We attended workshops to improve our writing and reach, we commisserated with colleagues over the hurdles posed by covering news in the midst of the pandemic, and we celebrated the work that has carried communities forward and shone light in dark times.

“These pages reflect a newspaper firmly rooted in the local soil,” wrote the judges of Enterprise opinion pages entered in the annual New York Press Association contest. “The lead editorial is always a nice piece of writing, and on the many, many pages that follow, community members weigh in with lively election debates, folksy columns, claims and counterclaims, many which carry editorial notes and responses from the other side of the fence. Other editorial sections are more carefully pruned, but here the pages are an organic thicket that serves the community well.”

The Society of Professional Journalists last week announced the winners of its 2019 Sigma Delta Chi Awards for excellence in journalism.

The editor and co-publisher of The Altamont Enterprise, Melissa Hale-Spencer, was shocked to have won an award for editorial writing. 

For the 10th time, Enterprise editor Melissa Hale-Spencer was recognized among the best opinion writers in the weekly press.

The connections hum in the present as people reach each other through our words. Sometimes, too, connections echo from the past.

“This was an ACE,” Superintendent Timothy Mundell said, referring to an adverse childhood experience.

Fifth-grader Olivia calls her mother, Elizabeth Floyd Mair, nosey. “Being a journalist allows you to ask questions,” says Floyd Mair.

For the ninth time, Enterprise editor Melissa Hale-Spencer was recognized among the best opinion writers in the weekly press.

H. Rose Schneider, who covers the Helderberg Hilltowns for The Altamont Enterprise, has been named a fellow for the 2018 John Jay Reporting Fellowship on Rural Justice.