The following excerpt was sent out from princewilliamtimes.com:
Scott Elliott
Scott Elliott, who helped found a novel, nonprofit website devoted to news and analysis about education, has been hired as publisher for the Fauquier Times and Prince William Times.
Elliott, 55, has more than 20 years’ experience as a reporter, editor and media organization leader, most recently at Chalkbeat, which provides in-depth coverage of education issues that newspapers can no longer afford.
“What attracted me to this job was the demonstrated success in rallying this community around preserving and nurturing this legacy news organization,” Elliott said. “You’ve got a community that’s already done the hard step of standing up and saying, ‘We want to preserve this,’ and then literally doing the work (and) raising the money to create a nonprofit space.”
Elliott follows Publisher Catherine Nelson, who has led the news publications for five and a half years, including during the pandemic, which strained resources at the very time readers needed timely information most.
Elliott will begin working at the papers’ Warrenton office on July 10.
Elliott spent much of his reporting career covering education, first for a series of small newspapers in Ohio and then for the Indianapolis Star. While at the Star, he became the nation’s first ever “education reform reporter” in 2011. The role focused on the school board as well as ongoing changes involving testing, school choice and efforts at education reform.
Elliott spent three years as its Indiana bureau chief and then moved into the role of deputy revenue officer, directing Chalkbeat’s fundraising, development and expansion efforts.
Some of Elliott’s ideas for the media organization include exploring a membership model and creating a strategic plan to help prioritize news coverage by a small reporting staff that fits the communities’ needs.