SUNDAY,
April 11, 2021
Bill Horner III is a third-generation newspaperman who followed his grandfather and father as publisher of The Sanford Herald. Now, 43 years after his first byline in that newspaper, and out of semi-retirement, he is part of the ownership group of the News + Record. He has been on the staff of eight different newspapers, beginning with my early days as a sportswriter (which helped support his autograph collection); his last 20 years have been as a publisher. Bill Horner III is a husband (celebrating 30 years married to Lee Ann), father to three incredibly talented kids. He is also a lover of books, travel, the mountains and acoustic guitar music. He is also a slow road cyclist and a keen enthusiast of German Rieslings and Argentinian Malbecs. In high school, his history teacher Mrs. Alice King told his entire class: "Bill is the only person who has permission to do two things at once."
Hannah McClellan is the education and local goverment reporter for the Chatham News + Record. She's an avid reader and writer and 2020 graduate from UNC-Chapel Hill, and is passionate about using journalism to amplify important, yet often overlooked, voices and stories. She has reported for Star News Media, UNC Media Hub and The Daily Tar Heel and her work has been featured in the News & Observer, Chapel Hill Magazine, Durham Magazine and more. In her free time, McClellan is a procrasti-baker and sometimes runner who loves snappy ledes and morning coffee. She is also a big fan of em dashes.
Lars is a native Connecticuter (read: Pats fan, funny accent) and a 2016 graduate of N.C. State University with a B.S. in Mathematics. Dismayed that his degree did not make him a polymath, Lars explored various careers before a close friend and long-time ghostwriter introduced him to full-time writing in 2017. After several years writing books, Lars turned his attention to journalism. Few careers seemed as important and purposeful as the dispensation of accurate and timely news. After freelancing for a time, Lars was thrilled to join the News + Record’s staff in 2020 as a full-time reporter. Like all writers, Lars is a rapacious reader without enough time to read. He’s partial to non-fiction, particularly memoirs, biographies and anything on the craft of writing. He also enjoys traveling, having visited more than 30 different countries. He is a classical guitarist, a New England sailor (“it’s different from our Caribbean cousins”), likes to ski in the Swiss Alps with family, and enjoys the company of friends barring exposure to global plagues.
When Johnson was 5, she decided that she wanted to tell stories professionally, and 16 years later, that dream has finally come true. She is a recent Carolina grad with a passion for local journalism -- a passion she honed as a reporter for The Daily Tar Heel and the Durham VOICE. Beyond storytelling, she enjoys photography, drawing and traveling (though only when she’s not likely to catch a certain virus).
Victor Hensley is the sports editor at the News + Record. At the bright age of 14, he discovered that his jump shot was a little - or a lot - worse than his peers, so he shifted to telling stories about sports rather than playing them. He is an avid sports fan with passionate opinions about even the most mundane sports topics and would debate a brick wall if it came down to it. At the News + Record, his goal is to highlight the wealth of athletic talent and passion rooted in Chatham County. He graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill in 2020 and has covered sports for The High Point Enterprise and, while at UNC, produced stories for the Durham VOICE and The Greensboro News & Record.
Rojas is 19 years old and is a sophomore at UNC-Chapel Hill. Before the News + Record, Rojas worked at Lenovo in the summer of 2017 and the summer of 2018 as a communications intern. She has worked at the paper since May 2020 and she is excited to see what the summer holds. A fun fact about her is that she loves coffee — specifically Café Bustelo!
In 1986, Hawks created my dream job: Niche Gardens; a mail-order nursery featuring nursery-propagated wildflowers, shrubs & trees as well as other interesting plants rarely found in local garden centers. She started working as a photographer at the Chatham News & Record 1.5 years ago, when she retired. Photography is her passion.
Photography may be his main beat, but as an engineer at heart, Sickles is always working on new ideas and designs. Whether that be for photography or even climbing, he typically stays pretty busy. The last several months at Chatham News + Record have been wonderful because he has gotten to meet all sorts of interesting and amazing people. He looks forward to continuing his work in the community and meeting even more of Chatham’s great residents.