JC Cortez
I guess I’m no different than most of you in at least one area of my life. When it comes to my job, there are elements of my role as editor of The Reflector Newspaper that I enjoy and others that I don’t enjoy. There are things I believe I do well and others not so well.
As the point person for our news department, one of my responsibilities is to lead the search for new reporters when we have an open position on our staff. Such an opening was created earlier this year and I began the search for a full-time reporter with the support and guidance of our General Manager Laura Venneri and counsel and input of our other company leaders.
As you’ve read in this space before, this isn’t my first rodeo. I’ve been in the newspaper industry since 1987. Even in what would still be considered my early years, I was involved in the search for candidates to fill reporter positions while serving as the prep and local sports coordinator at The Columbian Newspaper. My editor at the time, Don “DOC’’ Chandler, was kind enough to allow me to participate in the process several times and I will fiercely argue that DOC and I had a pretty good track record of success.
I have found over the years that no search is the same. Each leads you down a path that you did not vision when you embarked on the journey, and my most recent experience here at The Reflector was no different.
This recent search took far more time than I expected and there’s obviously no one more responsible for that than me. I have a bad habit at putting out the fire burning the hottest, which is putting out a paper each week, and then not getting to the others still smoldering a few steps away.
This week, we welcomed JC Cortez to The Reflector. JC will fill a full-time reporter position and I’m extremely excited about adding him to our staff. I firmly believe you will soon share that excitement as well.
JC comes to us from Amarillo, TX, where he was a reporter for the Amarillo Globe-News, covering crime, courts, breaking news and a variety of diverse assignments in a circulation area of more than 400,000 people throughout the city of Amarillo and 26 surrounding counties. I found that he has established himself as a fearless, hard-working reporter with tremendous integrity who also possesses an accessible, personable demeanor and presence.
JC’s decision to move from his native Texas to Washington is an interesting one.
“I knew from an early age that I did not want to stay in Texas my entire life,’’ said the 30-year-old Cortez. “I love rain and I hate the heat; the more I learned about the Pacific Northwest, the more I wanted to explore it – to experience it.’’
I will be honest, when JC responded to our ad for an opening, I didn’t think there was any way we could lure a reporter of his achievement to Clark County. But, what I didn’t know was, he was on his way to us.
I had JC’s application packet in my possession for more than a month before I called him. When I finally dialed his number, it was mostly because I was just curious as to why he was leaving Texas for our great corner of the country here in the Pacific Northwest. When I reached JC, I was surprised to discover that he and his fiance were in Montana. They were taking a circuitous route to Washington, trying to take in all the national parks and scenic areas along the way.
“We started planning back during the winter,’’ he said. “We made lists of what we would need and started saving as much money as we could. When the time came, we sold everything we owned, threw what we could fit into the trunk of my fiance's car, and drove into the unknown with only a vague sense of where we were going – Washington.’’
Thankfully, their instincts were true. They fell in love with the state, and ultimately Clark County.
“I was offered positions at a few other newspapers around the state, but chose Clark County,’’ he said. “With a beach, mountains, a rainforest, volcanoes and some of the most famous cities on the planet only a comfortable drive away, I saw my chance to locate right in the center of my dreams. I'm already in love with the area.’’
