Unless you are a startup and you are taking an open position from scratch, chances are you’re coming into a job with some type of shoes to fill. Some shoes are big, some maybe not so much. After working side by side with Don Rogers off and on since 2008, I am well aware that the shoes I will be filling as the new publisher of the Sierra Sun are quite large.

As Don mentioned in his column last week, I am not coming into this position blind. In addition to my publishing duties in other areas around the basin, I have been assisting the Sun as the ad director for the past couple years so I have a slight grasp of the area, its challenges, its needs, and some of the people that make up the community. This is not to say that I have a firm grasp – two of those years were during the pandemic where nothing was status quo.

However, to push it even further back, I started my career in media with the Nevada Appeal in Carson City in 2002. The Sierra Sun was under the umbrella of our then-named publishing group (Tahoe Carson Area Newspapers – or TCAN for short). In my 10 years there, I either assisted, or worked directly in, each of the markets we served.

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I then took an opportunity to further my career with the Reno Gazette-Journal where I took a role as the Key Account Advertising Manager. I worked there for four years before being offered the position of publisher for the Tahoe Tribune, and came back to the company where it all started, in February of 2016.

Since I have taken that role, I worked shoulder-to-shoulder with not just Don, but his predecessor at the Sierra Sun (Ben Rogers), as well as Kevin MacMillan who shared a co-general manager tag before leaving for another position within the company.

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All of this is to hopefully help you understand that hitting the ground running shouldn’t be a problem. Sure, taking on some of the responsibilities that had been previously been done at our sister outlet in Grass Valley might have us hitting a speed bump or two, but if we do it right, you shouldn’t notice from the outside looking in.

WHAT TO EXPECT

In large part, changes should be minimal. We might tinker with how we approach our social media strategy, or introduce some new weekly features, but the core of what you are currently seeing should stay relatively intact. By no means should that mean we shouldn’t look to improve – we absolutely should, and will. I have always been of the mindset that change is a catalyst for growth.

Nevertheless, it may take a little bit of time for us to fully wrap our arms around where and how we might be able to offer our readers (and our customers) a better product. If you think there is something that you believe we may be missing, or just content you’d like to see, please feel free to email me your thoughts. I won’t guarantee we’re going to run with any of them, but it might help in identifying where we could start.

While I personally will not be providing a weekly publisher’s column, nor am I the writer that Don is (sometimes what he writes flies completely over my head), I will pepper in columns from time to time if something strikes a chord, or if something needs to be addressed in the larger scheme of the Sun. Whatever I write, I promise you it will not be without thought.

Bill Rozak, currently the editor of the Tahoe Tribune, will be assuming the same role with the Sun. Like Alan Riquelmy before him, he will have dual editor roles and will look to ensure the topics being covered are of importance to the communities being served and timely in their delivery.

We are excited about taking over the task, but also know that we could be a few weeks away from finding our groove. In any case, I look forward to meeting many more of you and please don’t be shy about reaching out.

Rob Galloway is publisher of the Tahoe Daily Tribune, Tahoe Magazine, and now the Sierra Sun. He can be reached at rgalloway@swiftcom.com or 530-542-8046