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Former Adirondack Daily Enterprise News Editor Discusses Career Change

Peter Crowley stands in front of the Adirondack Daily Enterprise offices in Saranac Lake
Aaron Cerbone
/
Adirondack Daily Enterprise
Peter Crowley stands in front of the Adirondack Daily Enterprise offices in Saranac Lake

In August 1999, Peter Crowley came to the Adirondacks and began working as a reporter for the Adirondack Daily Enterprise. In the fall of 2004 he became its managing editor. After nearly 22 years writing and editing stories about the Adirondacks at the award-winning paper, Crowley felt it was time to pursue a new career and left the Enterprise on June 25th. When he graduated from college, he dreamed of being an English teacher, and he’s now begun classes to obtain his teaching credentials.  Crowley spoke with WAMC's North Country Bureau Chief Pat Bradley about two decades covering northern New York.

“The one that jumps right out is covering the Olympics in 2010, the Winter Olympics in Vancouver and Whistler, Canada. We had about a dozen local athletes. Most of them homegrown raised in the Tri-Lakes area. And they did really well. Two of them won medals. Billy Demong won a gold and a silver medal in Nordic Combined. Andrew Weibrecht won a bronze medal in downhill skiing. And then we had a whole bunch of others doing great stuff. And we had two reporters there myself and our sports writer Lou Reuter. I mean a small paper to have two reporters covering the Winter Olympics is, is a pretty big deal. And we were, I mean, we were slammed. I think we got one day off the whole two and a half weeks we were there because there was so much. Again we had a dozen local people to cover and all in you know mostly in different sports and it's wild. Oh, and then finding family members, local, you know, the mom and dad and aunt and uncle of the people you're covering in a crowd of maybe tens of thousands of people. You just go for it and dive in and try and give it your best shot. And you know when you're able to stand next to somebody and together right next to the parents watch their son or daughter compete in the Winter Olympics that's pretty exciting. So it's a story that jumps to the top of my memory partly because it's obviously a big, big sporting event. And it's a positive story. It's it's a it's a happy memory of working like crazy but being really satisfied.”

Pat Bradley:  “When you first came you were referred to the Daily Enterprise, and you also wrote for the Lake Placid News, coming to this 'little newspaper' in the Adirondacks. And yet you've spent more than 20 years here. How unique are the Adirondacks for potential stories and in some cases big type of stories like the Olympics that you just described?”

Peter Crowley:  “Oh, man, it is a great place for news. It really is. I don't know exactly why and I don't have the experience of working in news in a lot of places. I've spent almost my whole career in Saranac Lake, Lake Placid and Tupper Lake. But there's a lot of news in the Adirondacks from local stuff. One of the things I would tell people the whole time is most newspapers in America are based in a city or a town and if you're not from that place, if you don't have some personal connection to that place, you're probably not going to read that paper. It can be the best paper in America but it's not your paper. But the Adirondacks are somewhat unique in that there are a whole lot of people who care about the Adirondacks. So many people come to the Adirondacks. So many people came to the Adirondacks as children with their families. Their families carry on that tradition still. People care about this place. And there's a lot of opportunity to tell those stories. And you know we'll write about hiking parking situation in the High Peaks and it gets read by all kinds of people and it creates a firestorm in Albany you know and wow! Also there are some other unique aspects. It is a place sometimes that well known people will go. And when I say well known people I'm broad about that because sometimes it's rich and famous and sometimes it's government people. So we will get people coming through. It's a great place for news. Another aspect, at least Saranac Lake specifically, is that it's a very engaged town.”

Bradley:  “Peter Crowley, you've now left the Daily Enterprise and you're starting a new career. And some people have turned their heads at that because you're going into a career that a lot of people are leaving. You're going to be a teacher. Why?”

Crowley:  “When I was in college, coming out of college and thinking I wanted to be a teacher I was all about literature. And I remember my dad saying at the time, well, that's great but the schools that are hiring they're going to want somebody to teach language and literature. And I said oh you mean like grammar? And he's like well yeah. And I'm like yeah okay fine I guess. And now I'm much more interested in the language part and not just the grammar part of it. I've been teaching writers, well not teaching but I've been helping them be better writers for years now. And you'll write in everything you do. And even more so you will communicate in everything you do verbally and textually. And this can be everything from an instant message or a text or a social media post to anything else. But effective communication is really important. And if you don't know how, where to even start when you have to tell somebody something that they don't want to hear, for instance, and you have to be somewhat diplomatic about it, things like that. It's not just writing for college essays in English, it's writing for everything and speaking for everything. And I'm not saying I'm great at all that stuff by any means. But I'm excited to get into it with young people. And I'm excited to get into that kind of thing. And I'm excited to give something that will be practical and they'll be able to use in their lives.”

Pat Bradley:  “Are you hoping for high school level teaching or a different grade level?”

Peter Crowley:  “That's what I'm looking at.”

Bradley:  “Would you ever go back to the newspaper if they ever needed you or they wanted you to do a special series or anything?”

Crowley:  “Well I plan to keep writing for the Enterprise. I haven't figured out how that's going to be exactly but I have some feature stories I want to do. Yeah you never know. You never know how things will end up. Because so many of us have gone away and come back to the Enterprise. I already did once and a lot of the people who have worked there have worked there more than once.”

The education master’s program Peter Crowley is attending takes a year and a half. He hopes to find a teaching position in the Saranac Lake region after he completes the courses.  The Adirondack Daily Enterprise has not yet named a new managing editor.

 

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