Staff profile: Meet Matt Martin of the Erie Times-News and GoErie.com
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Meet MATT MARTIN
I'm the group editor for 22 Pennsylvania and Ohio newsrooms that are part of Gannett's Center for Community Journalism.
I've been with the Times-News since 1999 including as executive editor from June 2019 through March 2023. I've also worked as news editor, digital editor, sports editor and sports copy editor. I've also served as a copy editor, page designer and outdoors writer at the Northwest Herald in suburban Chicago, sports editor at the Oil City Derrick and Franklin News-Herald and a sports writer at the Meadville Tribune. I graduated from the University of Pittsburgh, where I was editor-in-chief of The Pitt News student newspaper.
My wife Linda and I live in Erie, my hometown.
Why I became a journalist
There weren't enough books, comic books, magazines, newspapers or cereal boxes to suit me as a kid, and joy in reading fed by my parents led directly to delight in writing. The idea that journalism might be a career first took hold in Patricia Pollifrone's classroom at James S. Wilson Middle School, where the staff spun up The Ram student newspaper. How serious we were about it as seventh- and eighth-graders, and what great fun we had. I never recovered from those days, nor wished to.
The Erie Times-News at 135: An ongoing evolution in community journalism since 1888
What I like best about my job
It's the people ― those I work with, those who we report for and about, those I've yet to meet. I'd rather listen than talk, ask questions than answer, and I hope in the meeting, listening and asking I better understand our community and those who live here.
A story I worked on that has had a lasting impact on me
World War II has riveted me as long as I can recall. At least some of that interest has to be owed to my dad's dad, who died too young of complications from the conditions he endured in the Pacific with the 1st Marine Division.
In 2014, with the 70th anniversary of the end of the war approaching, I asked the then-digital reporter at the Times-News to find veterans, their families and others with a link to the 1940s who would be willing to tell their stories, and in them the story of our community at war.
Sarah Grabski spent most of a year finding and interviewing men and women for a project that became "Our Fight: Erie in World War II," a 20-episode video series that published in May 2015. Hers and videographer Rob Frank's documentary, narrated by John Leisering, put local names and faces to the war years and effort into a digital presentation that was evidence to our newsroom and community of what was possible off the printed page.
Every World War II veteran who participated has since died. The time we devoted to the project gave their memories to posterity when waiting any longer, say for the 75th anniversary, would have robbed them from the world. The families of the veterans, in more than one case, told us that they'd never heard some of the details that we recorded. Every so often I go to GoErie's YouTube channel, find the "Our Fight" playlist, watch, and remember.
Our Fight video playlist: Erie in World War II
What I like to do when I’m not working
Fish, hike, paddle, go birding and get lost in the woods and waters of northwestern Pennsylvania. Watch British dramas, Scandinavian mysteries, black-and-white movies and Pittsburgh Penguins games. Long walks on Erie's streets. Haunt Blasco Library. Argue with two vocal cats. Hang with my parents. Everything with my wife, especially travel to visit family and explore new corners of the world, near and far.
Favorite event or Erie-area tradition
Is there a better week of the year than when the Friends of the Erie County Library throw their Great American Book Sale? I was a Friends board member for a few years and have seen the effort that the volunteers put into making the event go. The revenue from the Friends' biggest annual fundraiser pays for events, services, training and other uses in the library system, and our libraries are vital hubs for our communities. The question isn't whether I'll go to the book sale each year, but how many times.
Why journalism matters
Journalists raise our hands to be the proxy for our communities in places where there's a public interest but not everyone has the ability or time to go. We ask questions you might want put to elected and appointed officials and others in positions of authority. We seek public documents that clarify what happens in the light and the shadows. We seek stories that can spread joy, understanding, caution, even possible solutions. We have a fierce care for the well-being of all of our residents and communities, and it's our privilege to work on your behalf.
More from Matt Martin Additional columns
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Meet the Erie Times-News staff
David Bruce | Tim Hahn | Valerie Myers | Matthew Rink | Mike Copper | Jennie Geisler | Ed Palattella | Greg Wohlford | Jim Martin | Tom Reisenweber | Kevin Flowers | Jim Martin | A.J. Rao | Lisa Thompson Sayers | Dana Massing | Jeff Uveino | Nicholas Sorensen | Tony Battaglia | Melissa Lee
This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Staff profile: Meet Matt Martin of the Erie Times-News and GoErie.com
