After almost a decade at The News, it is time to say goodbye

After over eight years at the Shepparton News — and nearly three-and-a-half as editor — the time has come to say goodbye.

There is a permeating sadness, of course, but also excitement about a change and a new challenge — they say it is as good as a holiday for a reason.

I walked into The News offices as a baby-faced, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed 20-something-year-old — and ever since McPherson Media Group has continued to take a chance on me, something I will be forever grateful for.

I shouldn’t have been surprised though — taking a chance on young talent and allowing them to jump head-first into the industry is what this company has done in one way or another for almost 150 years, and will continue to do for long after I’m gone.

I showed how naive I was on day one, bringing my own laptop just in case they didn’t have one for me — as well as four chicken sandwiches, as if the office was a desert island and I wouldn’t find my way back out for days.

My lovely wife Grace would quip that there were times when I didn’t anyway — but that was of my own, or a natural disaster’s, doing.

I’m confident that the journey — six different roles across both ends of the paper if I was attempting to be succinct — has taught me plenty, but life has done a good job of that too.

Five-year-old Tyler — who wanted to be the next Mike Sheahan and Eddie McGuire — would be shocked that 30-year-old Tyler was getting out of the newsroom.

But 27-year-old Tyler would have been just as shocked that he was about to leave the sports section and move his things across to the other side of classies (metaphorically of course).

Sometimes that’s just how life goes.

I know my daughters Eden (6) and Bonnie (3) are already planning lots of public holiday activities, but there were a few concerns about whether they would still be able to get their pictures in the paper.

I should have expected that too — they’ve grown up in the pages of The News as much as I have. Our dog Ernie even made his big debut on the Foxy and JR Footy Show on the day we picked him up.

It’s what makes regional news so important and so crucial to support if you live in a place lucky enough to still have a local newspaper like we do.

Don’t worry, I won’t get too preachy. But I would suggest that you reach out to someone you might know who doesn’t have a regional newspaper in their area anymore — there’s plenty of places out there — and ask them what they miss.

I could almost guarantee it won’t be the big stuff — as important as that is.

It will be keeping updated on what’s happening at the end of their street on any given day, not just the days where the national news cycle turns its gaze there.

Births, deaths, marriages — cutting their child’s sports photo out of the paper or making sure they pick up a copy when their Prep-aged relatives’ class photos are in there — will all be high on the list.

So will the story on their grandparents’ 75th wedding anniversary, or their friend’s new business — and definitely when they kicked a few goals and were named best-on-ground playing local footy and know their name will be in the results section.

Regional newspapers are about the people — inside the newsrooms and outside of them — and I know the first thing I’ll do after my last day will be putting my money where my mouth is and signing up for a Shepparton News subscription. It’s the least I could do.

But anyway, back to me.

Those early years in the sports section were everything I had dreamed them to be.

Getting paid to watch sport for a living? Talking dribble (after the actual questions were out of the way of course) to dozens of coaches every week? Writing a near-on 1000-word column on a regular basis?

It was heaven.

The highlights of the year as a sports journalist are always grand finals — whenever a contest is for all the marbles it drags the best out of us as well as the players — and at The News the production of the Football-Netball Magazine every year was a close second.

I marvelled at the passion for sport Greater Shepparton — and the wider region — displayed from the moment I got here.

Of course I grew up sports-mad — but I never felt like the entire town I was living in was hanging on every moment of local sporting action like it feels like Shepparton is.

As I moved through the ranks and more into management — and eventually across to the editor’s chair — I got prouder and prouder of the people in the newsroom and those outside of it.

A pandemic and major floods are obviously the extremes when it comes to coverage, but what I saw on a weekly basis was a town, city and region working hard for the betterment of each other — and in those extreme times, banding together to get through whatever was thrown at them.

Internally, this newsroom has always been a training ground — and I will always be proud to have had a hand in hopefully moulding some great journos and more importantly, great people.

I’m not trying to shy away from the hard stuff.

Journalism is a tough industry, being an editor has taken it out of me and I’ve made plenty of mistakes over the years. I’ve had people yell at me, swear at me, abuse me at football games, question my ethics and integrity and accuse me of some pretty wild stuff.

But there’s no rose-coloured glasses effect when I say that I have loved being a part of the Shepparton News and McPherson Media Group team.

Just as importantly, I have been thrilled to be welcomed into the wider Shepparton community to help tell your stories and highlight the issues you find most important.

I know I’m still a blow-in when it comes to being able to call myself a Sheppartonian — but I’m working on that and am certainly staying in town.

Thank you, and see you around.