Dylan Phillips is the new editor of The Brunswick Beacon, Shallotte, North Carolina

Dylan Phillips

In this column to readers, Dylan Phillips introduced himself as the new editor of The Brunswick Beacon, Shallotte, North Carolina.

As I’m sure you are all aware, the Beacon has undergone some major changes in recent months. One of those changes was the departure of long-time editor Laura Lewis. As of May 31, I took over her role.

I’m extremely excited to dive into the community and continue providing important locally focused news, as the Beacon has done for so long. It is my belief that a community’s newspaper is its backbone, which is why the Beacon staff and I will always work tirelessly to ensure citizens stay informed.

Local journalism’s purpose, to me, is to hold those in power accountable, to give a voice to the voiceless, to speak truth to power. Local journalism should also be a resource for the community, and those practicing it should be entrenched in the community and should understand what’s important to the community.

The Brunswick Beacon has done all this and, under my leadership, that will continue.

To tell a little about me: I was born and raised about 150 miles northeast of Brunswick County, in a tiny, rural crossroads community in northwest Orange County known to the few who know it as Caldwell.

However, I do have a connection to Brunswick County — my grandparents and mom started coming to Sunset Beach in the 1960s, my first vacation was here (as were the majority of them after that). Throughout my life I’ve taken any chance I can get to be in this county.

I graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill, where I double majored in English and Comparative Literature and in Journalism at the university’s Hussman School of Journalism.

Professionally, I’ve covered it all — from local government to arts and culture, crime to schools, development to elections. I’ve worked for a few publications, such as The Daily Tar Heel in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and the Mebane Enterprise in Mebane, North Carolina.

I come to the Beacon directly from the Mebane Enterprise, where I ran the editorial side of the paper. Mebane is a booming area on the edge of the state’s Triangle region. I devoted my all to the paper, which was evident in its growth and success during my time there.

The Brunswick Beacon will get all I have to give, too. I can’t promise that we’ll be perfect or never make a mistake. But what I can promise readers is fair, just and accurate reporting. I can promise we will continue to cover the area as fully as possible, bringing to light the issues that affect citizens.

In short, I can promise this paper will continue to be what its name indicates it is: a beacon for the residents of Brunswick County, an invaluable, reliable source that educates and informs.

We also plan to expand our coverage, to try some new things to improve reader experience and help get our news in front of more sets of eyes.

As a side note, as many readers have asked, our website is non-operational currently. However, we will have a new website up and running in the coming weeks. We thank you for your patience.

I look forward to getting to know our readers, local leaders and community at large in the coming days. Please feel free to reach out at editor@brunswickbeacon.com with tips, concerns, information or just to chat.