In the past two decades, I’ve worked all around the Delta, lost two city council races, graduated three children from high school and college and even written a book. Through all of life’s experiences during that time, the Delta Democrat Times has been a constant. The press release announcing my return to the publication where I cut my professional teeth is a bit misleading. It says that I’ve worked in some capacity for the DD-T for the past 22 years. Honestly, I actually covered football games during my two years at Mississippi Delta Community College for the legendary sports editor Mitch Ariff. That was during the 1992 and 1993 football seasons. It would be eight years later that I would become a full timer starting off in sports.
As I make this full circle journey, I also realize that I have not had a desk in the building in 20 years. Most of the past two decades have been spent freelancing by covering local sports, Mission Mississippi prayer breakfast, local religion and assisting with special publication features. In addition, the connection with the staff has never been broken during that time as I’ve often stopped through when I had a minute to spare killing time with the guys on the press, the ladies in the mailroom or the staff in the newsroom.
I accepted the full-time position as publisher/editor at the Enterprise-Tocsin in Indianola back in April signifying my return to full time employment at Emmerich Newspapers (DD-T’s parent company). That was a steep learning curve, but very valuable experience for the new chapter that I’ve been asked to take on as editor here in Greenville. My goal is to reinvigorate the publication by increasing the amount of local content and to tell the stories of the people, places, events, and culture that make Greenville and Washington County unique.
I am part of Emmerich Newspaper’s leaner more electronic-focused platform and the transition of the Delta Democrat-Times from a full-scale print product provider to a once per week publication. I look forward to being a major part of making the product and its content more concentrated, more impactful, and more pertinent to the people in our communities. The journey has started anew and after twenty years, my role at the Delta Democrat-Times does indeed involve having a desk. But just like all of the changes that have taken place in this industry since Mitch Ariff assigned me to a Lakeside Beavers versus Eudora Badgers football game in 1992, I stand ready to help this publication thrive in the new environment that it is now a part of. May the DD-T move onward and upward!
Patrick Ervin is editor of the Delta Democrat-Times. Write to him at patrickervin@ddtonline.com.
