When Daisy Sindelar heard about a local news startup in Pine Plains, she was sufficiently intrigued to leave Prague, her home of 21 years, to lead the Herald’s all-volunteer staff. She arrived in March and helped double traffic to the website. On Aug. 20 — near the one-year anniversary of the Herald — Sindelar resigned her position as managing editor and returned to Prague for personal reasons.
“I unfortunately knew my time in Pine Plains was limited, but I thought I’d be able to stay longer,” Sindelar said. “It was heartbreaking to leave. I am a mother, and like working mothers everywhere, you have to make a choice. This time I chose my child over my job.”
When Sindelar took over the Herald had recently changed formats, from an emailed newsletter to an online news site. She helped grow the audience from 3,200 unique views per month to 6,800 while instituting standards and practices she learned in more than 30 years as a journalist, including three years as editor-in-chief and vice president of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
Sindelar strived to bring in voices from the community, particularly in the My Pine Plains series, which celebrates the bicentennial by asking readers to share their favorite stories about the town. “I’ve enjoyed every single one of those essays and each of them has enriched my appreciation of the town,” she said. “Talking to Curtis Simmons about riding his horse into Stissing House was literally the dream of a lifetime.”
Sindelar’s connection to Pine Plains began as a baby, when she was taken by her mother, Robin, to see her grandmother, Christine Crouch, on South Main Street. Over many summer and holiday visits with her grandmother and her aunts, that bond grew, and it was powerful enough to lure her from the Czech Republic. “Pine Plains is a remarkably colorful town and I’m happy to see all the color of Pine Plains reflected in the Herald,” said Sindelar, who grew up in State College, Pa. “There are articles about Pride, about farming, about local businesses, about infrastructure and town government, and wonderful profiles of incredible people, young and old.”
The other appeal of the editor job’s to Sindelar: her belief in the need for independent and reliable local journalism. “There is an incredible and important conversation going on in the United States about how papers have dwindled, leaving communities with no source of information besides gossip and social media,” Sindelar said. “I’m happy to see so many people committed to resurrecting local news outlets, and I was happy to be part of that in Pine Plains. So many people respond to the articles and trust the information they’re seeing.”
The Herald benefited greatly from Sindelar’s expertise. “We are all very sorry to see Daisy go, but in her brief time here she inspired us and helped us find our voice,“ said Hank Hersch, the president of the Herald’s board of directors. “We will be hard-pressed to find a new managing editor with Daisy’s range of skills and experience—not to mention her knowledge of Pine Plains—but we’ll do our best to maintain the high standards she set.”
A graduate of Bryn Mawr College with a degree in Russian studies, Sindelar said she would likely return to issues related to Russia and to the war in Ukraine. “Working with the staff and meeting so many members of the community in Pine Plains, Stanford and elsewhere was an incredible experience,” Sindelar said. “My days on the job were simply joyous for that reason. I found joy in Pine Plains, New York.”