Liz Sauchelli, who began at the Valley News as a fresh-out-of-college night copy editor in 2012, has told current and former colleagues and her wealth of community contacts that she’s stepping down from the paper on October 30. Her departure caps an extraordinary reshaping of the newspaper’s staff, which has now lost every one of its veteran staff writers, editors, and photographers over the past year. The makeover coincides with the regular presence in the paper’s Lebanon offices of two senior figures at parent company Newspapers of New England, Concord Monitor publisher Steve Leone and Monitor editor in chief Jonathan Van Fleet; Leone is NNE’s vice president of news, Van Fleet is executive editor for NNE’s suite of newspapers in New Hampshire.
Photographer and multi media producer Alex Driehaus, who began as a Report for America corps member in 2021 and became a regular staffer in 2024, is now the newsroom’s senior member. Reporters Michael Coughlin Jr., Alex Ebrahimi, and Sofia Langlois all began their jobs last year, while news and reporting intern Sophia Sahni began last month. Managing editor Allison Rogers also started up last month, while assistant editor Molly Hughes joined the paper this summer.
Sauchelli, who declined to comment on her reasons for leaving, eventually carved out an interesting role at the paper, running its community calendar, highlighting volunteer opportunities, moving into reporting on the region’s many nonprofits and community organizations, and eventually becoming community editor. She covered everything from how residents in Upper Valley towns responded to, say, a proposal for a new gravel pit, to how school districts responded to rising health insurance costs to issues facing local nonprofit organizations.
Sauchelli had a huge array of contacts and an eye not just for institutional accomplishments and comings and goings, but for the people who made them function. In 2022, for instance, she broke the news that Enfield’s La Salette Shrine was likely to be sold, then stayed on the story as its permanent closure was announced and then as Vicki Pellerin, who ran the shrine’s family bingo game nights, struck out on her own to open a bingo hall.
She also paid close attention to the people those organizations serve. “Liz took the best approach to getting to know seniors in our area, by spending time with them and participating at Bugbee with them,” says Mark Bradley, executive director of the Bugbee Senior Center in WRJ. “Her reporting has always been a reflection of the hopes, needs, and aspirations for older adults in the Upper Valley.” “In a lot of ways,” Van Fleet says in an email, “Liz was the face of the Valley News due to her community connections and personality.”
Her impact may best be summed up, though, by the Valley News’s former top editor, Matt Clary, who was among those who left earlier this year. “So much of what Liz Sauchelli focused on for the past 15 years were the things that made the Valley News a genuine community resource,” he writes in an email. “Her reporting often put a spotlight on senior citizens and the issues they face, as well as the region’s nonprofit agencies and dedicated volunteers. Her weekly Out & About column highlighted events throughout the Upper Valley that help define the region’s character. For years, Liz has curated the VN calendar and dozens of other special events lists, and in doing so, she became the main point of contact for scores of dedicated readers. When folks turned to the VN for a rundown of Fourth of July celebrations or trick-or-treating times or holiday meals, that was Liz. She also edited special sections such as Valley Parents and Enterprise, and in recent months she has been overseeing letters to the editor and op-ed columns. Liz’s deep institutional knowledge has been a true asset, and her departure will be felt by colleagues and readers alike.”
Rogers, in an email, says that the Valley News intends to put in place a new community editor to fill Sauchelli’s spot. “That person will also report on community/nonprofit news, similar to the structure of what Liz has been doing,” she writes. “I anticipate the calendar will continue, and the plan is that it will continue to live with the community editor.” In addition, Rogers says, new writing staff are on the near horizon: Two are scheduled to start work next week, and two more by the end of November.
Van Fleet insists the paper and NNE are looking to the future: “With the [recent] addition of Allison Rogers, we'll have a mix of experienced, knowledgeable journalists and young, talented professionals. We hope and expect to deliver interesting, engaging, relevant news to the community every day of the week.”
