The Los Alamos Daily Post is celebrating 12 years in business. Courtesy image
By BERNADETTE LAURITZEN
Los Alamos
Starting a business is a lot like having a child. When that child turns 12, you know you have come a really long way. Carol A. Clark’s baby, The Los Alamos Daily Post turned 12 Wednesday, Feb. 7! She has allowed me to capture the historic moment with an article about relationships along the way.
This article will be just a small glimpse of our community gem and will be followed by a second, if not a third article. I felt there was just so much to say and I would also need to include Thoughts from The Founder. She runs the show, so we’ll see if she agrees.
I’m not sure how to refer to everyone, FOC-Friend of Carol, Daily Darlings, but instead I’ve settled on the Gathering of Greatness. You see, you are only as great as those you work with, for and who support you along the way.
Today, I start with Los Alamos Fire Chief Troy Hughes. Chief Hughes knows Carol’s character, her work ethic and research. He believes her job is to go beyond the surface story and get to the heart of what the community needs to know.
“Carol will ask our department leadership what does the community need to know about the event. She doesn’t assume and write, she researches first and then writes to the community with input from Fire leadership,” Chief Hughes said. “LADP publication serves as a free community service tool to inform and keep the public safe during large scale emergency events like the recent Cerro Pelado Fire.”
Almost all jobs have a work life and sometimes if you are lucky, that work also develops, “a family component.” I asked the Chief if he could share a meaningful story from over the years. Relationships are really important in life and at the heart of great people who turn out great work. Here is such a story.
“When she made the decision to leave her position as a reporter at the LA Monitor, I had only been the fire chief for a short time, but had already developed a personal relationship with Carol. She told me she was going to leave her job and start her own newspaper,” Hughes said. “I was worried that she might not be successful. It wasn’t that I didn’t have faith in her, but business is hard and not everyone makes it, even bright hardworking individuals fail at business due to no fault of their own. I told Carol that I was supportive of her effort, but if it failed, my wife Jodi and I would gladly provide her a place to live until she could get back on her feet.”
The Chief also assured me that it isn’t that he and Jodi wouldn’t have enjoyed spending more time with Carol as a house guest, but…
“I am super happy she didn’t fail and has 12 years of success,” Chief said. “Congratulations and thank you for all you do the make Los Alamos a great place to work and live.”
Our next collegial colleague is UNM-LA Chancellor Mike Holtzclaw. Dr. Holtzclaw wanted to take a moment to spotlight the role the Los Alamos Daily Post has in fostering connectivity in our community. He appreciates the ability of the Post to highlight achievements and amplify diverse voices. He feels that Carol along with her staff accomplish so much for the community.
“Carol and her esteemed team have consistently demonstrated unwavering support for UNM-Los Alamos (UNM-LA), acting as a champion for our institution,” Holtzclaw said. “The collaboration with Carol and her team has been instrumental in showcasing the achievements and milestones of UNM-LA. She has celebrated student success alongside us by featuring graduates, scholarship recipients and the various special stories of our students. We would like to extend our heartfelt congratulations to LA Daily Post on achieving 12 years of remarkable service and excellence.”
Carol explained that she started the Post because she saw the direction the world of news was headed and felt those newspapers that didn’t embrace that direction would lose readership and shut down.
“I was fortunate to have great people around me as we got started, Bonnie Gordon, Sal Zapien, Greg and Karen Kendal, Kirsten Laskey and others, who despite having fulltime jobs gathered nights and weekends to help pull the paper together,” Carol said. “Since that time we have assembled a group of talented and dedicated professionals who love the news business and the community they cover and it shows. Bonnie was our first employee and went on to work at the Post for over a decade before retiring last year.”
One of the things Carol and the news team really appreciates is how the community has embraced the Post from the very beginning.
“So often if they don’t see one of us at their event they will take photos and send us a little write up and that is wonderful!” she said.
Others who shared congratulatory comments about Carol and the news team include Los Alamos Public Schools Superintendent Jennifer Guy. The schools benefit in numerous ways with the help of the Daily Post. The eight sites, sports teams, clubs and fundraisers all flourish with a little help from the keystroke and always ends with a plethora of promotion.
“They frequently help us communicate important information to our community about the schools including in emergency situations,” Superintendent Guy said. “The LADP also helps us celebrate our students and teachers by covering the things that are happening in our schools and classrooms. Carol has been a wonderful advocate for education in our community.”
What memory sticks out most for Guy?
“Carol’s passion for education and the community was clearly displayed in her article about our local teacher Lynn Ovaska and the way she teaches kindness,” Guy said. (https://ladptest2.ortizaudio.net/lahs-teachers-simple-act-of-kindness-inspires-students/)
You can’t have a good community without a good Chamber of Commerce and LADP’s kindness and caring strikes yet again. Carol is a woman-owned small business promoting many local businesses, allowing them to succeed in our community. The Los Alamos Daily Post and the Chamber have partnered many times over a 12-year period.
“Leading up to Small Business Saturday, the Daily Post features a piece about each participant online. They don’t have to be a Chamber member, they just need to participate,” Chamber Director Ryn Herrmann said. “The small business community benefits from The Daily Post all year long!”
And then there was Oppenheimer, a global movie phenomenon. The movie brought additional awareness of history that educated many people in a three-hour film. It brought a new attention to what life was like for many at the start of our secret town and the LADP was able to show the world what it is today.
“Leading up to the Oppenheimer movie launch, The Daily Post ran a series of four articles from local historian Chris Judson that went viral,” Herrmann said. “Those stories were able to travel from the County’s newspaper-of-record, the Los Alamos Daily Post, to reach around the world and share out news from Los Alamos!”
Last, but certainly not least, we can’t do anything without our men and women in blue. I’m sure many officers from the last 12 years could say a lot about the Daily Post staff and Carol Clark. Here we went straight to the top to get the scoop.
“Carol did an article when I passed the 30-year mark in law enforcement,” Police Chief Dino Sgambellone said. “She obtained quotes from many people within the community I’ve had the honor of working with and even reached out to my children for comments. I truly appreciated the lengths she went to in writing the article and felt blessed to be the Chief in Los Alamos.”
And then, who better to add something special than someone who adds to what makes our community better – Deputy Police Chief Oliver Morris.
“Carol has been a great supporter of the community of Los Alamos. She has been a long-time member of the Los Alamos Rotary Club,” said Morris who is the immediate past president of Rotary. “She has supported the Law Enforcement Torch Run through financial support and has used her media outlet to raise awareness for local special Olympic athletes.”
You might say that Carol Clark and the staff of the Los Alamos Daily Post make the world go round, at least for our neck of the woods. Our thanks to them all for serving the community faithfully day in and day out for the last 12 years!
