Change is hard, especially for a very Type A person like myself, but as my mom reminds me, “the only constant is change.”

With the announcement of the sale of our newspaper last week, my phone has been busy with texts and calls from people wondering what this means for the local communities that our newspapers serve. From what I can tell so far, my short answer is “not much.”

Most changes will likely only affect our staff — like who signs the checks, what day we get paid on, who our health insurance is through and what our PTO plan looks like.

There will be a couple new names and faces in the paper in the coming months, but those are internal changes that were in the works prior to the sale. Our amazing editor, Eli Pace, has taken a step to further his career and has become the editor of the Steamboat Pilot & Today. We are actively looking to fill that role, but want to make sure we find the right fit (that can take great sports photos to help fill his shoes!)

We have also promoted Kat Ginn to a Digital Media Specialist and shifted her focus to helping businesses near and far grow in the ever-changing digital space. With her promotion, we have hired a new account manager, Michelle Marks. She and her family are coming to us from Hawaii, where they have owned and marketed a small business for the past seven years.

To look forward, it only makes sense to look at where we came from.

The Sky-Hi News just celebrated its 75th anniversary of continuous coverage. It was purchased by Swift Communications in 2007 from Johnson Media LLC, which was owned by Patrick Brower (a familiar name in our paper still today) and Bill Johnson. Sky-Hi News has been owned by the Nevada-based company for the past 14 years, but has been run locally. We employ local journalists and advertising staff that live in this community and really care about it. While not all of us have our official “local” status yet, we have roots in this community that continue to grow.

The sale to Ogden Newspapers will not change that. Our staff will remain and continue to stay local, and our journalists will still shed light on topics that impact people in the community most.

Ogden Newspapers is a family-owned company, like Swift Communications, and purchased us because of our focus on local journalism. The print news industry is hard and not one with high profits, but Ogden saw something in Swift and wanted to continue that. They said that they admired our donations and membership models that we have created. They have also stressed that their company is very decentralized and has no intention of guiding our content because they want us to focus on what is important to the locals.

Looking forward, I am excited for the opportunity to learn from another group of very smart journalists. The media industry is large, but has a small feel. My new boss, Scott Stanford, is actually the person that started my career in newspapers.

I had always worked in hospitality, but took a job at the local newspaper in Steamboat in 2009. A month later, my tall, boisterous boss came out of his office and said, “Emma, I have an opening in the advertising department. I think you should consider it and get me your resume by the end of the day.”

I was intimidated to think of myself in a sales role, but in these last 12 years, I have truly found my passion and owe that first push to my second-time-around boss.

So, thank you for your ongoing support of the Sky-Hi News. People that read our paper, trust us to grow their business or donate really help our staff see their purpose in the community, and make their jobs better.

If there is anything you ever think we are missing, my door and inbox are always open. We aren’t perfect — we will make mistakes — but we give our hearts and souls to this newspaper and community.