In Final Cincinnati Post, Former Staffer Sarah Sturmon Dale '83 Remembers Years as a "Toastie"

December 31, 2007

December 31, 2007, Greencastle, Ind. - "The Cincinnati Post is where I grew up. Literally," writes Sarah Sturmon Dale in today's -- and final -- edition of the newspaper. The Post is ceasing publication after 126 years. Dale, who worked for the daily for fifteen years, is one of the current and former staffers who reflect on the demise of the Post.

"The Post hired me straight out of college," Dale writes. "It was 1983 and I had just graduated from DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind. Luckily, other DePauw graduates had paved the way so Bill Burleigh and Carole Philipps were willing to take a chance on me and my limited resume. I hope it was one of the best chances they ever took."

An English composition major who worked at The DePauw during her undergraduate years, Dale spent 15 years reporting for the Post. She is now a freelance writer, contributing articles to publications such as TIME magazine.

Dale covered City Hall for the paper for almost nine years. "I learned better than I could anywhere else how to cultivate long-term sources, how to track and organize, how to take the heat after writing a critical story, how to stand up to politicians and activists who thought they could bully the press and how to consistently beat the competition. Those are lessons still helpful today," she recalls.

Looking back on her years at the Cincinnatti paper, Dale writes, "it isn't a single event or even a series of events that I remember. It is the people. I know, that is a phrase you hear over and over from former 'Posties.' But it is the true. It is the people that made The Post a great place to hone our craft. Even the editors you abhorred and their lame stories eventually become the stuff of lore and laughter." And she writes fondly of being among a "group of young people -- mostly single -- whom we dubbed the Post Toasties."

Read the full text at the Post's Web site.

The International Herald Tribune includes a story on the demise of the Post.

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