Hello, everyone. My name is Kathy O’Reilly-Taylor and I am delighted to have been appointed the Publisher/Editor of the North Island Gazette.
I decided to relocate to the Island after a visit this summer.
I was moved not only by the sheer beauty of the area, but by how happy people seemed with the way of life the Island offers.
(Moving to where I will not have to freeze scraping ice and snow off my windshield every morning is another bonus.)
I have always loved the ocean, and been fascinated by beachcombing and marine animals, likely because my parents started taking me camping close to beaches in New York and New Jersey every summer, starting when I was just several weeks old. Water has always been a source of peace for me.
So when the opportunity at the Gazette came up, I jumped.
I have worked in the weekly newspaper business for over 20 years. I obtained my Bachelor of Arts degree, with a major in Journalism, from Concordia University in Montreal. After leaving Montreal I spent a few years living in Lake Louise and Vancouver before starting my career as a sports reporter for the Hinton Parklander, a weekly newspaper in a pulp and coal mining town in northern Alberta.
After a maternity leave break, I moved on to the Camrose Canadian — an agricultural community and home of the annual country music Big Valley Jamboree — as a general news reporter.
The next move was south to the town of Pincher Creek, where I became the editor of the Pincher Creek Echo. Over the next 12 years, I became Publisher of the Echo, the Crowsnest Pass Promoter, the summer publication the Waterton/Glacier Boundary, two monthly magazines and numerous specialty publications. Prior to taking on my new role at the North Island Gazette, I had been selling advertising in Lethbridge for the Southern Alberta Newspaper Group.
In my spare time, I enjoy horseback riding, reading, and camping. I have recently started doing stained glass, which I have found to be a pretty amazing hobby. I love the process of creating something beautiful out of nothing, which is why I think I also enjoy gardening so much.
I am proud to have belonged to a group of volunteers called the Pincher Planters that helped Pincher Creek win a national “Communities in Bloom” title.
It is great to be at the helm of a weekly newspaper again.
I invite you to stop in to the office to say hello, offer suggestions about the newspaper and your ideas for stories you would like to see in its pages.
It takes a community to raise a newspaper, too.