Legislative Gazette Appoints New Editor

NEW PALTZ — The Legislative Gazette, the weekly newspaper of New York state government and SUNY New Paltz’s semester-long internship program in public affairs journalism in Albany, has hired a new editor to replace Glenn Doty, who retired in December after 23 years with the newspaper.

John Bechtel, who came to the Gazette from his position as an editor of the Hudson Valley Newspapers, assumed editorial duties at the Gazette on Jan. 2. He brings with him more than 15 years of professional editing and reporting experience at newspapers in New York and Pennsylvania.

Bechtel said his plans for the Gazette include “having better stories and allowing student reporters more opportunities to develop their stories and to present their works in a more lively newspaper.”

Dr. Alan S. Chartock, SUNY professor of political science and communication, and executive publisher and project director of the Legislative Gazette, said: “We are delighted to have found John Bechtel, a working editor from the Catskill Daily Mail, as the new editor of the Gazette. Bechtel has all the qualifications, he has trained many young people as reporters, and is a balanced and fair journalist with no political axes to grind.”

For the past year, Bechtel was responsible for all aspects of production at the Daily Mail in Catskill and before that, for eight months at the Hudson Register Star in Hudson. The two newspapers have a total circulation of 11,000 and cover a two-county region. Bechtel’s responsibilities included supervising reporters, assigning stories, editing, writing editorials and producing editorial pages, headline writing, page design and pagination.

“I came to the Gazette because I have spent so much of my career training young journalists at their first jobs,” Bechtel said. “This gives me a chance to work with younger journalists to get them ready for their careers.”

Prior to his work at the Hudson Valley Newspapers, Bechtel worked at the Middletown, N.Y., Times Herald-Record, a 100,000-circulation daily covering a four-county region. He held positions there as the copy desk chief, the Ulster County regional editor and the crime and safety editor.

His newspaper career also includes editor positions at the Centre Daily Times, State College, Penn., the Republican, Pottsville, Penn., and reporting positions at the Daily Item, Sunbury, Penn., the Sunday GRIT and the GRIT, Williamsport, Penn.

Bechtel’s college teaching experience includes a year as instructor of editing in the journalism program at The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Penn., during the 1995-96 academic year.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from The Pennsylvania State University in 1982.

The Legislative Gazette was started in January 1978 by Chartock in an effort to give students at the State University of New York at New Paltz political insights and journalistic training in the capital of the nation’s third largest state. The internship consists of 40 hours of fieldwork per week, coupled with an equally important, rigorous academic component in journalism and political science.

As working reporters, students are assigned several news beats that pertain to the multifaceted interests of a large state government, its committees, its agencies, and those organizations that lobby at their doors. Students learn to make sense of complex government activities and write news stories with the assistance of a professional journalist/editor. For more information about the Gazette, go online at: www.legislativegazette.com

“We will all miss outgoing editor Glenn Doty, who made the Gazette what it is today,” Chartock said, “but we have every expectation that we have found the right editor to step into his formidable shoes.”

For more information, please contact Gerrie Rousseau, director of public relations and recruiting at The Legislative Gazette, at (518) 473-6862, or Ken Ross, director of Public Affairs at SUNY New Paltz, at (845) 257-3245.

The Legislative Gazette, the weekly newspaper of New York state government and SUNY New Paltz’s semester-long internship program in public affairs journalism in Albany, has hired a new editor to replace Glenn Doty, who retired in December after 23 years with the newspaper.

John Bechtel, who came to the Gazette from his position as an editor of the Hudson Valley Newspapers, assumed editorial duties at the Gazette on Jan. 2. He brings with him more than 15 years of professional editing and reporting experience at newspapers in New York and Pennsylvania.

Bechtel said his plans for the Gazette include “having better stories and allowing student reporters more opportunities to develop their stories and to present their works in a more lively newspaper.”

Dr. Alan S. Chartock, SUNY professor of political science and communication, and executive publisher and project director of the Legislative Gazette, said: “We are delighted to have found John Bechtel, a working editor from the Catskill Daily Mail, as the new editor of the Gazette. Bechtel has all the qualifications, he has trained many young people as reporters, and is a balanced and fair journalist with no political axes to grind.”

For the past year, Bechtel was responsible for all aspects of production at the Daily Mail in Catskill and before that, for eight months at the Hudson Register Star in Hudson. The two newspapers have a total circulation of 11,000 and cover a two-county region. Bechtel’s responsibilities included supervising reporters, assigning stories, editing, writing editorials and producing editorial pages, headline writing, page design and pagination.

“I came to the Gazette because I have spent so much of my career training young journalists at their first jobs,” Bechtel said. “This gives me a chance to work with younger journalists to get them ready for their careers.”

Prior to his work at the Hudson Valley Newspapers, Bechtel worked at the Middletown, N.Y., Times Herald-Record, a 100,000-circulation daily covering a four-county region. He held positions there as the copy desk chief, the Ulster County regional editor and the crime and safety editor.

His newspaper career also includes editor positions at the Centre Daily Times, State College, Penn., the Republican, Pottsville, Penn., and reporting positions at the Daily Item, Sunbury, Penn., the Sunday GRIT and the GRIT, Williamsport, Penn.

Bechtel’s college teaching experience includes a year as instructor of editing in the journalism program at The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Penn., during the 1995-96 academic year.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from The Pennsylvania State University in 1982.

The Legislative Gazette was started in January 1978 by Chartock in an effort to give students at the State University of New York at New Paltz political insights and journalistic training in the capital of the nation’s third largest state. The internship consists of 40 hours of fieldwork per week, coupled with an equally important, rigorous academic component in journalism and political science.

As working reporters, students are assigned several news beats that pertain to the multifaceted interests of a large state government, its committees, its agencies, and those organizations that lobby at their doors. Students learn to make sense of complex government activities and write news stories with the assistance of a professional journalist/editor. For more information about the Gazette, go online at: www.legislativegazette.com

“We will all miss outgoing editor Glenn Doty, who made the Gazette what it is today,” Chartock said, “but we have every expectation that we have found the right editor to step into his formidable shoes.”

For more information, please contact Gerrie Rousseau, director of public relations and recruiting at The Legislative Gazette, at (518) 473-6862, or Ken Ross, director of Public Affairs at SUNY New Paltz, at (845) 257-3245.