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The
proprietors of LDN, not a journalist among them,
arrest their giddy anticipation of "Gates-esque"
profits in time to get some competent help. First they
reach out to the best writer they know within the confines
of Logan County, and bring Mary Krallmann on board. Whew!
Now they have someone who knows the difference between a
lead sentence and a leaden sentence.
Next
they attract a managing editor, Natalie Jeckel, who brings
a down-to-business ethic, a lifetime of Logan County
contacts and a willingness to postpone more traditional
(read "secure and promising") career routes to
"light this candle." Her first day on the job
she discovers that there is no office, no staff and no
publication. So she takes her place in a drafty back room,
plugs in a computer and starts fleshing out the skeleton
of a business plan her employers have drafted on a napkin.
(That’s not exactly how it happened, but it makes a good
story.)
[Natalie and Katherine confer on the day's
news.]
Now
all LDN needs is . . . well, someone who can put
the written articles on a website. Enter Tyler Havlin, an
19-year-old self-described computer geek (he’s too big
for anyone else to describe him such). With the whiff of
Seattle still clinging to his plaid flannels, Tyler begins
streaming together lines of code.
But
who will write the stories? How about Katherine Heller, a
graduate of Youngstown State University, with a degree in
professional writing and editing and experience on a
newspaper staff? Wow, a real journalist! Katherine sets to
work crafting character sketches of some of Logan County’s
real characters.
But who will write the other stories? Here
we will leave the details to this story’s sequel,
because a whole raft of writers emerged from the shadows
to prove that if you scratch Logan County you find pure
talent. From every walk of life they come, writing about
the aspects of this country county that they know best.
Ain’t this fun?
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So
now to the crux of the matter. It’s April, LDN is
pumping out daily stories about its friends and neighbors,
and Natalie gets a call from that big insurance company in
Bloomington. Who wouldn’t want to lure away a young
woman with Natalie’s talents. Thursday staff meetings
will not be the same without Natalie’s itemized list of
topics for review (as well as her witty repartee, always
signaled by a twinkle in her eye and a winsome upturn of a
lip). Who will eat the last donut on Saturday morning,
after the last link has been checked? Who will run to the
courthouse to take a picture of the spelling bee champion?
Who will channel the enthusiasm of that stable of talented
writers?
Well,
it’s a dot com world, and businesses must be agile.
Katherine Heller, takes the helm. She has the ability. She
is also a graduate student at Lincoln Christian Seminary
and a communications director for the Academic Development
Institute. She juggles her schedule. She sleeps less. She
gives up lunch. It’s a dot com world.
So
good-bye, Natalie. We guarantee that you will someday look
back from the executive suite of State Farm and remember
fondly that little dot com you helped birth back in the
first days of the new millennium. And Natalie, don’t be
afraid to send us a story sometime. You know what it’s
like when you are on deadline and news has been a little
slow in our fair land.
[Sam
Redding]
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