As Times change at The Day, the business beat beckons
So, after six years of overseeing the weekly Times papers in southeastern Connecticut, I’m back as business editor of The Day, planning to bring more local content to the Sunday Business section as well as writing news and features for the daily.
The Day recently decided to downsize the Times from nine to three papers while also reducing the amount of content in each of the editions. From here on out, The Norwich Times will be sent to homes in Greater Norwich, including people from Preston and Ledyard who used to receive The Thames River Times, while The Mystic Times will include people from Stonington, North Stonington, Groton, Mystic and Noank. The newspapers covering the Lymes, Salem, Waterford, New London and Montville will be combined into a weekly called The Times.
The good news is that the Times starting next week will be inserted once again into the daily paper for those subscribers who get The Day midweek. So many people requested the Times that it seemed the right thing to do.
I will still be working on the Times, but the reduced number of editions will free me up to do more stories on the local business community. I will be working hard to cover what’s happening at Millstone, Pfizer Inc., in the local banking community and the hubbub surrounding the new era of wind turbine production, among other topics.
For those of you whom I haven’t met, I can sum up my experience as “just about everything.” I was layout editor and news editor of The Danville Register in Danville, Va., before coming to The Day in 1979. Since then, I’ve been a town reporter, copy editor, Region editor, Page One editor, Sunday editor, Marketplace magazine editor and senior business reporter.
I also started The Times papers 20 years ago as its first managing editor. During COVID, I launched The Norwich Times, which was widely popular, and brought on a lot of new columnists while also designing and paginating several other editions.
I have also taught journalism at three different colleges: University of Connecticut at Storrs, Connecticut College and Mitchell College. And I have done podcasts, newsletters, tennis columns, general columns and even video reports for The Day.
I’ve met many great people over the years and had a chance to do some amazing stories. I’ve also won dozens of awards, including five first-place business-writing prizes statewide over a 10-year period and the Theodore Driscoll Award for Investigative Reporting. Several years ago, I was named a fellow of the National Press Foundation.
One of my most interesting experiences involved covering the failure of the New London Security Federal Credit Union, where an elderly investment manager was accused of embezzling more than $10 million over at least two decades. So my first story as business editor came last week as a bit of deja vu when I wrote about recent national bank failures and their possible effect locally.
You see, after 45 years in journalism, I’m still hungry for stories. So if you have one, no matter how small, please reach out to me at l.howard@ theday.com, or call my cell at (860) 964-0597. I’ll get back to you!
You can send business briefs, as always, to businessbriefs@theday. com. We’re always looking for stories on people moving up and doing new things, not to mention new business startups and expansions.
And, as always, thanks for trusting me with your stories. I promise to report them as accurately and fairly as possible. It’s a privilege to be back on the business beat!