End of one era, beginning of another

Having served The Lakeville Journal’s readership as reporter, executive editor and Compass and special sections editor (sometimes simultaneously) since 1999, Cynthia Hochswender will now be bidding the newspaper a fond farewell, leaving as Compass and special sections editor as of Oct. 7. Hochswender, as noted on this week’s front page, will be handing on the reins to current Senior Associate Editor Alexander Wilburn, who will go through the transition to covering the arts in the Tristate region with her full support. Wilburn first came into The Lakeville Journal as an intern with Hochswender, and has over the years become a valued and highly skilled colleague.

As noted before in this space as she wound down step by step after taking on both the news and the arts side during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Hochswender has given monumental effort to assuring the continued success of this community publication. Our readers will remember that during that time when in-person events, meetings and daily communication were stopped, the local news took on an entirely different tenor than before the pandemic hit our society. Keeping close track of the medical reality of dealing with COVID-19 week to week was the major focus of reporting then, and the arts took on a decidedly internal process, with streaming on home TVs and other devices and sharing a jigsaw puzzle with those in our bubbles becoming the height of escapism.

Hochswender was also key in the research that led to The Lakeville Journal finding its path toward becoming a nonprofit in 2021, after our having launched the membership model of a for-profit newspaper in 2019, successfully gaining more than enough support from our readers to keep publishing. This company is indebted to her for her unwavering belief in the value of community journalism, and her willingness to keep working every week to maintain it for our communities.

Over the years, she proved her well-honed abilities to keep the news fresh and vibrant for readers every week. She made it look easy. It is not. Thank you, Cynthia, for keeping us inspired with new ideas and projects on a regular basis. The implementation of your brainstorms have made for some of the most fun parts of this ongoing local journalism project.

Hochswender will be continuing her work as a Realtor at William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty out of the Salisbury office.

The Lakeville Journal will host an open house on Thursday, Oct. 6, to honor Hochswender and to welcome Wilburn as Compass editor (as Cynthia was very clear she wanted to do, along with our readers and friends.) Come to The Lakeville Journal building at 64 Route 7 North in Falls Village between 5 and 7 p.m. that day and wish them both well in their new adventures.