For nearly two decades, Ethan Shorey has been one of the most recognizable journalists in northern Rhode Island. Since 2006, the longtime editor and reporter for the Valley Breeze newspaper has chronicled the politics, people and everyday issues shaping life in the Blackstone Valley.
Earlier this month, Shorey stepped down from his roles at the paper after nearly 20 years in local journalism. He recently sat down with Ocean State Media’s Luis Hernandez to reflect on his career, the impact of local reporting and what might come next.
Interview highlights
On why he decided to leave the Valley Breeze
Ethan Shorey: I would say over the last three years, it’s gotten progressively more difficult to still do the job. There were times where I felt like ... I’m just going to be very candid today about this, but times I felt like I was a hamster on a wheel. It’s kind of how I compared it and the wheel just kept getting faster and faster. And I wanted to keep doing it because I love being on the wheel, but it was getting too difficult.
And for a full-time reporter, our expectations are seven or eight stories. And when you’re doing 18 a week and meetings upon meetings and all this other stuff, editing dozens of stories a week, it gets to be too much.
I had a goal since I was 12 of doing journalism with one outlet for my whole career, but it became impossible for me to maintain my, I think, sanity and health.
On the kind of local coverage he hopes the paper continues
Shorey: I think the public meetings where the city and town’s business gets conducted, and then more broadly using those meetings and what you learn to look deeper into how the town business is done and whether it’s actually beneficial to the taxpayers and the residents of the town.
I recall back to 2007 where North Providence was looking at turning Camp Meehan into condos or that Notte Park area, and it was basically the last piece of open green space left in town. And I believe to this day that our exposing that and letting people know about it was the main impetus behind saving it.
I’d love to see them continue on with some of those unexpected stories that are just basically for entertainment — the guy with the bunny that runs around Pawtucket, and those things that sort of build community and a sense of place.
On how he got started in local journalism
Shorey: I grew up with the Sun Chronicle in Attleboro, and I read it every day as a teenager with my grandfather, who was in newspapers, who really inspired me to be in it. He was 50-plus years as a pressman in Massachusetts. Talking about stories with him and seeing people with the Sun Chronicle writing these stories that impacted people where they lived really made me see the value of it early on.
On a story that had a real impact on a community
Shorey: I think my favorite story ever was on Canning Street in Cumberland. There was this property that the woman next door was worried about it being developed. And she wrote in her letter that, “You’re my last resort. This thing is 90% wetlands. How are they possibly developing it?”
I said, “If this is true, it’s 90% wetlands, there’s a real serious issue.”
So it ended up being my story that turned into a big statewide story and the chief of staff at the governor’s (office) ended up resigning because he was tied to the property. The development didn’t end up happening, and they ended up donating the property back to the town.
The whole neighborhood was grateful, and people might say, “Oh, that’s just a few people impacted.” For those people, if they’re getting flooded for the rest of their life and they have this home, that means the world to them.
On whether he sees a future in journalism
Shorey: I think most definitely there’s a future for me, and I think it’s still in local journalism, and I think it could probably be sooner rather than later.
With my workload, I wasn’t able to do what I wanted to do, which was get out and just talk to people one-on-one on the street in a coffee shop like I once did when I could just focus on one community. That is the type of journalism I’d like to get back to, where it’s not just meeting coverage.
