A journalist who spent years running New Hampshire’s largest newsroom will be the speaker at the third annual party celebrating the South Berwick Reporter, the town’s only dedicated media.
Sherry Wood of Rye, N.H., who began her journalism career at age 15 writing for her hometown weekly and ended her career as news staff manager at the New Hampshire Union Leader in Manchester, will tell stories of newsroom adventures, including a fistfight during Christmas season, a Pulitzer prize celebration that drew police presence, and crazy calls that came in from the public.
“A steady diet of crime and politics gives most reporters and editors an appetite for gallows humor and offbeat observations,” Wood said recently as she ruminated over stories she might tell.
Wood was invited to help the South Berwick Reporter celebrate the start of its fourth year at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 27, with a party at Spring Hill open to all local residents and business owners. Finger food and desserts will be offered and a cash bar will be open.
Wood wrote for the Central Virginian as a teenager, became editor of Virginia Tech’s student newspaper and moved north in 1982 to edit at Foster’s Daily Democrat.
She then spent four years at the Eagle-Tribune in Lawrence, Mass., helping the paper earn a 1988 Pulitzer Prize in general news reporting for its investigation of flaws in the Massachusetts prison furlough system that led to statewide reforms.
“It was a career that required a robust sense of humor and a steady hand on the tiller in intense deadline moments,” Wood said, “not to mention handling all the (often) crazy calls from the public.”
The South Berwick Reporter, which has an all-volunteer editorial staff, has produced about 400 articles and become a staple in the town since it began in March 2023.
The Reporter is offered free to the public but depends on donors and sponsorships to raise up to $15,000 a year for insurance, website maintenance and other costs. The current leadership sponsors, who give at least $500 a year, are South Berwick Eliot Rotary Club, Red Tree Real Estate, Great Northern Builders and Village Motors.
The staff includes reporters Noreen Biehl, Susie Burke, Karen McCarthy Eger, Zelda Kenney, Mark Pechenik, Jesse Roman and John Rudolph; editors Amy Miller and Nora Irvine; cartoonist John Klossner; admin Patti Mitchem; and reporters-in-training Kathy Bousquet and Maggie Raymond, who is also helping with fundraising.
