Coston recognized as ‘20 Over 50’ honoree

John Coston, editor-in-chief of The Lakeville Journal and The Millerton News, is one of 20 journalists over the age of 50 to be recognized in the Sept. 1 edition of trade publication Editor & Publisher.

E&P Editor Robin Blinder wrote that those chosen as 2023 “20 over 50” honorees were “nominated for their strong work ethic, transformational mindsets, commitment to journalistic and publishing excellence and ability to lead during challenging times.”

Coston noted in the E&P article that his greatest sense of  accomplishment is  “acquiring  a lifetime of experience working as a team with reporters and editors to put out a paper day after day, week after week. That especially includes learning to recognize and respect writers’ voices and nurturing those voices as an editor.”

Susan Hassler, publisher of The Lakeville Journal and The Millerton News, herself a veteran journalist, gave a nod to Coston’s approach  in an E&P tribute to him  writing, “Working with John has been an inspiring experience. His enthusiasm for ‘doing the news,’ his appreciation of local journalism — what it means and why it is so important — and his thoughtful mentoring of our most junior reporters as well as our long-timers has galvanized us all to do our best work!”

The papers were also recognized in June when Digital Media Producer and recently named Managing Editor Riley Klein was honored by the magazine as a “Shooting Star.”

Coston’s  E&P  recognition  is especially appropriate because a young reporter he used to  browse that publication’s want ads and dream of working a beat in far off Alaska.

The 49th state did not happen for him, but following his graduation from  Columbia University in the turbulent  late 1960s, a city hall beat at the  Watertown Daily Times in rural upstate New York gave him a start down the road.  There he became a lifelong team player working closely with two other reporters, both then recent Master’s degree graduates from the Columbia Journalism School,  whose training often rubbed off on him.

Coston says he has always found it best to listen to reporters on the ground, whether it was at The Hartford Courant, The Miami (Florida) Herald, the Casper (Wyoming) Star-Tribune or The Wall Street Journal.

In 1990, the parole from Attica of a serial killer, whose conviction had been partially based on articles Coston had written in his rookie days in Watertown, inspired him  to dip his toes into true crime. He authored two nonfiction books before deserting the genre, which he said was “too dark.”

First retiring in 2010 and locating to East Canaan, he then came back out of retirement and resumed his WSJ job part-time as an editor on the national desk until 2015. During those years, he frequently hit the road, traveling out West  “John Steinbeck style” in an RV truck camper with two dogs as sidekicks.

Coston is the father of three grown children and is married to Bridget Starr Taylor, an illustrator and daughter of the late Hatsy Taylor, who for many years authored a gardening column for The Lakeville Journal. Coston and his wife now live in Hatsy’s old farm house, where she religiously penned her columns and where he now edits stories written by others.

He also is a trustee of the Great Mountain Forest in Norfolk and Falls Village and Norfolk Now, a  monthly publication for Norfolk residents.

His country life includes maintaining pastures that are leased to a beef farmer, and managing his own herd of 11 beloved Romney sheep, along with two Texas rescue donkeys, as many chickens as the local foxes allow, two dogs and a cat.

Retirement had great appeal, but literally being put out to pasture couldn’t measure up when in 2022 an ad seeking an editor for the new nonprofit Lakeville Journal Foundation caught his eye.

He applied to then publisher Janet Manko, whose tenure he admires along with her team and for excelling at keeping the papers going through tough economic times, including the pandemic.

“Their devotion to the paper is unmatched,” he said.

“I wanted to help, be part of a team and to have fun again,” he said.

With the support of Patrick L. Sullivan, a Journal veteran, and Riley Klein in Lakeville and Millerton’s Managing Editor Emily Edelman, he happily works both sides of the state line,  getting to know communities and residents, and  proudly dropping off papers at some distribution points.

As he noted in E & P, “It’s the small things that matter as much as the big ones. If you don’t pay attention to detail, the larger story suffers in the end, as does the newspaper. Everybody’s story counts.”