Missouri paper names new business editor

Shay Alderman, the new business editor at the Southeast Missourian in Cape Girardeau, writes about how she returned to journalism after a career in health care.

Alderman writes, “Somewhere in the middle of all that, I fell in love with a boy from Cape Girardeau with whom I’d made pizza all those years earlier in Chapel Hill, and we made something even better together, a family. In 2010, we moved to his hometown and while waiting to become a provider for Missouri insurance panels as a therapist, I started working part-time reporting Cape Girardeau County and Jackson city news for the Southeast Missourian.

“It seemed like a wild transition, after almost a decade working in mental health, but it turned out not to be as big a change as I expected. Reporting the news and working as a therapist have a lot in common. It is important to be curious. To pay attention and be accurate. To keep an open mind. To be reliable and trustworthy. To maintain confidentiality when necessary. To ignore your biases and try to figure out what is going on and why.

“So, here I am, and I am excited about this job for the same reasons I was excited about my first jobs so long ago: Having the opportunity to talk to people I might not otherwise encounter; bringing attention to talented, hardworking people; learning what is going on around me; and feeling more connected to the community.”

Read more here.