Nick Rosenberger

Hi. I feel like I should formally introduce myself after a month of helping build the new and reimagined Redmond Spokesman along with Tim Trainor, Leo Baudhuin and a whole slew of passionate people over at Central Oregon Media Group.

I’m Nick Rosenberger. I’m a reporter for the Redmond Spokesman. I’ve met many of you already, and let me just say it’s been an absolute pleasure. I’ve loved getting to know this community and feel grateful to be in such a tight-knit and welcoming place.

I wasn’t entirely sure what to write about when I was first asked to write this column. But, knowing that trust in media is at an all time low, I realized this would be the perfect opportunity to open the newsroom to all of you and show you exactly what happens at Sixth and Deschutes.

Mostly, it’s a lot of phone calls, emails, taking photographs, meeting with community members, attending meetings I think people should know about and hammering out words on Google Docs as I drink an unhealthy amount of coffee.

I’m just like many of you. I wake up on Monday mornings with an ever expanding to-do list and close my laptop on Friday evening hoping I’ve done the best I can. I know I’m not always perfect and I don’t always ace every piece I write, but I try my best to be fair in my coverage, detailed and precise in my writing and accurate in my photography.

But, even as I try my best, media and communications is an imperfect system. There’s typos. There’s inaccuracies. There’s mistakes. That’s an inherent part of an industry that relies on hard and fast deadlines. It’s difficult to interview someone for an hour or two and boil that down into a few quotes and a 500 word news story.

And, there will always be implicit biases. The way I was raised and the experiences I’ve had paint my worldview and, in turn, will always affect the way I use words and the way I gravitate towards certain stories no matter how hard I try to remain objective.

To be completely open and transparent, I feel I should explain my own background so that you can each make informed decisions based upon the stories I write and how I write them.

I was raised in about as central Portland as possible (in the King neighborhood), before moving out to Oregon City for high school. I was fed a constant IV drip of adventure stories growing up — blasting through Percy Jackson novels on repeat and ripping through covers of National Geographic. I decided, when I was around 13 years old, that I wanted to become a journalist.

After high school, I took a year off to solo backpack through Southeast Asia and Europe on money I’d saved up while cashiering at Safeway, then stuffed my head in books for four years at the University of Oregon. I continued to work through college, first changing oil at Valvoline then as a writing coach, reporter and managing editor of a magazine. I graduated in 2021 with double majors in journalism and international studies with minors in Arabic and Middle East-North African studies. From there, I spent some time at the East Oregonian in Pendleton, covering everything from education to rodeos, before going freelance and winding up here helping Tim build a newsroom.

I believe in diplomacy and hard work. I believe people are inherently good and want to do good for others, even if it can be misguided at times. I believe in honesty and being true to your word. I believe writing has the ability to bring people together and that local newspapers can act as a vehicle for greater understanding and communication.

If you see me around with a notebook and camera in hand, please feel free to say hi. Let me know what stories I’m missing. Let me know how I can better serve you and the people you care about. And, if you have something you want to get off your chest, please feel free to contribute to this opinion and editorial section. This isn’t just my paper or Tim’s paper or Central Oregon Media Group’s paper — this is your paper.