Kitsap Sun Focuses on the Environment
I admit I haven’t been
much of a newspaper reader. I’m an NPR addict and just never felt
the draw to sit and read the paper every day. I would skim old
pages before using them for firestarter, and my Mum still saves the
comics for me, which I adore (Get Fuzzy is my favorite).
However, the Kitsap Sun may make me change my ways.
One day the Sun’s editor, David Nelson, responded to a press release I sent to him about an outdoor trip I was doing. In his message he said he and the Sun staff had decided to focus more on the environment in their reporting, and he asked if I had any ideas, thoughts or feedback about this.
I was both amazed about their decision and honored that he had asked for my thoughts.
I had been dreaming of doing some kind of sustainability writing for awhile, and felt there was no time like the present to ask…
Obviously he liked the idea 🙂
I just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge that the reason this Sustainable Spring blog came to be is because Mr. Nelson has chosen to use the Kitsap Peninsula’s largest and most widely read paper to educate readers about the environment.
I’m impressed beyond words, and I’m grateful to the Kitsap Sun for making this change. I do believe I will get myself my first ever newspaper subscription!
Thank you to David and all the excellent reporters, bloggers, researchers, columnists and others who are involved in the paper. Your hard work and dedication is appreciated.
Sincerely,
Sustainable Spring
Spring —
Very complimentary of you to say. Thanks, and it’s good to have you aboard the Sun’s mothership.
But, like a grouchy old editor, I’ve gotta nitpick. I let you know we are focusing more on outdoors — from recreation to advocacy to news that touches the public places we use so much. I hope readers have noticed that and enjoyed in the past few months, including ideas like this blog.
Not that we don’t also value the environment — it’s just that we’ve been doing that for years, and I want people to know that. If only you’d been reading the paper… 🙂
Chris Dunagan, a Sun writer for decades, is one of the best in the business at environmental reporting, and I’ve always been proud that we’re a community paper with that beat. It’s rare these days. Chris is an expert on Puget Sound, stormwater, orcas, land use policy and more. He’s written a book on Hood Canal, called Splendor at Risk, and won multiple awards for environmental coverage. His most recent project is called Taking the Pulse of the Puget Sound http://data.kitsapsun.com/pulse-puget-sound, a 10-part series on the effort to restore the Sound’s health. Everyone on this blog should please please please give it a look if you haven’t yet. The next installment is coming in March.
So we’ve definitely been interested in the environment, and now you’ll be with us after joining the newspaper (or news website)-reading world!
Anyway, thanks, and good to have you writing.
-David
It’s your job to nitpick and I’m happy to see your response David 🙂 I almost didn’t post this one due to my embarrassment of not being a newspaper reader in the past! I’ve been reading Mum’s Sun hand-me-downs and have been sucked into the great stories lately, so I truly am proud to have this as my home-town paper. Thank you for commenting!