Credit: Dana Pasco
After six months as an entirely volunteer-run news organization, The New Pine Plains Herald welcomes a new managing editor, Patrick Grego. An award-winning, Hudson, N.Y. based journalist, Grego has written for the Albany-based Times Union, the lifestyle and arts magazine Chronogram and The Daily Catch, a digital news site covering Red Hook and Rhinebeck.
“I was ecstatic when I was offered the position,” said Grego, who had been working in nonprofit communications while pursuing his freelance journalism career. “I look forward to covering stories that highlight the people and places that make our region such a deeply interesting place to live. There’s a great mix of stories in the Herald that reflect the community, including local news and profiles of remarkable individuals. It’s inspiring to me to see people volunteering their time to contribute to the Herald. It’s so service-oriented and it’s to the benefit of the community. I would like to build on that.”
Grego grew up in Riverhead, N.Y. He graduated from high school in three years, spent what would have been his senior year as a Rotary International Youth Exchange student in Brazil, and then attended The City College of New York (CCNY), where he graduated in 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in English and a concentration in creative writing. “I loved studying American writers like Walt Whitman, James Baldwin and Joan Didion,” he said.
After college, Grego moved to Brooklyn, where he shared a small apartment with three roommates and worked odd jobs while writing.
By 2021, in the midst of the pandemic, he knew it was time for a new chapter. Grego moved to Hudson and began working in communications for several Hudson Valley-based nonprofits while contributing stories to local publications. His 2021 article for The Daily Catch about Tivoli artist Steven Siegel won the New York Newspaper Publishers Association award for distinguished feature writing.
“I love the real sense of community that exists here,” he said about living in the Hudson Valley. Grego is an avid hiker and outdoor enthusiast. Since starting work at the Herald in mid February, he has enthusiastically explored the many natural wonders that distinguish Pine Plains, Stanford, Ancram, Milan, Gallatin and the surrounding areas.
“We’re thrilled that Patrick has taken this position,” said Hank Hersch, president of the Herald’s board. “His skills in social media, technology and fundraising would be reason enough to hire him. The fact that he’s a quality journalist who believes in fairness and accuracy and will do everything he can to create a quality publication makes him an amazing hire.”
The Herald covers the population served by the Pine Plains Central School District, which includes parts of nine towns: Ancram, Clermont, Gallatin and Livingston in Columbia County, and Clinton, Milan, North East, Pine Plains and Stanford in Dutchess County. It was founded by volunteers who began meeting in 2022. By October of that year, the Pine Plains Local Journalism Project Inc., was incorporated as a nonprofit. The digital weekly began as a newsletter, evolving into a website in January 2023.
The Herald’s first managing editor, Daisy Sindelar, a distinguished Radio Free Europe journalist with family roots in Pine Plains, was hired in March 2023. Sindelar helped grow readership, establish journalistic standards and best practices, and trained and inspired volunteers. She resigned for familial reasons and returned to Prague in late August, 2023.
From September through February, 2024, Dick Hermans, one of the Herald’s founders, volunteered as interim managing editor. “Dick kept us on track, managing the editorial calendar, encouraging us to be productive and contributing a lot of writing himself,” said Hersch. “Plus, his local knowledge is invaluable.”
In addition to hiring Grego as full-time managing editor, the Herald has hired three part-time interns: Rebekah Hendricks, for reporting; Robert Melnyk, for web design and production; and Lena Sinatra, for social media. Grego has met with each of them and looks forward to providing leadership. “It’s essential that we have youthful energy and perspectives in journalism,” he said.
In an age where local news outlets are rapidly shutting down and the industry faces widespread job cuts, the Herald belongs to an emerging trend in local journalism: a movement towards nonprofit, community-backed news organizations.
According to a 2023 Northwestern University study, an average of 2.5 American newspapers closed each week during 2023; since 2005, the nation has lost one-third of its newspapers and two thirds of its news journalists. Other studies have linked such news “deserts” with increased likelihood of political polarization, corruption and misinformation.
“I see nonprofit newsrooms like The New Pine Plains Herald as beacons of hope for quality local journalism,” Grego said. Taking over at the Herald, he said, “is an exciting opportunity to do something that really matters. I think a large part of local journalism is connecting the national conversation to the local conversation and the local back to the national. I look forward to covering stories that highlight the people and places that make Pine Plains such a vibrant community.”