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From the editor: How my job keeps evolving after 25 years at the StarNews

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7 months ago

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From the editor: How my job keeps evolving after 25 years at the StarNews

As part of our reimagined Sunday StarNews, we’ve been featuring Q&As and columns with staff members. They’ve not only provided information on what they do at the newspaper, but also given you a glimpse at their personal interests.

I’ve enjoyed learning new things about my colleagues and hope you’ve appreciated finding out more about the journalists working hard to cover the Wilmington area every day.

As I approach my 25th anniversary at the StarNews on April 26, I thought you might like to learn more about me.

It all started the summer before my sophomore year in high school. I was changing schools and had to sign up for classes. I didn’t want to take a study hall because I thought it was a waste of time, so the counselor suggested I consider an elective. Somehow working for the student newspaper was recommended as a way for me to get to know more people.

And the rest, as they say, is history. I’m not sure I knew then that it would be my career, but I’ve never really done anything else. I spent a few summers working in retail, but once I got on the journalism track in college, that’s all I wanted to do.

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I spent many long days and nights working for my college newspaper. After graduation, I worked as an education reporter at the Martinsville Bulletin in Virginia for about a year. Then I moved to Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, where I covered environmental issues and then education for about two years.

In 1999, I came to the StarNews as an education reporter. I thought I’d only be here a few years and then move onto the next newspaper. But my job kept changing, ultimately including stints covering local government and health, and then serving as a digital editor in the early days of online news. As I progressed in my editing career, I became more and more entrenched in the community.

I met my now husband in 2014, and we moved into a new house in Leland in 2017. I’ve had a few other job offers along the way, but nothing has seemed like a better fit. I became editor of the StarNews and The Fayetteville Observer in 2020.

But even that role and the responsibilities have changed over the years. While I may not know what the future holds for the newspaper industry, I’d like to think that I’m evolving with it.

Sherry Jones is the StarNews executive editor. You can reach her at sjones1@gannett.com.

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