Phil Gruber

My current role is to be both a highly productive writer of top stories and the manager of our hard news and stories that develop new audiences. I am taking Lancaster Farming's planning and execution of news coverage to new heights, overseeing a staff of writers and strategically selecting stories that meet readers' needs and advance company goals for growth and long-term success. In collaboration with the management team in editorial and the rest of the company, I am leading production of timely, relevant, high-quality coverage of agricultural and country living stories for the Mid-Atlantic and the United States.

This was a transitional, quasi-managerial position created as Lancaster Farming developed into its next phase of growth. I took a more active role in overseeing story assignments, running the twice-weekly news meetings with our team of writers. I continued my award-winning work as the paper's most productive writer, which included covering avian influenza, dairy, and federal and state ag policy.

I was the lead reporter at the Mid-Atlantic's leading agricultural newspaper. My reporting focuses included state ag policy across the region, dairy, field crops, and pest and disease issues. I mainly covered hard news, from breaking to in-depth stories, making complicated topics accessible to a broad agricultural audience. I also worked with the editor to determine news direction, edit byline content and develop junior staff. I pioneered initiatives to drive engagement and enhance the quality of our reporting.

I began my career at Lancaster Farming as the paper's staff writer. (At that time we only had one.) I covered ag news with a focus on southeastern Pennsylvania. My reporting included farm features, conferences, developments in farming practices, and hard news. I took photos for most of my stories. From the beginning I was expected to be the paper's lead writer and to create front-page stories each week. I was a key proofreader for the weekly print product. I occasionally filled in for the regional editor, which was my first experience with section editing and pagination. I ran the company's Twitter page and, for the first two years. managed the uploading of stories to the website.

- Sold major appliances, mattresses, vacuum cleaners and electronics in competitive, metric-driven sales floor environment - Motivated and provided informal training to Household Goods sales staff - Maintained clean, well-stocked sales floor - Provided positive customer experience

- Wrote news stories based on coverage of local municipal meetings

- Wrote online and print copy based on research and interviews - Designed print media using QuarkXPress and Adobe InDesign - Cataloged more than 2,200 images in a historical photo archive

- Researched and wrote copy for a monthly city/regional magazine - Edited copy - Interfaced with newsstand vendors

Summa Cum Laude