Thank you!
Your support is sustaining the future of local news in our communities.

Becoming ‘Lakeville Journal’

Becoming ‘Lakeville Journal’

At left, Riley Klein is seen courtside covering a basketball game. Next to him is another Lakeville Journal ‘veteran’ — HRVHS junior and LJ intern Simon Markow.

Provided

As reporters, we spend time learning about the people in our communities. It has occurred to us that perhaps the community might like to know more about us, the reporters and editors who bring you the news every week. As a first of such occasional introductions, Lakeville Journal Managing Editor Riley Klein shares how he found his way to the paper.


People around the Northwest Corner are starting to recognize me. “Lakeville Journal is here,” the players say, as if it’s my name, when I appear on the sideline of a school sports game. How did this come to be? I am not from this area and prior to 2022 I knew no one in the towns I now cover. But today, I can’t picture myself anywhere else.

Before The Lakeville Journal, I never once considered pursuing a career in journalism. The week I applied to work here I also submitted two other applications: one to become the coach of Post University’s newly formed e-sports team, and another for a mortgage on an investment property.

The applications went out like sonar waves, pulsing into the unknown as I embarked on a career change following a shift in my life. I moved to Connecticut the year prior after leaving Colorado, where I previously operated an employment service agency for adults with disabilities. The pandemic prompted me to sell my home in Denver and move back east, closer to where I grew up in New York State. I landed in Torrington and completed the life rebrand with a new profession.

In my cover letter to the Journal I wrote, “Having moved to Torrington last year, I am still new to the Northwest Corner and enthralled with all the sleepy New England villages. I find great interest in the goings-on of the local communities and would cherish the opportunity to tell those stories.”

The application responses rolled in: “Thanks, but no thanks,” from Post. “Would you consider a hard money loan?” from the lender. And, “We’d like you to come in for an interview,” from the Journal.

Journalism it is.

A few days later I met John Coston and Patrick Sullivan in Falls Village for an interview, which ended with a story assignment: “The Salisbury branch of Visiting Nurses & Hospice of Litchfield County made a directory for community resources. Here’s the address. Take a photo and write a caption for Instagram. Today.”

Even though I had no journalism experience, they took a chance on me. I began producing social media content, primarily video reports with voiceovers. It didn’t take long for my role to expand. The stories jumped from social media to the newspaper as I started writing articles. I got into page layout, arranging stories and photos in the paper each week. I became the Cornwall reporter, then the sports reporter, then the North Canaan reporter.

Almost exactly a year in, I was offered the managing editor job. Guidance from seasoned colleagues in the newsroom taught me the ropes, and I truly have cherished the opportunity to tell so many stories.

Needless to say, learning on the job involved some bumps along the way. Errors led to lessons and despite all efforts to avoid printing corrections, each blunder taught me something new. For example:

What’s a byline?

One of my very first writing assignments was covering pickleball at Foote Field in Cornwall. When interviewing a player, she asked me what my byline was. “My what? Oh, you mean my recent headlines?” ... “No,” she said. “Your name.”

Show up early

For my first football game, Torrington vs. GNH, I drastically underestimated attendance levels and couldn’t find a parking spot until halftime. I tuned into the radio coverage on WAPJ 89.9 and followed the live box score online. Luckily, the LJ photographer arrived on time.

Fore! Warned

At my first golf match, I figured I would get the best photos by standing in front of the tee box. A prompt “WHOOSH” past my ear was enough to find a safer angle.

Keep it light

One mistake I’ll never make again was made at my first Veteran’s Day ceremony. I asked a Vietnam vet what he remembers most from his time in the service. Instant regret as he became flush and teared up before apologizing to me. Of course, I was the one who was truly sorry.

Looking back, I wish I had considered journalism earlier on. I was always the group photographer and videographer, yet I never saw it as a job. I was under the impression print was a dying industry and there was no future in the field. Fortunately, the Journal has found a way to continue to cover small communities in an era when so many local papers could not.

To all the readers, advertisers and donors who make this possible, thank you. This is your paper and I feel privileged to cover your communities. “Lakeville Journal” will continue to cherish telling your stories.

Riley Klein

Managing Editor

2023-present

Latest News

Legal Notices - July 9, 2026

Legal Notices - July 9, 2026

Legal Notice

BOND RESOLUTION DATED JUNE 15, 2026 OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION OF THE WEBUTUCK CENTRAL SCHOOL DISTRICT AUTHORIZING NOT TO EXCEED $429,327 AGGREGATE PRINCIPAL AMOUNT OF GENERAL OBLIGATION BONDS AND/OR INSTALLMENT PURCHASE CONTRACTS TO FINANCE THE ACQUISITION OF A SCHOOL BUSES AND VEHICLES AT AN AGGREGATE ESTIMATED MAXIMUM COST OF$429,327, LEVY OF TAX IN ANNUAL INSTALLMENTS IN PAYMENT THEREOF TAKING INTO ACCOUNT STATE-AID, THE EXPENDITURE OF SUCH SUM FOR SUCH PURPOSE, AND DETERMINING OTHER MATTERS IN CONNECTION THERE-WITH.

Keep ReadingShow less
Tenmile Distillery is making history the old-fashioned way

Cheers! The Revolutionary Whisky Series at Ten Mile Distillery, each named for a significant battle of the American Revolution, celebrates America at 250.

D.H. Callahan

In December 2024, the U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau officially established the Standard of Identity for American Single Malt Whisky. It was the first new classification in more than half a century, creating new possibilities for American distillers. One of the distilleries taking advantage of this new landscape is Wassaic’s Tenmile Distillery. It is well positioned to make history because Tenmile has always honored traditional whiskey-making practices.

Single malts are often associated with Scotch whisky. Perhaps that’s why, years before the new standard was adopted, Tenmile hired Shane Fraser, a Scottish master distiller with 30 years of experience at some of Scotland’s most prestigious distilleries. Fraser began designing the distillery from the ground up. Alongside owner and general manager Joel LeVangia, he emphasized time-honored traditions, favoring hands-on craftsmanship over the increasingly automated methods used by larger producers. When it comes to making the best whisky possible, Tenmile believes in learning from the past. That philosophy extends beyond the distilling process.

Keep ReadingShow less

The magic of Belinda Sinclair

The magic of Belinda Sinclair

Belinda Sinclair

Dean Chamberlain
Sinclair’s show explores the ways women have been practicing forms of magic for centuries, and there is plenty of history to tell.

Belinda Sinclair is the kind of magician who impresses people who don’t like magic. Her tricks are mind-boggling. Her stories are captivating. And if she picks you to write your name on a card, get ready to be wowed. Repeat attendees of her shows, of which there are many, take almost as much delight in watching new jaws drop as they do in seeing an illusion reach its astonishing conclusion.

Since the summer of 2025, Sinclair has been baffling local audiences at the Hughes Memorial Library in West Cornwall, but her magical run comes to a close at the end of August.

Keep ReadingShow less
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.

“Nixon in China” comes to Tanglewood

“Nixon in China” comes to Tanglewood

Renée Fleming, Andris Nelsons and Thomas Hampson.

Hilary Scott

On Friday, July 17 at 8 p.m. in the Koussevitzky Music Shed at Tanglewood, two of the greatest American voices of their generation, soprano Renée Fleming and baritone Thomas Hampson, join Music Director Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra in a performance of excerpts from John Adams’ groundbreaking opera “Nixon in China.” The piece, performed earlier this year in Boston and at Carnegie Hall in New York City, is a highlight of a program that also includes “Meditations on Grace” (2024) by BSO Composer Chair Carlos Simon, and the melodic and technically demanding Violin Concerto by Samuel Barber.

Fleming is internationally celebrated for her vocal and dramatic artistry, as well as for her advocacy for the powerful impact of the creative arts in health. Hampson has long been recognized as one of the most innovative musicians of our time and has received countless international honors for his singular artistry and cultural leadership. Both performed in “Nixon in China” earlier this year at the Paris Opera under the baton of Kent Nagano.

Keep ReadingShow less
Local playwright revisits Revolutionary moment in “Rebel Town”

The cast and crew of “Rebeltown: The Musical.”

Jack Sheedy

John Alan Segalla was working in Boston a few years ago, giving historic tours at the site of the Boston Tea Party. Now, as America celebrates 250 years as a nation, the Canaan native is about to debut a new version of his original musical, “Rebel Town,” inspired largely by the Boston Tea Party, the protest that helped launch the American Revolution.

“It wasn’t until I got to Boston and learned the Tea Party story that I fell in love with this moment in history, and I saw the story as wildly compelling and very important, and really a story that was very misunderstood, mistaught in schools,” Segalla said at a recent rehearsal in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, ahead of the show’s July 10 opening.

Keep ReadingShow less
An invitation to paint a community mural in Torrington

Community mural design by Macayla Muzzulin will be painted by volunteers on July 11 in Franklin Plaza in Torrington.

Provided

From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, July 11, Five Points Arts in Torrington will host a community mural project celebrating the nation’s 250th anniversary. Volunteers of every age and artistic ability are invited to help paint a 20-by-6-foot mural designed by artist Macayla Muzzulin. The mural will be completed in one day, transformed from a numbered outline into a permanent public artwork along the river in downtown Torrington.

“We firmly believe art is for everyone,” said Five Points founder and executive director, Judith McElhone. “It’s so great to be able to do this with such talent, and with Launchpad artists, volunteers and staff there to help.”

Keep ReadingShow less
google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.

google preferred source

Want more of our stories on Google? Click here to make us a Preferred Source.