Trevor Sherman has come a long way since he first started working at the News Journal in 2011 as an advertising sales representative and delivery route driver.
Over the last month, he has been named publisher of the News Journal and Journalist of the Year in the weekly division of the Kentucky Press Association’s 2024 Excellence in Kentucky Newspapers Contest.
I couldn’t be prouder of him.
I can’t think of anybody more deserving of the honor, and hardly anyone, who would have just assumed avoided the spotlight if at all possible.
This is one of the things you have to love about Trevor. Truth be told, he would have preferred not even having a story written about him taking over as publisher, but couldn’t pull that one off.
When Trevor first started here, he didn’t have much journalistic experience at all, but he was and remains to this day eager to learn and grow, which has been one of the biggest keys to his success along with a tremendous work ethic.
Not too long after he first started at the News Journal, he approached then Sports Editor Jim McAlister about covering some sports for us, and Jim was happy to oblige.
Trevor did well.
When Jim grew ill with a series of mysterious ailments in 2013, Trevor stepped up serving as interim sports editor for a while.
I remember one day back in the news room, Trevor spoke up saying, “If heaven forbid Jim doesn’t come back, then I’d like to be considered for the sports editor job.”
Dean Manning, who worked here as a reporter for a decade or more, piped up next saying, “If heaven forbid Jim doesn’t come back, then I would like to be considered for the sports editor job.”
Then I spoke saying, “If heaven forbid Jim doesn’t come back, I would just like to say for the record that I don’t want to be considered for the sports editor job!”
The line got a good bit of laughter, but I was being serious.
While I enjoy watching sports and covering the occasional game, the sports editor job entails a lot of nights and weekends, if you are going to do it well. It just wasn’t something that I have ever been interested in doing fulltime.
Dean later decided that he didn’t want to pursue the sports editor job after Jim retired due to illness, and thus began Trevor’s career working on the editorial side of the newspaper.
He got good at it pretty quickly covering games and doing sports features. He has a good natural eye for layout and photography.
Later, he decided he wanted to venture into more of the news side of things for the newspaper. He started by writing feature stories, and later started delving into harder news.
Last summer, he did a fantastic series of stories on housing insecurity in the area. He won a well-deserved first place award for best investigative story or series for his work.
Trevor’s work ethic sets him apart from most people.
You will often see him out at nights and weekends shooting pictures at ballgames and other sporting events in addition to working all day here at the office.
There is an old saying that the teacher is disappointed when the student does not surpass him, and I take pride in being one of Trevor’s teachers.
I don’t know if Trevor has surpassed me just yet, but I have no doubt that he will and I look forward to seeing what he will accomplish in the future.
