By Dani Tietz
With each passing year, we like to believe in the change that the turn of the calendar will bring: in our lives, in our community, in our nation. It is a time of hopeful rebirth, one where we’ve forgotten about many of the trials of years past, and we look forward to something new and refreshing.
I come into 2019 with anticipation for all the potential it might bring, both personally and professionally.
A few weeks ago, I helped my oldest daughter settle into her new life in Omaha; she is pursuing her lifelong dream to become a pastry artist. My middle daughter, a sophomore in high school, smiles when she thinks of math problems, playing her instruments and scholastic bowl (so she is constantly smiling). My son is 13. Indoor soccer season is about to kick-off after a break, and I know that the months ahead will include soccer games and track meets.
I can’t wait for my upcoming annual party with friends to reveal the word that will help guide us down the path of 2019. The party has become a tradition.
I can’t wait to have dinner with my friends, to have coffee with new friends, to feel the sun on my face and to wear flip flops soon. I’m obsessed with thinking about stories for the businesses I help with marketing, for both of the publications I own and I’s so excited to listen to people talk about their lives and their passions.
When 2018 arrived, I did not even fathom that the publication I run, the Mahomet Daily, would open up new opportunities as we closed out the calendar year. In August, my friend and colleague, Fred Kroner said that the St. Joseph Leader and the Tolono County Star weekly newspapers would soon be shutting down operations. He asked if I would be interested in starting online publications in those towns.
The Daily brand started in 2013 when a few men who own an assisted living facility in a rural town nearby came across an online publication called “Just the Facts.” A woman wrote a story or a sentence here or there to help her neighbors understand what was going on in their small community. The larger publication nearby was only engaged randomly and presented surface information.
The men thought that they could take that model, and spread it throughout communities in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. One of the publications they started was in Mahomet, where I live.
Prior to 2013, I’d stayed at home with my children, and was a contract writer for the Mahomet Citizen.
I am not a trained journalist, but rather a trained storyteller. Throughout my time in high school, I wasn’t really interested in literature until my junior year when I met a teacher, Rytha Geyman, who showed me that stories are not just about a timeline and sequence of events, but rather, a character who is on a journey and becomes transformed through some sort of conflict.
I was hooked, and went on to study English Literature at Purdue University. As a mother of three small children, my days in the early 2000’s did not lend themselves to writing, but rather dancing with fairies, hitting golf balls, swinging at the park and meeting other moms.
But when the opportunity to become a columnist for the Citizen came along in 2006, I was elated. Because of my interest in people, that quickly turned into opportunities where I wrote feature stories, and then news stories.
While working under the tutelage of then-Mahomet Citizen Editor Crystal Ligon, I learned a lesson that changed the way I write. I sat in her office one day, talking, and she just sat there, without expression or movement, and listened. I kept talking, opening up more with each word as I thought, “Am I boring her?” But when I was done speaking, she engaged me with softness and wisdom.
It was in that moment that I learned that the stories I have the privilege to tell have nothing to do with me or my talent. The byline doesn’t matter; being present with someone as they tell their story is a great gift. And the only way I can reciprocate that gift is to be present enough to capture the heart of that person, and then gently tell their story so that others can be impacted by their work, too.
Crystal left the Citizen in the summer of 2012, and I took some time away from writing.
In 2013, our family returned from a spring break trip, collected the mail, and I noticed an 11-by-14-inch piece of paper in my mailbox with news stories and an advertisement seeking a local writer. When I submitted stories about a local icon, “The Pig Sign,” and another story about an immigrant from Mexico who came to the states just so that his son could be educated past the age of 13, the owners knew that I was the woman for the job.
A few months later, though, the company that owned the Mahomet Daily, along with seven other publications, went under, and the local journalists had the opportunity to purchase those publications. Only two journalists, myself and the person at the Effingham Daily did so. Only the Mahomet Daily still stands five years later.
But in September 2018, we began to expand the brand again, launching the SJO Daily.
At the beginning, when I did not own the publication, I had little say in how things were run or what stories I told. The owners wanted me to follow the traditional news cycle, covering board meetings and writing about sporting events. With that content, though, the readership was not picking up the way that they had hoped, even though they were delivering the content in a timely manner (the next day).
So, when I purchased it, I thought about why I love to read and tell stories; because they, in a way that no other medium can, allow us to truly see people. In a local publication like this, we get to see our family, our friends, our neighbors, our organizations, our community in a new way.
We get to the heart of who we are, where we’ve been and where we are going. We build connections, work toward solutions and make something new. We share our common life together.
And I cannot think of a better way to live or to be: sharing.
I made the decision to still highlight local sports and board meetings, while also heavily focusing on the people (the characters) who are on a journey and somehow transform. This, alongside a publication that digs into local issues that heavily affect the way we live life, has made the Mahomet Daily something people look forward to reading every day.
I believe that it is also something that has made some writers happy to be part of. In the fall of 2017, Fred Kroner, who has been writing news stories for 50-plus years, joined the team. While he writes sports recaps on a weekly basis, he has also spent countless hours writing stories of local business owners, athletes who have gone on to do great things, residents who have provided for their hometown and Veterans who have served our country.
The Daily brand is not perfect; it never will be. But as we continue to grow, we do so on the basis of genuine interest in people. Our writers and contributors want to tell stories, to hear different voices, to participate in the lives or others, to help and most of all, we just want to get to know people. Our stories are not linear; instead, they are made up of characters going on a journey.
To our St. Joseph, Ogden, Homer, Oakwood, Broadlands, Fithian, Royal, Prarieview readers: SJO Daily was started so that you could have a place to find out about news that is important in your communities.
During the last four months, we have enjoyed meeting you, learning about your history and your future, sitting for hours talking to you. In this new year, 2019, we look forward to continuing to have the opportunity to tell your stories and bring you information that is important.
Our hearts are open to you and all the possibilities you hold. We hope that you will continue to meet us, the writers of this publication, with open hearts, too.
