This month marks four years since Seth Johnson became our second Mainstreet news reporter. He made a mark on his very first day, producing a heartwarming story about a young local hero.
Since then, Seth has written more than 1,200 stories, establishing himself as the leading government reporter in Alachua County. Seth has a penchant for finding scoops through sources, meeting coverage, records requests and sifting through available government documents.
This talent is illustrated in three front-page stories in this issue alone: the latest on the Thelma Boltin Center, the conclusion of a recent joint investigation between GPD and the FBI, and a deep-dive on Commissioner James Ingle’s fire assessment proposal.
Seth has also been providing increasing newsroom leadership alongside Senior Editor C.J. Gish, so we recently promoted him to associate editor. His duties will not change significantly, but this marks an important recognition of all he has accomplished over the last four years.
Appropriately, Seth’s promotion comes as we welcome a brand-new member of the team this week. Nick Anschultz is a University of Florida graduate who has spent the last three-and-a-half years as a full-time reporter and editor for the Levy County Citizen.
Nick gained invaluable experience covering everything from government and education to sports and local events. Most importantly, he brings deep knowledge of the area as a UF alum and lifelong citizen of North Central Florida.
Now, Nick will bring all of that experience to Mainstreet as our first dedicated education reporter. He will take over the K-12 education beat that was developed so well by Glory Reitz and, most recently, Lillian Hamman, while also ramping up our coverage of UF, which until now has been limited due to staff bandwidth.
Nick’s position is made possible by Report for America, a national service program that places talented emerging journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered topics and communities. Report for America selected Mainstreet as part of a competitive process last year, and Nick emerged from a competitive pool of more than 1,300 applicants.
Report for America is funding 50% of the first year’s salary, then it will fund 33% in the second year, and 20% in the third year. We are partnering with the Community Foundation of North Central Florida to fundraise the remainder of that salary—and we’re already off to a good start.
Our goal is to fully fund this position in perpetuity, because Alachua County will always need a dedicated education reporter.
If you would like to get involved, you can make a tax-deductible contribution at www.cfncf.org/localnews.