Case study: Pat Healey, the Laker's hometown newshound

Pat Healey knew he wanted to be a journalist from the start.

"I got into it way back when I was a little kid. I would always take a tape recorder, [record] Hockey Night in Canada, and actually broadcast myself," he says. "Other times I would go downstairs and me and my brother would play hockey, and I would broadcast that."

His first work on a newspaper came when he helped out at the Weekly Press in the Nova Scotia community of Enfield "because it was my hometown paper."

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He then studied journalism at Holland College, graduating in 2001. The 37-year-old freelanced for a few years before landing a staff job with the Weekly Press eight years ago and added a position at the Laker six years ago.

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While there are plenty of doom and gloom stories about Canadian newsrooms shrinking, Healey is a small-town journalist still gripped with a passion for news and who is making a living at it.

We caught up with Healey as he worked from home during a late January storm. He was covering the storm, of course, plus a few council stories from Stewiacke and updating the paper's website.

"I jumped at the chance because I wanted to do it, and I thought I could do it myself," he says of his job.

"I think what drives my passion is going to these community events and telling the stories. It's what readers want; it's what people in the community want to see stories about their friends and neighbours, about the talented youngsters that we have in the Fall River-Beaver Bank area that are doing great things."

A week in the life

He covers it all. Here's a glimpse at part of a week in the life of a community reporter:

• Attend and report on public talk about Syrian culture for a group trying to help some refugees settle in the area.
• Attend and report on a public meeting about a planned Fall River age-friendly community.
• Research and write article on the new septic system at the Windsor Junction Community Centre.

"Stories that matter in the community. I'm happy to be able to cover the stories," Healey says.

His three-person newsroom creates two newspapers. "We're doing more with less resources, but that's the way of the world."

Some of his stories get picked up by the bigger news outlets, but they usually move on to something else. The Laker sticks around, offering in-depth and ongoing coverage.

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"It's the people, the friends that I've made just covering the stories that otherwise probably wouldn't have been told. I just see it as me doing my job," he says. "I do worry, like the rest of us journalists, but worrying will only lead to not being productive. And that's just not me."

And while he's had options to move to bigger outlets, he's sticking to what he loves.

"I think community news is where I want to be. I'm working at my hometown newspaper. I really couldn't ask for anything better."