community oriented, people focused. Right.
There's going to be a lot of data and stuff, but at the end of the day, you know, I want people to understand, pick this up, read what I write and say this is not just, maybe it's not impacting them, but it's going to be impacting their neighbors, their community as a whole. And I think that is, is why it's so important. Because, you know, I think a lot of time people, you know, it doesn't affect me, so why does it matter? It matters because it's going to affect how many other people that live in the Greater Capital Region. So it's just like I said, there's so much that we can do with it and I just think so many people are going to be impacted by it. And that's what it is. It's just healthcare impacts everyone.
[00:20:48] Speaker A: One of the conversations we've had, and this is not an overnight, this is not an overnight thing because our publisher, John d', Agostine, I mean, I think we've talked about the community fund, the Community Journalism fund for a year now, hoping to get it off the ground, finding out the proper way to get it off the ground, partnering for the mechanics of it, per se, for how the funds are delivered and sorted out and then getting the 501C3 status was a huge step for us. This new venture, this new position is not available in the Daily Gazette. Daily position grind, per se. That position doesn't exist. This position does not exist without the Community Journalism fund. And this is only one plank of that fund with plans for more to come.
So what does that support mean for what you're going to be doing here?
For our readers?
[00:21:48] Speaker B: It means everything.
You know, having a separate 501C3 and being able to raise funding just to kind of do these specialty roles right is kind of something that I think is unique. I'm not aware of a daily newspaper that has anything like that, at least definitely not in this region.
You know, giving us an opportunity to.
To really kind of go beyond the local governments and the local folks that we have and do something like a little bit more enterprise and a little bit more broad and. And really impactful. This is something that I think is. I think it would excite any reporter. It definitely excites me, for sure. When it was kind of presented to me, I was kind of like, this is kind of a reporter's dream, right? Having a sole focus on something that is so broad and you could do so many things with is just such an exciting prospect. And again, having that support, it really just. It makes all the difference because like you said, it just wouldn't be possible to have this kind of niche focus if not for that support.
[00:22:49] Speaker A: So we're going to get you out of here on this. Probably. Maybe when we talk comic books, we heard about the fun. We'd heard about the different planks that were available, and there's a variety of them.
Healthcare kind of was the first top line on the fund availability for this healthcare coverage.
The new venture out of the fund, but also healthcare industry.
What was that hook to you? Because you have to have an interest to deliver.
So what was like, was there a personal, you know, hook for you or a gravitation to this kind of, what, you know, when it was healthcare, you're like, I'm the guy, I'm the person.
[00:23:33] Speaker B: I think really the hook for me was just, you know, I sound like a broken record at this time, but it really is just. Just how wide of a coverage area it is, and just the fact that it's. It's going to be my sole focus. And it's something that, you know, when I was offered the position, I had a couple questions for. For our publisher, John d', Agostine, and one of them was like, well, where does this leave me? With the rest of the newsroom, right? Like, you know, I don't want to do municipal coverage and healthcare at the same time, but I'm happy to kind of contribute where you need me to contribute, right? So if Ted Ramschneider is busy one day and there's a major court case going on, like, I can go cover court. I can do that, you know, or if there's breaking news, I can drop what I'm doing. I can go cover that, right? And his answer to me was no. Like you, this is it. You're being supported by this fund and you're going to do solely health care that's what they're doing. And so to. Not only.
So I think to hear that the Daily Gazette was kind of in on a major topic, like healthcare was one thing, but to hear him say, like, no, this is all you're gonna be doing is like, oh, he's not just in. He's all in on this. And so that, again, I think, is an exciting prospect for any reporter to hear that, like, I'm gonna have a massive beat where there's just endless amounts of stories to tell, and that's all I'm gonna focus on, is such a. An incredible.
It's kind of the dream job. I think a lot of young reporters want that, but when they go into a small local newspaper, that's not necessarily what happens, because there are less resources now, and you got to kind of get the paper out. Right?
So being able to have the attention and the focus in the back end of a nonprofit and of a company, to say, like, hey, this is it. We're all in on this. It's. It's such a. How could you say no to it? It's kind of literally, you know, it's an opportunity I couldn't say no to. And so I'm happy to do it. And again, there's just so many big issues right now at the federal level.
You know, we have Ellis Hospital, potential merger going on with St. Peter's Health partners and things like that. And so all topics that, you know, need to be explored a little bit more dove into. And so to be the one to do it. Ecstatic, very excited.
[00:25:33] Speaker A: And that kind of. I was gonna. You kind of. You talked about it a little bit.
But I want to kind of wrap on this one is that, you know, you have written about healthcare in the area and you've kind of got a. You know, the good news is you're not dropping in to the Daily Gazette. You know, the Gazette News Group from out of town. So, you know these names, you know, these players, not only the CEO, but obviously the communications people and the programs and things like that.
How much of a leg up does that give you when you step into this new role, you know, as it launches? And. And what are some of the early channel. Like, if there's the big three, you know, what's the big three on your board? Like, we said the list is going to be 20, 25 things. But, like, what are the big three that you're thinking of? Like, you know, if you're in a pitch meeting per se, to the fund or to John or editorial staff, what would you pick out?
[00:26:31] Speaker B: So I think, number one, right now, because again, we're in the midst of this government shutdown, I want to know what these subsidies are, how that's going to impact us here locally and what that means for the individuals who have, you know, who rely on these subsidies to pay for their health care. Number two, I want to really dive into Medicaid. There's been a lot of some cuts to Medicaid approved by Congress this past summer, and that's going to have a huge impact on local hospitals. Right. I mean, Schenectady alone has.
I don't know the exact number off the top of my head, but it's a huge chunk of their revenue comes from Medicaid.
So where does that leave Ellis Hospital? You know, we have St. Mary's out in Amsterdam, a rural hospital, too, you know, doesn't have the massive amount of revenues coming in as some of the other hospitals that we have in our, in our system. And so what does that mean for them as well?
[00:27:21] Speaker A: Right.
[00:27:21] Speaker B: You know, are we going to be able to keep these lights on, keep these doors open? And, you know, and also is the human aspect of it, too, is like you rely on Medicaid. So now what do these cuts mean for you? What do these changes mean for you?
And the third, I think, is a dearth of coverage, whether it's pediatrics or specialty care, whatever it might be. I think that's something that is. That needs to be kind of explored a little bit more because there may be people who have insurance, who have good insurance but just can't go to a doctor because they just the waiting list or however long they may be. So at that point, it's, you can have the best insurance in the world. If you can't find a doctor that will treat you, what's the point? You know what I mean? So I want to really kind of dive into that as well. Just where are we lagging in this county or this region? Where can it be improved? And again, where does that leave the people that need the care?
[00:28:12] Speaker A: Well, just so our listeners know that they have the opportunity to give and support coverage that strengthens our community through the Community Journalism Fund at the Daily Gazette. So it is an opportunity to donate today and you can do
[email protected] and that's available to everyone, again, a registered 501C3. So that not only supports the work that our own Chad Arnold is doing, but also continuing expanding these roles through the availability through the Community Journalism Fund and the Daily Gazette. So I'd be remiss if we didn't mention that and welcome everyone to take that opportunity to support, continue to support great journalism not only through being a daily get set subscriber in print and online, but also the directed type of donation you can make through the Community journalism fund through cjfund.org is immeasurable. And we can't thank those people that came before us to help us create the funds, including the Hume family, who were very generous to really give us that jump start for this. And the fund has grown and also to the board members that are on the, that are part of this fund that keep it going and also manage it for us. So I can't wait.
I mean, you're still gonna be in the office.
[00:29:39] Speaker B: Still gonna be in the office. I'll still be in the office. And that was important to me too. That was another question that was part of our conversation I had with John d' Augustine is like, I have knowledge, I have some things that I could pass on to whoever steps in my role. And I want to be able to do that. And so I will, I will do that. I will be doing that. So, you know, I don't know as we talk right now who's going to be filling that role, but I can tell you I will be talking to them every single day and see if they have any questions, if anything I can do to support them.
I will definitely be doing that for sure. So.
[00:30:10] Speaker A: All right. And again, this will be launching here very shortly and you can get it touch with
[email protected] and that's not going to change. No. And he'll be sharing more emails to the next individual comes on to fill those very large shoes. I'm excited.
So thanks for coming on and I can't wait to start reading some of these new so, so important, meaningful pieces that you're going to be delivering for us.
[00:30:41] Speaker B: Yeah, very much looking forward to it. Very much looking forward to it. A lot to cover, but I will, I can't wait to get started. That's really what it comes down to at this point. I'm just be dumped. I'll be jumping in head first, but it should be good. I'm excited about it and I really, again, I want to hear from our readers, you know, what their concerns are, what they want to be explored. And you know, that's what drives good journalism. Right. Is the community. And so I want to hear from the community. So please, you know, feel free to reach out at any time.
And, you know, we can go from there, start building these relationships, start building that, add to that growing list of story ideas that you may have. So please do not be a stranger.
