The Delmarva Media Group, publisher of The Eastern Shore News announced a reorganization effort Tuesday. Caught in the fray, two of the Shore’s most beloved journalists, Executive Editor Ted Shockley and Award-winning Eastern Shore News photographer Jay Diem were cut in layoffs this week.
Shockley started with the Eastern Shore News as a freelance stringer in 1990 while he was still a senior in high school. He became an editor of the ‘News’ in 2002 and was named the paper’s Editor in 2005. After the last reorganization, Ted became the executive director of DMG’s whole news-gathering operation.
Back when Ted was at the News, one of my favorite things was to grab that cup of coffee in the morning and read the paper. Almost nothing made me happier than Ted’s columns, which captured the light, sound and joy of living on the Shore like no other. I distinctly remember one piece where he bemoaned the renovation of his favorite dump; with a new fence and shiny new trash bins and a recycling center, for Ted, it had lost all its character—what were all the rats, and stray cats and dogs that he enjoyed watching scurry around the bags of trash going to do now? So many times, Ted’s work would make me smile and chuckle; it rang so true, whether he bluntly stated that he didn’t like Walmart because how can you trust an establishment that sells axle grease and milk in the same place, or how he made you revel in the joy of riding in back of a pickup truck in summer, or how he made you remember just how good a spam sandwich can really can be.
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