BRATTLEBORO — Since 2009, Olga Peters has written 1,180,098 words for this newspaper.
Let me repeat that: 1,180,098 words.
From the time in 2009 when she answered a Craigslist ad for freelance writers for The Commons (then still a monthly tabloid), until the recent Sunday when she packed up her desk, Peters never did anything other than her best. Ever. And in the 1,075 stories she filed since, she never stopped learning. Ever.
Peters brings a visual sense and texture to her reporting and to the written word, which is no surprise, given her training in screenwriting and her experience working in the motion picture industry.
And she is bringing that experience - and the experience of reporting and writing all those words - to the radio.
This week, Olga Peters began work as the news director of WTSA in Brattleboro, where she has big shoes to fill: those of our friend Tim Arsenault.
Arsenault - more universally known on the air as Tim Johnson - tirelessly covered Brattleboro and the region for years, and he'll be teaching her how to ply her trade over the airwaves instead of in print. (The radio station is making plans for a ceremonial passing of the microphone from Johnson to Peters, and we'll be sure to cover it here as well.)
She is so excited about this new opportunity. And we, her friends and colleagues, are so excited for her.
* * *
In her years at The Commons, Peters has crawled through training with firefighters, shadowed cops on drug busts, and interviewed family members touched by murder. Year after year, she has sat through Annual Representative Town Meeting in Brattleboro, once logging in 14 hours. She has joined Windham County residents to report demonstrations out of state, and she has accompanied firefighters and police officers giving tours of squalid and ill-maintained working conditions.
She has covered the most bitterly contentious fights about the future of Vermont Yankee, earning respect from both sides of that difficult and divisive struggle. She has written about heartbreaking disasters, from the fires at the Putney General Store and Brooks House to the devastation of flooding from Tropical Storm Irene on the Deerfield River Valley, which she will always call home.
She has pored over spreadsheets, dissected town meeting warnings, analyzed minutes, appealed for release of court documents. She has agonized over not just a good way but the most correct, effective, precise, and nuanced way to help readers make sense of complicated and complex topics.
She has doggedly covered the Brattleboro Selectboard for years, trying to understand and convey its peculiarities, from pay-as-you-throw trash bags to mast-arm traffic lights to the police/fire facilities project to whether - and by what standards - the largest town in Windham County bears extra financial burdens from those of us who commute from out of town.
She has covered politicians, people who aspire to politics, and people who consider the word “politician” an insult. She has fought for the public's right to public information, sometimes to the consternation of elected officials. She has interviewed people who have no homes, and she's made herself at home in the Statehouse.
As she has done so, she has deftly navigated the turf between being tough as nails and unfailingly gracious and empathetic. She is one of the best, most intuitive interviewers. She is patient in pursuit of the truth and goes far beyond what a person says in her pursuit of understanding who that person is. That is so important.
As my colleague Randy Holhut has noted, “A week rarely goes by without hearing from a reader, a subject of one of her news stories, or a town or state official, praising Olga for the quality of her work.”
Holhut describes Peters as “a thorough, conscientious reporter who always takes the extra step, makes the extra phone call, asks the right questions, and does the necessary research to transform an ordinary news story into solid, factual, and interesting reporting that gets noticed and effects change.
“Her range as a general assignment reporter is extraordinary, but she has shown herself to be more than capable of taking on big projects and following them through to the end,” he continues. “She has the empathy and caring that makes her subjects open up and reveal themselves, while at the same time, the toughness to not be spun by her sources.”
On so many levels, as an editor, a mentor, and a friend, I've witnessed Olga Peters' remarkable and tireless eight-year journey. I'll miss her quiet strength and reserve, her wise counsel, her poise and diplomacy, her gentle analysis, her smart and devilish sense of humor, the fun shock of turquoise or pink in her hair. I'll miss overhearing her interview sign-off (“Is there anything you wish I'd asked you?”), just as I'll miss overhearing her British-infused invective (“Oh, bloody hell!”) after hanging up from an interview where - as happens every now and then - a government source says exactly nothing.
Man, we will miss her.
* * *
I had hoped to announce exactly what we would be doing in response to this big change in our newsroom, and here's a confession: I just don't know yet.
The best news: although she's no longer on staff, Peters won't be gone entirely, as she has agreed to do stories every now and then. I really appreciate the enthusiasm of Kelli Corbiel, the owner of WTSA, who could not be more supportive of the idea that ultimately, we're all here to serve southern Vermont. (For the record, Peters tried to turn in her keys, and I wouldn't take them back. No pressure.)
I do know that this paper shines when, instead of trying too hard, we let the unexpected happen. Part of our nonprofit mission is media education, and one of my greatest professional joys has been to see Peters come to the newsroom with an unconventional background and blossom as a good journalist with integrity. So I'm following my instinct and will take it slowly.
In the meantime, you will see more writing from the rest of us here. And, as always, we love apprentices and interns of all ages working and learning in our newsroom. Small papers like ours are wonderful training grounds for the next generation of journalists.
A news operation is only as good as the people who are doing the legwork, writing the stories, taking the photos, designing the pages, crafting the headlines. The Commons has blossomed because Peters has blossomed.
By virtue of her doing her job so well, Peters has served as an ambassador to the public. Her contributions to the growth, maturity, and success of this newspaper cannot be overstated.
I hope our friends at WTSA are just as lucky as we have been here, and I hope that over the next few months we will see the process begin anew.