REGION
Saturday, June 25, 2022
East Oregonian
A3
East Oregonian reforms newsroom
Turnover during
past year provides
way for new staff ,
fresh ideas
By ERICK PETERSON
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — The
East Oregonian’s news staff
has undergone almost a total
change in the last year.
From last summer to this
past spring, the newsroom had
several staff members leave.
East Oregonian publisher
Andrew Cutler said those
departures created holes the
company has been working
to fi ll.
The EO plugged the fi rst
hole in January with the hiring
of Charly Hotchkiss as the
news clerk, an essential posi-
tion to the newsroom. Then
reporter John Tillman came on
in February. Another vacancy
opened the door to photogra-
pher Yasser Marte joining the
ranks in early June.
The latest additions are
college and high school interns
for the summer.
“It is, truly, a whole new
newsroom,” Cutler said.
The group is eager, passion-
ate and excited about what they
do, he added, and he has confi -
dence in their ability to receive
direction under news editor
Phil Wright.
“Phil has that institutional
knowledge, having grown up
here and having worked at the
EO for the past 15-plus years,”
Cutler said, and brings expe-
rience “you can only get by
working somewhere.”
Cutler spoke of Wright’s
“no-nonsense approach,”
which will be benefi cial.
“That will make them
better,” he said.
Wright began with EO
Media Group in October
2005 as a news clerk, then as
a reporter starting in 2006.
That led to his becoming the
editor of The Observer in La
Grande in 2019. He returned
to the EO in May 2021 as the
news editor.
In the time Wright has
worked at the EO, he has over-
seen reporters who had been
at the paper before he was an
editor. Now, he heads a news-
room that was built entirely
after his arrival.
“It’s really exciting to shape
a newsroom in a way that the
EO hasn’t had in a while,”
Wright said.
He said the changes mean
the EO can consider revamp-
ing news coverage. Instead of a
public safety beat, for example,
there could be a social justice
beat.
“So, very much, it’s an
experiment,” Wright said.
“There will be times where
we’ll fail, and there will be
times when we succeed. We’ll
learn from those things we fail,
and we’ll build on what we do
well.”
Shannon Carlson/Contributed Photo
Erick Peterson/Hermiston Herald
The East Oregonian newsroom staff poses for a photo Wednesday morning, June 22, 2022,
in front of the East Oregonian, Pendleton. From left standing, reporter John Tillman, news
editor Phil Wright, news clerk Charly Hotchkiss, and kneeling in front from left, photogra-
pher/reporter Yasser Marte and newsroom intern Antonia Arredondo.
she said she enjoys.
She said she also loves
her cats. She has an Insta-
gram account, with more
than 25,000 followers, for
her kitties. One of her felines,
Thumbz, ties a world record
for having 28 toes.
A worldly reporter
arrives
Tillman was born in Pend-
leton and raised in Athena, the
child of wheat ranchers. As
such, he said he knows the area
and its agriculture.
“As a kid, I worked on a
ranch,” he said.
He comes to his current
job as EO reporter with varied
academic and employment
backgrounds. He said he went
to college at Stanford, double
majoring in history and human
biology. Following that, he
worked as an adjunct professor
at Linfi eld University, lectur-
ing in the biology department.
Then, he attended Oxford on
a Rhodes Scholarship to study
the history of science.
After graduate school, he
went into freelance reporting,
he said. He wrote on natural
resources and environmental
issues for various other publi-
cations, but transitioned to
reporting on defense issues
during the 1980s.
He even wrote a novel,
“The Sixth Battle,” with his
brother.
“It did quite well,” Tillman
said.
Further work in journal-
ism took him to Afghanistan
in 2005, where he was a war
correspondent for the EO.
‘Photography nerd’
jumps aboard
Marte is from Lawrence,
Massachusetts. Born of
Dominican immigrants, he
said he is from a close family,
which includes two siblings.
He and his family moved to
Miami by the time he entered
high school. Later, he moved
to Los Angeles and discovered
photography.
“That’s when I got really
into learning photojournal-
ism,” he said.
Marte went to Santa
Monica College, and he
worked for a couple of news-
papers, including the school’s
student newspaper, The
Corsair. While there, the Santa
Monica Daily Press picked up
his articles.
“They taught me about
hyper-local news and the
importance of it,” Marte said.
Then, he went to Flor-
ida International University,
where he continued his stud-
ies, focusing on photography.
“I’m a photography nerd,”
he said. “My room is full of
photography books.”
Marte said he came to the
EO to gain experience.
“I’m fresh out of school,
and I want to dive into jour-
nalism,” he said.
Fresh-faced intern
looks for experience
Antonio Arredondo lived
in Canby and went to high
school there before departing
to attend George Fox Univer-
sity, Newberg.
“I was the last broadcast
journalism major to graduate
from that university,” he said.
The school had discontin-
ued the major after his fresh-
man year, but he “decided to
stick around with it.”
He said his original
dream was to be a television
announcer. Working toward
that end, he announced for
George Fox. But he said he
thought he should pick up
some extra skills, which is why
he started exploring photog-
raphy and writing en route to
obtaining his degree earlier
this year.
A Snowden Intern, Arre-
dondo plans to work at the
EO for 10 weeks, ending in
August.
“I’m here to not only
further my experience in jour-
nalism but also kind of fi gure
out what I want to do with my
life,” he said.
More staff on the way
Interns Erin Picken and
Summer Wildbill already are
working at the EO. Picken is
writing the “Days Gone By”
feature of the EO. Meanwhile,
Wildbill is learning to write
public safety logs, community
briefs and more.
Cutler also said a couple of
additional interns are joining
the team.
According to the publisher,
Patty Hyatt, of the Pendle-
ton Chamber of Commerce,
approached him with two
high school students who
have enthusiasm for journal-
ism. And the EO has an open
reporter position it is trying to
fi ll.
Award-winning
journalist says
goodbye, sort of
Kathy Aney, EO writer and
photographer, said she tried to
retire a couple of years ago.
“It didn’t take,” she said.
This time, she said, she
is “more committed” to her
retirement. Aney said she is
stepping further back from
the newspaper. After fi nish-
ing an assignment or two, she
said she intends to take a break
and then return as a part-time
sports photographer.
“That’s my passion, and
it’s not really work for me,”
she said.
She added she will be “defi -
nitely following” the EO and
its new reporters, and she
off ered some advice for them.
“It’s easy to get fatigued
in this business and tempting
to phone it in. We just need
to pace ourselves and fi gure
out how to give ourselves
some self-care so that doesn’t
happen, but it’s diffi cult some-
times,” she said. “I fi gured out
how to deal with all that.”
Pendleton High School student Tony Hernandez, left, on
May 18, 2022, at Tamastslikt Cultural Institute, Mission,
presents a $5,000 grant to Kriss Dammeyer, founder and
director of Made to Thrive.
Pendleton area students
become grant makers
By ANTONIO
ARREDONDO
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — Pend-
leton area students last
month became community
grant makers, providing
almost $17,000 to charities
and other organizations.
The students were taking
part in CommuniCare, the
Harold and Arlene CARE
Foundation’s program now
in its 25th year that turns
normal fundraising on its
head. Instead of raising
money for one cause, the
students receive money for
grants and choose where to
allocate their resources.
“They look at potential
nonprofi ts and then conduct
interviews with each of
them,” said Shannon Carl-
son, director of marketing
for the Jordan Schnitzer
Family Foundation. “Then
they need to determine
where to put more of the
resources for the commu-
nity.”
Students from Pendle-
ton High School and Nixy-
aawii Community School
met May 18 at Tamast-
slikt Cultural Institute
near Pendleton to present
checks to their grant recip-
ients. Nixyaawii senior
Keyen Signer participated
in CommuniCare.
“This program honestly
taught me how to look out
for our community and
consider all the concerns
we came up with as a
collective group with
different perspectives,”
the recent graduate said.
“Communicating was a big
key because it brought our
class together to see what
we really wanted.”
Singer and her class-
mates worked under the
guidance of Zach Brand-
sen in their assigned
CommuniCare classes.
Much like their Pendle-
ton partners, they picked
different nonprofits they
were interested in support-
ing and narrowed it down.
But with a full class dedi-
cated to the program, they
presented and eliminated
groups during school.
The class is something
Singer has been hoping
to join since her fresh-
man year. And fi nally, as
a senior, she presented a
check totaling $7,000 to
the three nonprofi ts of her
class’ choice.
In total, the program
distributed more than
$683,000 to communities
in the state. For Pendleton,
this meant $16,815 to local
nonprofi ts from Pendleton
High and Nixyaawii.
The CARE Foundation
guaranteed each group
$7,500 for grantmaking.
Students could double
those funds by raising an
additional $750, which the
foundation matched 10:1.
Students had the option to
reserve up to 25% of their
CARE Foundation funds
for in-school grants.
The year-long class and
process is something Singer
said she will never forget
and one she wants other
students to take.
“Yes, I defi nitely recom-
mend it,” Singer said.
“You can work with other
students to create change,
then figure out who to
grant money to and learn
how to network with these
Cat mom explores
region through work
Hotchkiss said she also is
happy to be in the newsroom.
“I love it,” she said. “I get to
start my day by reading for an
hour or two.”
Hotchkiss as news clerk
juggles numerous tasks. She
edits articles, communicates
with readers, writes news
briefs, processes letters to the
editor and works with design-
ers on newspaper pages.
“I absolutely never imag-
ined working for a newspa-
per,” Hotchkiss said.
Her past work includes
botany in California and rare
plant conservation in Hawaii.
Coming to Pendleton,
Hotchkiss said, she is close to
her family. The area also gives
her opportunities to explore
the natural world, something
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