In the past month, the Morris Daily Herald's newsroom gained a news reporter, but lost a sports writer.
First and foremost, the Morris Daily Herald welcomes new staff writer Jessica Shumaker, who started her duties on April 9.
Shumaker, a 2009 Olivet Nazarene University graduate, is focusing her efforts primarily on covering the local police, fire and court beats. She, however, is also covering the school and village boards in Coal City, not to mention picking up various features from time to time.
Shumaker comes to the Morris Daily Herald from The Villages Daily Sun in The Villages, Fla., where she worked as public safety reporter. Prior to that, she was the executive editor for Olivet Nazarene's student newspaper, the GlimmerGlass.
Shumaker, in fact, joins two other Olivet Nazarene graduates on the Morris Daily Herald staff. Lisa Pesavento, the visual content coordinator, and Jessica Cohea, also a staff writer, are also graduates of the Bourbonnais-based university.
Shumaker's work, as of late, includes:
• Love for the Library
• Morris Police Dept. looking for a few good officers
• Grant should help Coal City Library create needed space
• Coal City leaders decline library's permit request
• Police: STHS concession stand targeted again
• Rash of burglaries reported in South Wilmington
At the same time the Morris Daily Herald welcomed Shumaker to its staff, it said farewell to sports writer Steve Nitz, who is now the DeKalb Daily Chronicle's new beat writer for Northern Illinois University athletics. The Daily Chronicle is a sister paper of the Morris Daily Herald, as both are Shaw Media publications.
Nitz, whose work at the MDH was primarily focused on area prep athletics, contributed significantly to our writing, multimedia and social media initiatives. He covered NIU's spring football game on April 21 during his first assignment with the Daily Chronicle.
Nitz was a contributing writer for the Daily Chronicle from 2009-11 before joining the Morris Daily Herald sports staff. He, in fact, covered NIU's football team during the 2009 and 2010 seasons.
Recently, the Morris Daily Herald learned Nitz received four awards at the Illinois Press Association as part of the MDH sports team.
The MDH staff wishes Nitz much success in the future and invites our readers to follow his work with the Daily Chronicle. Besides taking over the blog Huskie Wire, Nitz also just recently wrote about NIU quarterback Chandler Harnish being drafted as "Mr. Irrelevant."
