Kirkpatrick named editor at Sun Tribune, Business Journal

MOSES LAKE — Bob Kirkpatrick took a different route into journalism. Most journalists in the field took the traditional route and graduated high school, went to college and got into the field right after receiving their diploma.

Kirkpatrick, who recently took over the reins as editor at the weekly Sun Tribune newspaper and monthly Basin Business Journal, did something different. After spending 19 years in outside sales in the construction industry in western Washington, he got tired of simply working to support his family and not doing what he was truly interested in.

“Growing up in the 1960s I was in that kind of watchdog mentality and so I decided that it was something I wanted to do and I enrolled in college and got my bachelor’s degree at Central Washington University in broadcast and print journalism,” he said.

His first job out of college was in Twin Falls, Idaho. Following that he was editor of the Leavenworth Echo and Cashmere Valley Record for a while, after which he made the move to Othello and was named editor at the Othello Outlook.

From 2009 to 2011 Kirkpatrick toiled away in Othello before landing a gig at the Columbia Basin Herald as sports editor. In 2013 he decided to finally put that broadcast journalism emphasis to work and was hired as sports editor at iFiber One News in Ephrata. After his employment at iFiber ended, Kirkpatrick was out of work for about a month until he was hired on as editor at the Daily World in Aberdeen.

“I was over there for 10 months and I actually wasn't even actively looking for anything and then I just got a call from (Columbia Basin Herald publisher) Eric LaFontaine and he said ‘Hey, we are posting a job. Are you interested?’ And I said ‘Yeah.’”

Kirkpatrick ended up getting the nod for the editor position at the Sun Tribune, which focuses on south Grant County and Othello, and the Basin Business Journal and started re-immersing himself back into an area that he is already well accustomed to.

“You really get the chance to establish roots in smaller communities and write about them and bring all of that together for the local folks. And that for me is really rewarding,” he remarked. “People who actually appreciate that and wonder where their newspaper is when it doesn’t show up and stuff like that.”

An immediate goal for the Sun Tribune? Kirkpatrick said he wants to look into redesigning the overall feel of the newspaper and really home in on the community focus of the publication.

“Trying to just depict what is going on in other people’s lives that don’t really get a chance to really have their story told,” he stated. “You can get your state, local and regional news anywhere. You can get it online. But you can’t really get local community news anywhere else but the local community newspaper.”

Richard Byrd can be reached via email at city@columbiabasinherald.com.