By John McLaughlin
Community Newsman
Our more seasoned readers might connect my name with the late host of the McLaughlin Group, who famously barked “Wrong!” at guests of the show with whom he disagreed during quick-fire public affairs debates.
Others perhaps might think of the famous English guitarist, otherwise known as the founder of Mahavishnu. Of course, I am neither. And, maybe, you are young enough to miss either reference. So, just call me John.
I am a career community journalist who has been fortunate to travel across the West while covering local governments in Arkansas, Missouri, South Dakota, Montana and Alaska.
A Midwesterner raised about 20 miles east of Kansas City, Missouri, I am now one of the newest members of The Hutchinson Tribune and eager to help our team bring back community news to Hutch and Reno County.
I come from a family of land surveyors, so as a print and digital journalist, my journalism career marks me as somewhat of a black sheep, albeit I have spent some time surveying in the private and public sectors.
My broad research and communications skills fit both career options well.
Outside of journalism, survey work for me included stints with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Bureau of Land Management, for which I helped survey boundaries of National Wildlife Refuge System lands and Wildlife Management Areas in North Dakota, and assisted cadastral surveyors retrace remote federal boundaries in the central Rocky Mountains, respectively.
Prior to my western adventures, I completed a bachelor’s degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia with an emphasis in science and agricultural journalism.
I worked primarily over the past decade-plus at smaller community weekly and daily publications—my choice over large, corporate-owned metropolitan newspapers—so The Tribune and its mission to produce community news by local residents fit snuggly with my past reporting work.
If you find yourself near our 322 N. Main St. office or happen to see me on assignment in Hutch or elsewhere in Reno County, feel free to drop in or stop me for a chat. I’d be happy to hear from you.
John McLaughlin is a general assignment reporter for The Hutchinson Tribune. He can be reached at john@hutchtribune.com.