Reporting is eclectic. On any given day our staff could handle a call to cover a house fire or a request to attend someone’s 100th birthday party.

This past week exemplified that. The Observer newsroom reported on everything from a fire in a recreational vehicle to the Salvation Army working to fill a vacancy in La Grande.

Our reporters also work on regional teams for bigger stories, including the state offering free naloxone — the opioid reversal medication — to schools. That was on the front page of our Saturday regional edition as well as the centerpiece on websites of The Observer and our other Eastern Oregon newspapers.

We’ve addressed here before the skillsets good reporters need, and we’re running into difficulties finding viable candidates to fill our reporter vacancies. Often we get applicants who have little actual experience in reporting and journalism. And while we’re as open to hiring an inexperienced applicant, at times it can feel insulting.

Would an auto repair shop, for example, fill a mechanic spot with someone who has never worked on a car engine? Yet often that is what applicants ask of us.

That’s why some of our vacancies can stay open for so long. It makes little sense to fill a spot with an employee who will have to learn from the ground up to be a reporter. Usually that’s what something such as a journalism degree is for.

This last week, however, we made some strides in at least finding some freelancers with real depth of experience, and we’re going to give those contract workers some meatier topics we’ve had to sit on.

So in some weeks ahead, you can look for articles on candidates seeking public office and what some local governments have been doing with public money that might raise some eyebrows. Stay tuned.

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As always, if you have comments or questions about The Observer: acutler@lagrandeobserver.com.

Finally, let me take this opportunity to once again thank The Observer’s subscribers: We simply would be unable to do this vital work without your support.

Andrew Cutler is the interim editor of The Observer.