Terrance Thornton, former news editor for five weeklies in Independent Newsmedia Inc.’s East Valley office (Apache Junction, Mesa, Gilbert, Chandler and Queen Creek Independent newspapers), was recently promoted to North Valley news editor for PV Independent and Scottsdale Independent newspapers. Terrance seems to be breathing new life into these properties, with timely emphasis on digital/web editions.
Improvements appear to include a new look and better accessibility for their online versions, and a greater depth-of-coverage than we’ve seen since the demise of the Scottsdale Tribune.
In an email interview, Terrance says,
In my five years as a professional journalist I have won awards for in-depth reporting, photography and page design from the Arizona Newspapers Association and Suburban Newspapers Association.
Our new focus at the Scottsdale Independent is to become a viable daily digital and weekly print news resource for the residents of Scottsdale. We will continue to be the same product that has served the Valley for more than 30 years, but with the addition of a real-working website we can now compete with any daily organization on any given day. We are lean and mean, but today’s journalist does it all. He or she can make the calls, write the story, snap the photo, update a website through a content management system and flow the copy on the page.
Sounds like a much different model of journalism than that employed by the editor-heavy Scottsdale Republic. Lean and mean. And competition is good for all.
Recent articles in the Scottsdale Independent of interest to ScottsdaleTrails readers include topics such as
- the resignation of Scottsdale city manager David Richert
- the renewal of the Bond Task Force
- interviews with Scottsdale mayoral candidates in the upcoming election
You can check out more stories related to Paradise Valley and Scottsdale on the Independent’s “North Valley” page at
http://arizona.newszap.com/northvalley/
You can contact Terrance at 623-445-2774 via e-mail at tthornton@newszap.com or follow his Twitter feed at www.twitter.com/nvnewsman