Two veteran Post-Bulletin journalists are hanging up their spurs this month: a hard-charging reporter and a careful, meticulous copy editor with more than a half-century of experience between them.
Janice Gregorsonretired at mid-month after 36 years here. She was our public safety reporter for more than half her career and that's how most of you will remember her byline. During my 16 years as Jan's editor, I trusted her as a relentless and accurate cops reporter who was always true to our standards. She was a rock of consistency; we could count on her to handle the most sensitive and often shocking news with integrity and compassion.
She was an aggressive reporter who didn't hesitate to ask tough questions of people she dealt with all the time at the LEC and courthouse. I've always heard from people in law enforcement and the courts that Jan was respected and admired, and that was reflected at a lively party two weeks ago where friends and colleagues joined us to wish her well.
Joe Schueleris wrapping up Friday after 16 years on our copy desk, where stories get final edits, headlines are written and pages are created. Joe was on the desk at the Chicago Tribune for 14 years, then went home to the Willmar, Minn., area where he farmed and worked at the West-Central Tribune. Among his chores here has been working with the obituaries page — again, the kind of news that needs lots of care and attention. Judging by the feedback we get from funeral directors, families and readers, we do a good job with obituaries and Joe gets a lot of the credit.
He's planning to do more market gardening now that he won't be at his desk at 5 a.m. every day, so you'll likely see him at the farmers market in the months ahead, or if you're looking for homegrown asparagus and cukes, you can contact me and I'll put you in touch with him.
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Taking over for Jan on the cops and courts beat is Matt Russell, a senior reporter who has covered a wide range of beats during his eight years here, most recently a stint on the education beat. He's already buried in court documents and incident reports, and I'm confident he'll meet the high bar that Jan and we have set for him. Moving into Joe's chair will be Michael Hohberger, who's been a P-B news assistant and obituary writer for six years. His experience with obits and as a key contact for funeral directors and families will give him a leg up on that copy editing task.
Thanks to Jan and Joe for their contributions to the Post-Bulletin. I'm hoping they continue to have a big impact on the paper with feedback, ideas and lots of visits to the newsroom.
QUESTION OF THE WEEK:A reader asked a few weeks ago whether we have legal notices online at Postbulletin.com. The Post-Bulletin is the official legal newspaper for the city of Rochester, Olmsted County and the Rochester school district, as you probably know.
Legal notices are important content for you and for us. Publication of official notices in the largest, best-read publication in the region is a vital way in which government opens its books to the public. From the earliest days of the republic, government has posted its official business, including contracts put out for bids, in the most commonly available, trusted news sources.
Our readers depend on the "legals," and they let us know if they can't find them or want more.
If you're a subscriber, you have access to the e-edition at Postbulletin.com, where we post all pages of each day's paper in PDF format. If you don't know your username or password, call customer service at 285-7676 or 1-800-562-1758.
Text-only legals are available under the "Classifieds" drop-down at the top of our homepage, to the right. Legal notices that appear as display ads in print are viewable in the "Newspaper Ads" tab, about halfway down the homepage on the right. These are indexed by both type of ad and advertiser, so it's easy to look up "Olmsted County," for example, to find those ads.
Again, we don't take our legal ads for granted, and neither do our readers. As the largest newspaper in Southeast Minnesota with the most-visited website, people rely on us for this public information. We work hard to make it easily available to you in print and online.
