Our Mission and Our Gratitude

Published 9 years ago9y ago • Bookmarks: 75

December 7, 2015

Service to the Community. That was the primary motivation behind the formation, just over 10 years ago, of the Hudson Valley News Corp., the parent company of this newspaper. Our decade of publishing was recently recognized by the Greater Sleepy Hollow Tarrytown Chamber of Commerce at its Milestone Anniversary event.

Over the past 10 years our mission has not changed. It has been driven by the challenge to provide the people of Tarrytown, Sleepy Hollow and Irvington with comprehensive and objective reporting of the events happening within their communities. We believe that is important in a democratic society.

Community support of our mission was evident at our start-up. Local residents, some 75 in number, became shareholders in the corporation to provide the financing necessary to publish the first issue of The Hudson Independent at the beginning of 2006. Each of those shareholders should take pride that their initial boost created a publication that has lasted a decade and will continue on. Our thanks to them.

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Our gratitude must also go to our advertisers, without whom the newspaper could not continue. We are pleased that they understand that we want to help them maintain thriving communities where merchants and businesses of all types serve as the essential core of our villages.

Volunteers have shared the responsibility of publishing this newspaper from its beginning. They constitute a good number of those who contribute monthly to the publication of our newspaper, assisting our professional staff. Our editorial staff members and production staff have had lengthy experience working with publications.

Our Corporate Board members are volunteers. Members with solid journalism backgrounds, or editing and writing experience and skills, make up most of our voluntary Editorial Board, which both helps guide content and contributes reporting for The Hudson Independent. Taken together, they would account for well over 100 years of experience in the journalism and editing fields. Their backgrounds are available for perusal on our website, www.thehudsonindependent.com.

Lastly, we want to express our gratitude to you, our readers, without whom this newspaper would be purposeless. From our observations, we believe you are appreciative of our mission and how we have carried it out. To all of you we say “Thank you” and send our best wishes for the most enjoyable holidays ahead. The Hudson Independent’s staff and volunteers join together in wishing you a Happy New Year.

Editorial Board

Members of The Hudson Independent’s Editorial Board serve in that capacity voluntarily and contribute to the editorial content of the newspaper. They meet monthly.

Rick Pezzullo
Editor Rick Pezzullo has been writing for newspapers since he was a freshman in high school, covering sports for North County News, a weekly in Yorktown. After graduating from Pace University in 1987, he joined North County News as a reporter and was named the newspaper’s managing editor in 1996, a position he held for 10 years. During his tenure, North County News won numerous state Press Association awards for news, sports and lifestyles coverage. Rick also won several awards himself for news, sports and editorial writing. He joined The Hudson Independent as a freelance writer in 2007 and was named editor in late 2008.

Barrett (Barry) Seaman
Barrett Seaman spent 30 years as a correspondent and editor at Time Magazine, He served in five domestic and foreign bureaus, including four years as Senior White House Correspondent during Ronald Reagan’s second term. He edited several sections of the magazine in New York and spent his last seven years as Special Projects Editor, producing half a dozen single topic special issues. Seaman is the co-author of “Going For Broke: The Chrysler Story” (Doubleday, 1981), together with Michael Moritz, and the author of Binge: Campus Life in an Age of Disconnection and Excess. It was published in 2005 by Wiley. He is a founding director of Choose Responsibility, a non-profit organization dedicated to reforming the nation’s drinking age laws. In 2010, he was named its president

Alexander Roberts
Alexander ( Alec) Roberts was a broadcast journalist for nearly 20 years, — the last 10 years at WPIX-TV in New York City. Roberts won two Emmy Nominations for Investigative Reporting and Spot News, as well as the Associated Press Broadcaster’s Award for General Excellence in Individual Reporting. His stories were aimed at producing change, such as the reclassification of thousands of first time drug offenders in New York State prisons, and the shut-down of a “Contra” military training camp in Florida that had operated for several years. He is the founder and executive director of a nonprofit housing organization operating in four counties with 175 employees.

Kevin Brown
Kevin Brown has been a contributing writer to various publications throughout high school, college and his professional life. He is a long time media professional, having worked in sales and marketing at ABC, CBS, Fox News, and Al Gore’s Current TV. He has lived in Tarrytown for more than 15 years with 2 kids in village schools and sports programs. He serves on boards, coaches basketball and his company, Hudson Barter Exchange, is a member of the Tarrytown Chamber of Commerce, and was among the founders of the newspaper.

Paula Romanow Etzel
Paula Romanow Etzel , after graduating from Boston University with a B.A. degree in English, worked for publishing firms in Connecticut and New York where she gained experience in copyediting and children’s publishing. A longtime advocate for non-profit educational and arts programs, Paula serves on the board of Jazz Forum Arts, is an Irvington Town Hall Theater commissioner, and has been an active volunteer for local community initiatives including the Irvington Business Improvement Committee, Farmers Market, and is active politically. She is a creator and co-director of the international All Shorts Irvington Film Festival. Currently overseeing day-to-day Hudson Independent operations in addition to copyediting/proofreading duties since 2006, she is also one of the founders of the newspaper.

Steve Gosset
Steve Gosset spent two decades as a journalist, most recently as a writer, editor and producer at CBS News, where he won two awards for outstanding radio news writing. Gosset has also served as a writer on the “CBS Evening News” and “Sunday Morning.” Gosset also worked as a reporter for The Journal-News, The Record in Hackensack, N.J., the Syracuse Herald-Journal, and United Press International. He has been a public relations officer at officer at Columbia Law School and currently is a PR officer for a national non-profit.

Joanne Tinsley
Joanne Tinsley is a freelance editor/writer specializing in the development of college textbooks in psychology, political science, communication, public speaking, and media/culture. Prior to freelancing, she worked for over 20 years as a college textbook editor and Managing Developmental Editor at Scott, Foresman (Chicago) and then at HarperCollins (New York), specializing in the fields of psychology and education. She participated in the early days of The Hudson Independent as a Founder and a Member of the Editorial Board, as well as liaison to the printer and to the circulation department. She continues to this day on the Editorial Board and as Circulation Manager.

Maria Ann Roglieri, PhD
Maria is professor of Modern Languages and Literatures at St. Thomas Aquinas College in New York. She is author of Dante and Music: Musical Adaptations of Dante’s Commedia (Ashgate Press, 2001) and numerous articles on Dante. She holds a B.A. in Italian literature from Columbia University, and an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Italian literature from Harvard University. She has won awards for excellence in teaching and for her writing at Harvard University and St. Thomas Aquinas College. Maria is also an expert on Gluten-free dieting, and has written books about it, as well as providing counseling and lecturing on the subject. .

Morey Storck
Morey Storck was the owner of Signature Advertising, a company that engaged in trade and retail advertising, including layout and design, logo and packaging design, and photography. He oversaw catalog design and printing, trade shows and sales meetings, fashion shows and handled public relations for clients. Morey is currently editor of a newsletter for the Edgemont Condominiums, in Tarrytown. His education included a degree in industrial and labor relations. He also was among the founders of this newspaper.

Don Whitely
Don Whitely’s background includes numerous community contributions such as Chairman of the Westchester County Salvation Army Advisory Board; Chairman of the Tarrytown Salvation Army Advisory Council; member of the Hudson Valley NAACP ACT-SO Committee; member of The Hudson Independent News Editorial Board; member of the Town of Greenburgh Black History Committee and he continues to work with the Tarrytown Community Opportunity Center. Don is also an experienced amateur photographer who exhibits his work at the Warner Library as a contribution to Black History Month. His most recent exhibit was at the Watercooler on Broadway. He was Tarrytown’s first African American elected to its trustee board in 1992 and served three terms.

Robert Kimmel, Editorial Board Chairman
Robert Kimmel’s journalism experience spans more than six decades, beginning with his role as Editor-in-Chief of his high school newspaper, sports editor of his college newspaper, and ranges from sports editor of a suburban Philadelphia newspaper to Director of NBC Radio Network News. He served as a correspondent for the American Forces Network in Europe, reporting from Paris, and Frankfurt. His positions at a CBS owned station, in Philadelphia and for ABC News in New York, included work as a news announcer, writer, reporter, editor and producer of radio and television programs. He was Assistant News Director of WINS all-news radio. His experience also included several years as a vice president at Hill and Knowlton, an international public relations company. He is retired from a company he helped establish that provided radio and TV news feature reports to stations nationally. He is one of the newspaper’s founders.

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