Dear North Penn Now readers:
Once upon a time, I made my dad cry on Father’s Day with a handmade card.
I had designed the outside like a magazine, with pictures of us from childhood, and inside was a heartwarming poem dedicated to him. On the back, I even mocked the Hallmark symbol and all.
He was a strong, wise man, but I broke him.
I am cursed with no ability to skateboard, ski, climb great heights, or play sports well. (Once, in fifth grade, during a pickup football game in a backyard in Towamencin, I ran the opposite way to the other end zone. Jeering ensued.) Roller skating is something that would make me resemble a "Looney Tunes” cartoon.
What I do well is write. Reading and words have always come naturally to me: I was reading books at a very young age. No prodigy by any means, but something bonded me to the written word.
My maternal grandmother would always read books to me as a youth, and vice versa. By second grade at Inglewood, I had two children’s stories available for checkout from the library. By fifth grade, I was tutoring kindergarteners in reading.
Thank God for North Penn School District and the defunct (can we bring it back?) Young Authors’ Conferences. Safe to say, I owe a lot to North Penn for forming me into the person I am today.
Thank you, Mrs. Ann Weinblatt, who believed in all of us young journalists in the high school’s "Knight Crier” program, which included the likes of myself, former Chalfont Borough Manager and St. Luke’s University Health Network’s Associate VP of Government & Community Relations Melissa (Croak) Shafer, and Hollywood producer Jordan Bogdonavage.
Thank you, NPHS English Department, especially Patti Kinsey, Toni Butz (I love "Lord of the Flies” to this day), Dr. Kathie Walsh (who greatly influenced my creative writing during her teatime afterschool clubs), Ms. Susan Giordani, and Mrs. Nancy Byron, who gave me the best advice as a writer, when I was struggling with "All Quiet on the Western Front.”
"Write as if you were telling a story to a friend,” she said. It has made all the difference.
I would be amiss not to admit that electronic media is another forte, and I have spent time in front of the camera, when it comes to newscasting. North Penn Television and Bob Gillmer, Mary Faikish, and Kyle Berger are changing lives and making stars, just as they did those decades ago for me.
My journalism would further be assessed and refined come Kutztown University under the tutelage of the strict, but fair, late and great Dr. Matthew Nesvisky. He was the epitome of a journalism professor: goatee, pipe, glasses and all. He criticized, he critiqued, he cared.
Thank you Dr. Nesvisky for your guidance and critique during my time running "The Keystone Newspaper.” Covering 9/11 as a young twentysomething was an experience in breaking journalism and local impact at its finest, albeit tragic.
Thank you, Dr. Heather Thomas, for your amazing creative writing skills and the never-ending push to be better and write better. Without you, I wouldn’t have found out about Pablo Neruda and my still-growing love for Jack Kerouac.
Accolades in journalism are few and far between, and when they occur, you cherish them and promote them. I have received many accolades and awards for my feature and news writing. Like my influencers at North Penn, my journalism was only strengthened from the editors I looked up to as a writer once I left Kutztown in 2002.
So, here’s my Mt. Rushmore of Mentors: Former Montgomery News Executive Editor Tina Flint Hennessey, former Montgomery News editor and North Wales resident Neree Sando, former The Reporter Executive Editor Nona Breaux, and former Reporter Newsroom Manager Monica Fragale.
When you are fresh out of college and thrust into the world of journalism, you quickly find, as Horace Greeley said, it will kill you, but also keep you alive while you’re at it. All these people I mentioned have been my lifelines.
People chuckle when I say to them "Writing is the best thing I know how to do,” but it’s somewhat accurate. And accuracy is important in journalism. Sure, one can be a moralist, but one must be unbiased and fearless simultaneously in journalism.
You have one opportunity to grasp people with journalism, to paraphrase English literary critic Cyril Connolly. Journalism is uncertain; it is everchanging. It is the weapon of words to change the world.
This October marks 20 years since I was hired at The Reporter Newspaper in Lansdale. It was my first real dream job. I was excited to cover the news in the town that I grew up in and loved with all my heart.
Lansdale Patch would be created in December 2010 and change hyperlocal news in southeastern Pennsylvania and the way it was delivered to the North Penn region. Our Unique Visit numbers were incredible.
Alas, after being laid off in 2014 from Patch, it has become a shell of its former self.
Thankfully, Keith, my mentee during my time at Patch, had a vision to start something similar, but incredibly better and more focused to its goals.
Keith grew North Penn Now into a major and trusted local journalism brand. I cannot thank him enough for paying back a mentor, just as I continue to cherish all mine.
I love this community and its people. I am a fourth-generation Lansdalian, a product of Sicilian, Italian and Polish-German heritage. My family put roots down here a few decades after Lansdale was founded and most of us have not left.
I have made and fostered great professional and personal relationships with the people, business owners and nonprofit leaders, and municipal stalwarts in this town. The surname is familiar, and reciprocal respect will never fade. I treat friends as family and I never forget a bond.
Trustworthy, loyal, accurate, courteous, great listener and a great sense of humor --- that is what I offer you, North Penn and beyond, as your new managing editor.
I promised myself this year would be the year of change. So far, it is on track. And I would like you all to come along for the ride. It’s been about a combined 25 years of covering the people, places and events in the area. What’s another 25?
Welcome to a new era of North Penn Now.
Signed,
Tony Di Domizio
Managing Editor, North Penn Now
