Gazette gets new editor

COLFAX –– Bill Stevenson feels at home behind the editor's desk at the Whitman County Gazette.

The "new" editor brings 27 years of journalism with him, most of it being while in Eastern Washington. He also spent two years of reviewing software while living in Japan and a year in Nevada running a national magazine for motorcycles.

"Writing 24 stories about motor oil took the glamour out of writing about the motorcycle industry," he said. "I went back to the wonderful diversity of community reporting."

Stevenson started his career at a weekly newspaper in Okanogan in 1990. He moved onto working at the Oroville newspaper, KOMW radio, then The Omak-Okanogan County Chronicle in Omak.

"I was also freelancing for other news services," he added.

He paused journalism to live in Japan for two years, where he taught English to adults and reviewed computer software and games.

Coming home, Stevenson took the helm of the Columbia Basin Herald, a five-days-a-week newspaper, and then iFiber One News in Ephrata. The Tri-City Herald hired him away to Kennewick to be an editor.

"I did some work at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and Hanford before coming back to what I love," said Stevenson. "I enjoy being part of a community and providing accurate, trustworthy news."

He jokes that it took Publisher Roger Harnack years of waiting for the "stars to align" so the two could work together. Harnack became publisher of the Omak newspaper after Stevenson left.

"Bill brings years of traditional journalism experience as well as the technical skills to manage news in a changing industry. Combined with his roots in Eastern Washington, his knowledge will guarantee top-notch coverage of local people, places and events," Harnack said. "Furthermore, his digital media skills will ensure that The Gazette is successful for years to come."