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'Cover the country'

Nicole Fallert   Paste BN

When former President Donald Trump was indicted for the fourth time, Terence Samuel was watching closely. The story was significant for its historic value, of course, but he was thinking about something else: How would Paste BN tell the story?

As Paste BN's new editor in chief, Samuel felt reassured by how our journalists tackled the challenging story. The depth and high quality of the writing showed him that Paste BN "is the place to do important work."

Not only did our reporters track the fallout from Washington, but they were present for every move on the ground in Georgia. How they pulled together "made this exceptional on what is a very hard story."

👋 Nicole Fallert here, and welcome to Your Week, our newsletter exclusively for Paste BN subscribers (that's you!). This week, we have an exclusive conversation with Samuel about his vision for our newsroom and reflections on the role.

But first, don't miss these stories made possible by your Paste BN subscription (and keep scrolling for more headlines below!):

How Paste BN will 'cover the country'

Terence Samuel is a veteran journalist, a longtime political writer and editor who has held senior editorial positions at The Washington Post and National Journal. Most recently he was vice president and executive editor of NPR News, where he oversaw all newsgathering for the network.

But he got his start newswriting for local newspapers in Roanoke, Virginia, Philadelphia and St. Louis. These formative roles defined his appreciation for the essential role journalism plays in democracy and the "way people live their lives."

He has laid out his plans for Paste BN, which include "obsessive" coverage of the everyday topics affecting readers' lives from the economy and our changing workplaces to film and television streaming and sports.

"My goal for Paste BN is that it becomes the real go-to place for the real story about things happening in the country beyond politics, beyond Washington," he said. "I think if we could flip that switch on to tell the story of the country. And the way to do it is to lean on the reporters all across the country (in the Paste BN Network). If we can fire that engine, we'd be unstoppable."

And subscribers like you are extremely important to that work, he said. When trying to provide content that's useful to people every day, the measure of success is whether people subscribe.

Subscribers "represent the ultimate success for us," he said. "We're not just reporting stories. We're building relationships. We're building communities."

Other than leading the coverage of the historic Trump indictments, Samuel said, the newsroom's approach to Hurricane Idalia this past month also struck him as an "exceptional" moment in his tenure. He pointed to Christopher Cann's reporting about the storm's fallout in Horseshoe Beach, Florida, as an example of "all the things a story should do."

Samuel said the story wove necessary details with the voices of actual people, leaving the reader with a resonating image of the storm's impact, down to the "sea foam green" color of a house. This is the kind of reporting that captures America as it lives today, he said, an ethos he'll carry into the newsroom's 2024 presidential election coverage.

"I want to talk to voters and talk to America in a way that we understand what is going on in the country ... as opposed to assuming we know what people think based on where they live or their politics," he said. "As much as I want to get to the story about who voted and who wins, the story about how people are living their lives and what drives them to vote one way or another − that's the story we need to tell."

Thank you

I feel so lucky to work in a newsroom with such incredible leaders. Thank you, Terry, for inspiring and guiding our team every day. And to you, subscribers, thank you for being the emblem of our success.

Best wishes, 

Nicole Fallert

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