The Homewood Star turns 10

The Homewood Star celebrates a milestone this month: 10 years of serving the Homewood community with hyperlocal news coverage.

Ashley Berkery, the paper’s first editor, said she got the gig through a longtime friend of hers, Alison Grizzle. Grizzle’s husband, Dan Starnes, is the founder of Starnes Media. Back in 2011, Starnes only had two monthly newspaper publications: 280 Living for the U.S. 280 corridor and Village Living for the Mountain Brook community.

Berkery grew up in Homewood, and her background was in teaching French and working in public relations. When she got pregnant, Berkery quit teaching, and then Starnes approached her about The Homewood Star.

“With my baby in my stroller, I took copies of Village Living around Homewood and went into all of the businesses. I said, ‘Hey, I know this isn’t the hyperlocal paper, but it’s going to be, and this is the format, and do you want to buy an ad?’” she said, laughing. “I sold a lot actually.”

She said she remembers going into the office and seeing printed pages of the newspaper laid out on the floor for the first time and thinking it looked good. Then, to her surprise, Starnes told her, “I’m going to need your editor’s note by tomorrow.”

“I was like, what? I thought I was just going around town with my baby stroller selling ads,” she said. “He said ‘No, I want you to be the editor.’”

As much as she enjoyed selling ads, Berkery said it had been in the back of her mind all along that she would actually have liked to help with the paper’s editorial content. She went home and wrote her editor’s note that night, and Berkery said she remembers feeling honored to do it.

A lot has changed since April 2011. Berkery said in the early days, her “office” was the dining room table, and she printed newspaper pages and laid them out across the table while her child haphazardly crawled over her power chords. Today, Starnes Media has three offices in downtown Homewood for its editorial, advertising and digital staff (although the majority of the team has been working from home since March 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic).

Technology has also changed the newspaper industry in the past 10 years.

“We didn’t have a program to edit,” Berkery said. “Whatever Keith McCoy (the former creative director) sent me, I would print out and physically mark up with a pen. Then I would scan it and send it back.

“I remember one vacation, we were on deadline, and my family went to the beach. … We’re packing up our Tahoe, and that thing was packed, and I said, ‘Hang on, I’ve got one more thing.’ I had my big printer that I had to take to the beach, plug it up and print copies of the paper. My friend was like, ‘You’re bringing your printer?’ And it was a big one.”

Other times, Berkery remembers calling a coworker on the phone and calling out edits as they read through the article.

Berkery said she doesn’t remember any of the writers using online word processors back then, which is what the team uses today to edit stories.

Other things have also remained the same. On the cover of the inaugural issue of The Homewood Star, there is an article with a headline that reads: Plan to improve West Oxmoor Intersection. The article discusses plans for Homewood’s “turkey foot” intersection. The Homewood City Council had recently authorized then-Mayor Scott McBrayer to notify the Alabama Department of Transportation of the city’s intention to fund improvements to the intersection, and the mayor was quoted in the paper saying, “I hand delivered the letter to ALDOT, so we’re moving forward with the project.”

As city projects sometimes go, though, the intersection has so far lasted another 10 years and remains the same. In our November 2020 issue, we reported that the city budgeted $210,000 in fiscal 2021 for the engineering and design for the project.

The inaugural issue also covered the swearing in of the council’s newest member at the time, Peter Wright, who did not run for council again in 2020. When asked in 2011 about positive changes on the horizon for Homewood, Wright mentioned the “revamping” of the Homewood Recreation Center, which has since been completed. He also mentions extending the Shades Creek Greenway trail into West Homewood near the Wildwood Shopping Center. Problems in securing right-of-way access on properties along the trail’s intended path have stalled the project. The project was then brought up again last year, but it was delayed again, this time because ALDOT bumped up the Interstate 65/Lakeshore interchange in its schedule.

Some staff have been on board since day one. Lauren Denton wrote a column in the inaugural issue and still writes columns today. Rick Watson, who was listed as a contributing writer in the first issue, continued writing for Starnes Media publications for many years until his death in July 2020.

Although Berkery fielded some complaints over the years, The Homewood Star received lots of love from the community, she said.

“For the most part, we got glowing reviews all the time,” she said. “It was something to be proud of. And I loved connecting to people, so it was a really good fit.”

And although Berkery is no longer on staff at Starnes Media, she said she continues to read every word of The Homewood Star in 2021, just as she did in 2011.