The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

WAITSBURG - The Times of Waitsburg has hired former Blue Mountain News Editor and Publisher Ken Graham as its new editor following the departure of Jillian Beaudry, who left the Times on Dec. 7. Graham will begin at the weekly newspaper on Jan. 2.

The Times also announced it has promoted Morgan Smith to Assistant Editor, a position in which she will support Graham in coor­dinating news coverage and pro­duction. That appointment is effective immediately.

The new composition of the Times' news team, which also includes sports reporter/ photographer Dan Groom and community news co­ordinator Robyn Dunleavy, combines Graham's years of experience at the Blue Moun­tain News and, more recently, the Walla Walla Union Bul­letin, with Smith's passion for community news cov­erage and new me­dia, Times Publisher Imbert Mat­thee said

"We're delighted to have Ken on board," Matthee said. "He is a seasoned newsman who brings insight, fairness and integrity to the position. It's a great benefit to our newspaper and for the com­munities we cover."

Matthee said Beaudry made "an enormous" contribution to the growth of the Times, increasing its page count to 16 from 12 and creating individual sections for each of the largest Touchet Valley towns the weekly cov- ers: Waitsburg, Dayton and Prescott. She and Smith also boosted the Times' presence on Facebook and made it more interactive with read- ers.

"We're deeply grateful for all the hard work Jillian performed on behalf of the Times and its readers dur- ing the time she was with us," Matthee said. "We were honored to have her and wish her the best in her promising career."

In an interview following his appointment to the Times, Graham said he wants to bring his tradition of good indepth and balanced community news and entertainment coverage to the Waitsburg- based weekly, which he said has already made great strides in becoming the area's most comprehensive news source.

Graham said he started the Blue Mountain News in 2007 because Dayton needed a good community newspaper and now has it in the form of the Times' city coverage there. At the same time, Gra- ham said he will bring his fair and balanced reporting to the Dayton beat, part of which he will share with Smith along- side coverage of Waitsburg and Prescott.

Since Dayton is the Times' biggest growth area and it is more than twice the size of Waitsburg in population, it makes sense to add more resources to its coverage but also strengthen coverage of Waitsburg and Prescott, Mat- thee said. To this end, Groom has agreed to take on ad- ditional general and feature news assignments in Waits- burg and Prescott, he said.

"Ken is empowered to bring his own news vision to this top position," Mat- thee said. "We're lucky to have him. We'll have a great team."

Since May, Graham has been a part time beat reporter for the Walla Walla Union Bulletin, covering Prescott, Waitsburg, Dayton, Starbuck, Pomeroy as well as Columbia and Garfield counties.

Morgan Smith

From January 2007 to January 2012, he was found- er and owner of the Blue Mountain News, writing feature stories, news stories, editorial and columns plus helped with ad sales, photog- raphy, design and layout.

For six years before that, Graham became an online economics instructor for the University of Phoenix , a job he continued while pub- lishing the Blue Mountain News. From mid 1997 to January 2006, he was owner and manager of Tomlinson Black/Blue Mountain Realty office in Dayton.

He obtained two advanced degrees from the University of Washington: a Master's in Economics in 1993 and a Bachelor's in Business Ad- ministration in 1978.

After a successful five- year run, the Blue Mountain News closed down after losing two of its cornerstone advertisers, one of which went out of business while the other scaled back its me- dia buys.