Jan Patrick - Features Editor / Bristol Herald Courier

Email: Jpatrick@bristolnews.com

Jan K. Patrick is features editor and in 34 years at the Bristol Herald Courier, has held several newsroom positions.
She began her career during college as a summer employee working for editor Jim Baxley. Later hired full time, she wrote feature stories, designed pages and covered many social events for the "Society" section.

As the industry changed, so did the department's name and its content. In the Women's Department, Patrick spent several years overseeing all facets of the section. She and her horse covered such events as the first Wilburn Ridge Pony Association roundup in the Grayson Highlands area. S he learned to milk a cow and participated in an American Diary Association cow-milking contest at the Bristol Mall. (She came in third place, behind two men who grew up on farms.)

Later, she joined the staff of the Bristol Virginia-Tennessean as wire editor. Her responsibilities were to be at work at 6 a.m., survey and select wire service stories and design the front and some inside pages for the afternoon newspaper. She also began designing special advertising sections.

Ultimately, the Bristol Virginia-Tennessean combined with the Herald Courier, and it was time to move on to another position.

"When I think back, my career has been divided into two segments – BC [before computers] and AC [after computers]," said Patrick. "This is about the time the Herald Courier purchased its first computer for the newsroom. How technology changed our jobs then, and even now, for the better is unbelievable."

Patrick began overseeing several Herald Courier features and specialty sections, including Empire Magazine, Pleasures and Community. She also assumed the responsibility of coordinating and designing the Herald Courier's annual special section, called the progress edition.

Today as features editor, she works with four full-time staff members and several freelance writers. She welcomes story ideas from the public (276-645-2515 or jpatrick@bristolnews.com) about Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee's unique people, places and programs.

Patrick's education background includes Wesleyan College in Macon, Ga., and the University of Tennessee-Knoxville. A native Bristolian, she loves the Mountain Empire and all the activities the region offers. She has a husband, two boys, two dogs, two cats and an umbrella cockatoo. She misses not currently being involved with horses, but "when life slows down, they top my to-do list."

"My job at the Bristol Herald Courier is an adventure every day. I love it." she said.