Veteran Reporter Joins Staff

As readers will discover Thursday, we have a new reporter in our ranks. And she's no newbie.

Lisa Allmendinger, a veteran reporter with 27 years of experience in journalism as an editorial page editor, assistant city editor and reporter, has succeeded Brian Cox at The Saline Reporter and The Milan News-Leader. Her beats include Saline and Milan, but mostly Milan, including local government, schools, features, events coverage and photography. In fact, she's at her first council meeting right now.

This is the second time I've worked with Lisa. She was a reporter for me when I was editor of The Chelsea Standard and The Dexter Leader. She left for a freelancing gig at The Ann Arbor News and has been covering western Washtenaw County for the last four years. I am sure many readers are familiar with her reporting of local municipalities and have seen her photos in the daily newspaper. Now she's part of our team and is excited to be able to concentrate her efforts on these two communities.

What some readers and local sources may not know is that Lisa also edits a national publication. She has been editor of I Love Cats, a New York-based cat magazine with a circulation of about 250,000, since 1988. She also helped launch the now-defunct Washtenaw County Insider Business Journal, and is a University of Michigan graduate.

We're very excited to have her talent and wealth of journalism experience on staff. She plans on breaking a lot of news online and producing video coverage, so check our Web sites regularly.

Please join us in welcoming Lisa. She can be reached at lallmendinger@heritage.com and would love to hear your story ideas and suggestions for better coverage in both communities.