Scott Brinton named Heralds' executive editor

Posted

Scott Brinton has been appointed executive editor of the Herald Community Newspapers, Publishers Clifford and Stuart Richner announced on Oct. 28.

Brinton leads a staff of two dozen editors, reporters and photographers in producing 17 weekly editions of the Herald, spanning Nassau County’s South Shore. In all, the award-winning newspaper group boasts a readership of roughly 200,000.

Brinton’s oversight responsibilities also include the Oyster Bay Guardian, the recently acquired Gold Coast Gazette and LIHerald.com.

He succeeds John O’Connell, who served as the Heralds’ executive editor for 15 years and retired in September.

Brinton has 23 years of experience as a reporter, photographer and editor for the Heralds, and has produced more than 3,000 stories since joining the group in 1993. He has covered several of Long Island’s biggest stories, including the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and their aftermath, the crashes of flights 800 and 587, Tropical Storm Irene and Hurricane Sandy, the 2008 and 2012 presidential debates at Hofstra University and the Goodwill Games.

Brinton’s 60,000-word investigative series, “An Epic Power Struggle,” published from 2001 to 2003, led elected leaders to shut down a Village of Freeport diesel power plant that failed to meet federal air-quality regulations and that local residents charged threatened their health and the environment. The diesel engines were replaced with clean-burning, gas-fired models.

“Scott Brinton has become something of a Long Island institution over the years, and we’re fortunate to have such a capable and gifted journalist lead our staff,” Cliff Richner said. “I’ve had the privilege of watching his career firsthand as he honed his skills to become the outstanding writer and leader he is today.”

A Press Club of Long Island Hall of Fame inductee and an Outstanding Long Island Journalist honoree, Brinton has earned more than 100 national, state and regional journalism awards, including New York Press Association Writer of the Year (twice) and Sports Writer of the Year. He is also a 13-time winner of NYPA’s Sharon R. Fulmer Community Leadership Award, the association’s highest honor. Last spring he joined the PCLI board of directors.

Brinton has also been recognized by the Nassau-Suffolk School Boards Association, the Bellmore-Merrick United Secondary Teachers and the American Legion.

Outside the Herald, he has freelanced as a feature writer for Newsday and as a photographer for The New York Times, covering a wide range of subjects in Nassau and Suffolk counties.

Since 2009, Brinton has been an adjunct assistant professor at Hofstra’s Lawrence Herbert School of Communication, where he has taught classes ranging from environmental reporting to media ethics. He also founded Hofstra’s Community Journalism Program, in which graduate students mentor Hempstead High School students, helping them to publish their student newspaper. Last summer, Brinton and Professor Peter Goodman co-directed the Herbert School’s Summer High School Journalism Institute, in which a dozen students from Elmont, Hempstead and Island Trees high schools learned about print and broadcast journalism.

Before joining the Herald, Brinton served two years in the U.S. Peace Corps in Bulgaria, where he taught English and created an English language library at a high school; lectured at a university on American literature; and wrote an 18,000-word country guide, “Bulgaria: Land of Yogurt and Honey,” for Peace Corps volunteers.

After his service, Brinton settled for nine years in Long Beach with his wife, Katerina, an English as a Second Language teacher. For the past 14 years, they have made their home in Merrick with their children, Alexandra and Andrew.

In the community, Brinton served as a soccer coach and assistant track coach for the Sacred Heart Catholic Youth Organization, and was active in the Levy-Lakeside Elementary School PTA for nearly a decade. He takes part in beach and wetlands cleanups with Freeport SPLASH each year, and competes in local races including the 5K Robbie’s Run in Merrick, the John Theissen Foundation’s Freaky 5K in Wantagh and the Seaford Wellness Council’s Hot Chocolate 5K.

Brinton earned a bachelor’s degree from SUNY Geneseo, where he was the education journal editor and a co-captain of the cross-country and track teams; a master’s degree from Columbia University’s Teachers College; and a journalism certificate from New York University.