In "Anniversaries of events no one really cares about but me" news, Tuesday the 26th will mark one year since I got the editor job here at the Weekly. I doubt I'll get a cake or anything to mark the occasion...if I did, it probably should be iced with one of the nasty comments some people seem to enjoy leaving about me, but then again, I don't know if local bakers have anti-profanity policies or not.
I've said this relatively frequently, this job really is a dream come true for me. When I read this paper in high school—heck, even when I read it a few years ago—the idea that I'd be at the helm of the Tucson Weekly would have seemed insane. But, hey, here I am.
Honestly, I thought the paper would have changed more in my first year (although since I didn't officially take over until the first issue of 2013, I guess I still have time), but I'm happy with what I have accomplished this year, whether that's expanding what we cover a bit, bringing on some great new writers and giving others bigger opportunities, to bringing on the comic Mild Abandon. Every week, that panel makes me laugh. Might be the best decision I made.
In retrospect, I probably could have left the film times alone, avoided the Facebook post that got me on journalism blog Romenesko as well as a bunch of probably minor mistakes that I dwell upon like an insane person, but hey, that's life. Looking at the covers of this year's issues, I think we've done some great work, even if I could have lived without the "Keep Tucson Shitty" drama breaking out during my one vacation of the year.
There's a lot more to come, even still ahead of us in 2013. For obvious reasons, I don't want to give away too much about our plans, but there will be more events, what I expect will be Tucson's best coverage of the 2014 election and a print redesign (at some point, I promise). Life is always surprising, so who knows what I'll be writing this time next year, but I'm incredibly excited for year two of my time in the editor's chair.
