A community newspaper could tell hundreds of different stories in every issue. The managing editor fills the often difficult role of deciding which stories to cover and when, then placing those finished stories on each page in each issue.

Local politics, feature profiles, updates about infrastructure projects, upcoming events, police activity, firefighting rescues, community sports, analysis of the economy and new artistic endeavors all deserve a space.

A good editor must maintain a fine balance between unbiased hard news coverage and lighter feature stories that foster a sense of community involvement. She also must decide how the newspaper will act as a check on government, holding elected officials accountable for their actions.

Trista Steers is Larson Newspapers’ managing editor, directing all the coverage of the Sedona Red Rock News and its sister papers, The Camp Verde Journal and the Cottonwood Journal Extra.

Having moved up the ranks from reporter to the captain at the helm of all three papers, Steers is a veteran of Sedona’s political controversies and its community successes.

Steers was born to Gary and Kay Steers in Lander, Wyo., population 7,000. The Steers family has lived in Wyoming since the mid-1800s and her grandfather’s ranch was founded in 1886. Both her parents were raised in Lander and most of her extended family still lives in Wyoming.

Steers is 15 years younger than her late brother Robert, seven years younger than her sister Mista, and three years older than her sister Kindal.

Steers was born to be a journalist. As a child, she said she used to spy on her sisters, “observe quietly” and write down her observations in a notebook, like a reporter. Her mother would staple construction paper to the outside creating homemade books for her.

As a student athlete at Lander Valley High School, Steers played volleyball, basketball and softball but was most passionate about soccer, which she played all four years. She would later continue her passion for soccer after moving to Arizona by coaching the Verde Valley School girls soccer team and an Under-12 soccer team in the Village of Oak Creek.

After graduating from LVHS as valedictorian, Steers attended the University of Montana in Missoula, first majoring in psychology. She was doing well, but she missed writing.

Steers had worked on her high school newspaper for three years and served as its editor for two. She also worked for her hometown biweekly newspaper, the Lander Journal. After her first year in college, she changed her major and earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism with a minor in psychology.

Steers said one of her journalism professors summed up the two types of students who entered the field.

“He said people enter journalism for one of two reasons: They want to make it to the top and work for The New York Times, or they want to live wherever they want,” Steers said. “No matter where you live, there’s a newspaper nearby or some media outlet.”

Steers said that with 100,000 people, Missoula was far too big for her.

“I’m a small-town girl,” she said. “I enjoy community journalism — writing about the good things going on in a community.”

Larson Newspapers hired Steers as city reporter in July 2006, only a few weeks after the Brins Fire had threatened Sedona and Oak Creek Canyon.

Steers covered Sedona City Council and Sedona Fire District meetings, the beginning of the State Route 179 Improvement Project, police reports and stories about Sedona’s economy.

Steers said her best story was about a little girl who was seriously injured in a rollover accident. The girl recovered right around Christmas, just in time to go home, which was her Christmas wish. Steers wrote a follow-up story and was invited to the girl’s home to welcome her back from the hospital.

After a year as the city reporter, Steers was promoted to assistant managing editor in August, 2007. She met her future fiance, Henry MacVittie, a local business owner, around the same time.

Growing up in the “little mountain town” of Lander had a profound influence on Steers. She said she learned to love the outdoors and grew up hiking, backpacking and mountain biking.

Living in the Verde Valley has afforded Steers the environment to continue her love of the outdoors. She and MacVittie camp, hike and mountain bike together along many of the trails from Mingus Mountain to Oak Creek Canyon. The couple also attends local events on behalf of Larson Newspapers.

Steers was promoted to news editor in October 2009 then managing editor in April.

Steers said she enjoys being a journalist because she likes being informed and serving as “an information booth” for the community. She also enjoys learning new things to better tell those stories.

“City codes, E. coli at Oak Creek, science, theater, gardening. You have to learn about all these things,” Steers said.

Balancing all the various opinions of a community through the medium of a newspaper can be difficult.
“You have people from both sides of every issue,” Steers said. “You have a small staff trying to do the best job they can.”