Patrick O'Shea: Say goodbye to Times office, hello to even greater local coverage

I remember walking into The Beaver County Times' new office in Hopewell Township for the first time about five years ago. I wasn't impressed.

We had just come from a historic building where the newspaper had been created and printed for nearly 60 years on the outskirts of Beaver. The Fair Avenue building badly needed repairs and was too big for the staffing level we had arrived at, but it was home to so much inspiration, creation and collaboration for so many years.

Eventually, we grew comfortable in our new home. It brought the departments closer together and somehow the daily sounds of a newsroom reemerged in the smaller space. It wasn't the same, but it became a different kind of home. Then the COVID-19 pandemic arrived and all that noise stopped. No one was there and it could no longer be looked at as a safe space. The sense of a home was gone and it never came back.

So, it shouldn't come as any surprise that this week we are saying goodbye to the Hopewell office. It had been closed to the public for four years and employees rarely spent time there, so it was hard to justify its existence, even though it had a nice shiny sign out front to let people know we were still watching the county and region.

But I assure you we still very much are watching Beaver, Lawrence and Allegheny counties. The transition to a fully digital office has changed very little other than we soon will have a new postal mailing address. Our reporters and staff have mostly been working remotely for years now and have continued to be in communities where we are needed, bringing you the stories that should be told.

Wherever there is an inspiring tale of redemption, reports of government malfeasance or even horrible tragedies, we are there. Whenever people are in need of a voice, we are there. We are your fellow community members and we want to continue to hear from you, either by reaching out to reporters directly or by emailing timesnews@timesonline.com .

This change will help us reinvest in The Times' core, including adding more reporters and resources. We already have started the process with the recent hiring of Ethan Morrison as our new sports reporter. Ethan, a Robert Morris University graduate, has been a freelancer with us for a while, but now gives us stability in a position we have been lacking for several months.

You can expect to see Ethan and our regular freelancers at your high school sports events and crafting features on some of the amazing athletes from our region. You can reach Ethan at emorrison@gannett.com .

We also are actively looking for a new reporter to take on coverage of business and environmental issues in our region. We have been blessed with some superstar reporters in that position before and would like to continue the tradition. We are giving preference to applicants with at least two years of experience in the field, but recent graduates who have built up a resume will be considered. You don't have to be an expert in the topic as long as you are willing to learn. If you might be interested or know someone who would be a good fit, the application is available at https://jobs.dayforcehcm.com/en-US/gannett/CANDIDATEPORTAL/jobs/72904 .

As always, you can continue to reach out to entertainment reporter Scott Tady at stady@timesonline.com and news reporter Garret Roberts at groberts1@gannett.com for items you would like to see covered. We remain committed to being your best source of local happenings.

So, we bid goodbye to our physical office, but hello to even greater work by our roving band of reporters.

Patrick O'Shea is editor of The Beaver County Times, Ellwood City Ledger and Somerset Daily American. He has seen buildings come and go, but nothing has stopped his dedication to providing the best coverage possible to the readers of each publication. O'Shea can be reached at poshea@timesonline.com.

This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: Patrick O'Shea: Say goodbye to Times office, hello to even greater local coverage