Publishing Break: October 5 through October 9
We will not be publishing the week of October 5 through October 9 because Noelle is attending an online journalism conference late in the week.
Dear readers,
Hi all, Noelle here! I'm going to take a break from publishing articles the week of October 5 through October 9. Why? I will be participating in the IRE's (Investigative Reporters and Editors Association) annual AccessFest which starts October 8. You can learn more about AccessFest here: https://www.ire.org/training/conferences/accessfest-2026/.
AccessFest is an annual online journalism conference and it's the one conference I've consistently been able to attend over the course of my career due to scheduling and travel costs. For me, it's always a wonderful opportunity to continue learning, growing and honing my craft as a journalist. Attending AccessFest ultimately helps me better serve all of you. This year, I was fortunate to receive a fellowship from the IRE which is covering my registration fee and a one-year IRE professional membership renewal. Normally, the registration fee would cost $76 and a professional membership would cost $75 for a total of $151/year.
I'm choosing to take the full week off from publishing and will return the week of October 12.
Why am I taking a break? In the past, I've usually had to fit AccessFest in around other professional obligations. It works but it's never ideal and I always felt like I'd miss something I really wanted to catch live and watching a recording afterwards is never quite the same.
While I won't be publishing any news or features stories the week of October 5, I will still be doing behind the scenes work the days I'm not attending AccessFest. I need to make a few minor updates to our "About" page in light of recent publishing schedule changes, for one. I'm intending to use the time to plan future stories - hopefully including some work towards launching a monthly local arts section - and do some graphic design work for our social media pages that I've just not yet been able to work on, among other tasks.
Have a fantastic week, readers, and stay tuned!
Noelle
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