“He likes to look good, and he likes my advice,” Lloyd said. They’d take short-ish trips to Charlotte, North Carolina, to shop – notably for clothes. “If you don’t appreciate life, you’ll get burned out.” He’s a great traveler, and I think that makes him better at his job,” Lloyd said. He also researched his stories by traveling and experiencing all he could, including various cuisines, she said. You know how some articles are an overview? He would do a deep dive and spend time with the family to tell the whole story.” “He would just spend so much time learning and researching. “He’s pretty much the coolest guy I know, and he’s a professional in every way,” said Lloyd, who worked in advertising but was riveted by Dixson’s stories and blown away by his process. He’ll not be telling the full truth.īefore working in Mississippi, Dixson worked with Roberta Lloyd at the Greenville News, the third-largest paper in South Carolina. “Having Romando’s background and having done all the things he’s done and lived the places he’s lived, it gives you different perspectives – where are the challenges and places we can connect, grow and heal the community,” Irby-Jones said.ĭixson will tell you he has no life outside his work. “In South Carolina, they don’t give you everything you want, but they have some unique ways for you to really dig into an officer’s background.” “We as journalists always want transparency and FOIA laws,” he said. “All eyes are on us, in everything we do, all we cover, and everything we write,” Irby-Jones said.ĭixson has won many awards, including an honor he and the staff at the Asheville City-Times in North Carolina won for coverage of the local police department’s handling of a crash involving the chief’s son.ĭixson said South Carolina has invaluable tools that give the public access to police officers’ disciplinary records and job histories – tools every state and local government should provide. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he’s graciously helped out the news side with the landslide of stories that keep pouring in – including super-charged issues such as the removal of Confederate imagery from the state flag. He’s predominantly worked in sports, but has put in more than his share of time as a crime reporter.Īs the Clarion-Ledger’s sports editor, he has led deep dives as Mississippi State University and Ole Miss replaced their head football coaches. It’s a great opportunity for the community to have a leader like Romando.”ĭixson was hired 17 years ago by Gannett, while the ink was still drying on the degree he earned at Michigan State University. Romando understands how important the work we’re doing for the community is. “Your newsroom needs diversity of all sorts to be able to cover a community – from religion to race, to all sorts of thoughts and ideas. “I can’t think of a person I’d root for more, to go on and run a paper,” said Mary Irby-Jones, the top editor at the Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Mississippi, who worked with Dixson for less than a year. “Peoria can become a place people want to live, not a place they want to leave.”ĭixson’s colleagues, who double as his close friends because, as he puts it, he’s “married to the job,” say no one is better-equipped to lead the Journal Star. “Hopefully as a newspaper, we can be part of addressing those issues and help Peoria turn things around. “People see lots of room for improvement in the city,” Dixson said. Unrest erupted May 31, in the form of 27 businesses being burglarized and 14 others damaged. This past November, Peoria checked in at Number 7 – just ahead of Number 8 Rockford and Number 9 Springfield. The news and opinion company 24/7 Wall Street consistently placed Peoria in its top 10 worst cities for a Black person to live. White residents in Peoria are twice as likely to earn a college degree. In Peoria, where more than a quarter of the population is Black, the average white household makes 50 percent more money than the median Black household. Especially in these times, there’s so much racial unrest in the country.” “I’m honored to have this opportunity, and I understand where that distinction will lead people to see me as a role model and something to strive for. “That’s something I didn’t even know until the article came out,” he said, laughing a little. The 39-year-old is the first Black editor of the newspaper that serves one of the nation’s most segregated communities. PEORIA – Romando Dixson wasn’t aware of the full extent of his role as the new editor of the Peoria Journal Star. Romando Dixson, sports editor of the Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Mississippi, will become the first Black editor of the Peoria Journal Star when he begins his new job July 20.
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