Somerville News editor George Hassett suddenly leaves

[ron_newman]

Buried in the meetup reminder thread is an announcement by James Norton that senior editor George Hassett has suddenly 'departed' the Somerville News.

Since Hassett writes at least half of the newspaper's news coverage each week, that's going to leave a big hole. I wonder how they're going to replace him, or what the paper will look like if he isn't replaced.

Comments

[jamesnorton.livejournal.com]

good morning -

well, i might as well kick this ball into play. the comment last night wasn't meant to be an "announcement" or infer anything out of the ordinary. george is moving on and it happened rather suddenly, but wasn't terribly surprising.
we have had many very talented people start their careers writing for The Somerville News - some who have gone on to very important jobs and one or two that have written a few books.
there will be a more formal announcement coming in the next day.
as far as the writing, there have been weeks were george wrote a lot, and others where he wrote not as much as you'd think...but his departure won't be the end of good writing at our newspaper, not by a long shot.

[ron_newman]

Your blog comment was a topic of some discussion at last night's meetup, which led me to make this post. I look forward to reading your formal announcement, and hope it means that he has gotten another reporting job. He's a good writer.

Medford City Hall is located on George P. Hassett Drive. I presume that your George P. Hassett is somehow related to the person that street is named after, but I'm curious if you know more.

[jamesnorton.livejournal.com]

hey there - actually, i have no idea what george will be doing - you are right though, he is an excellent writer. he will certainly be missed.
on the medford thing - i am fairly certain that is named after his grandfather.