Albany native Jill Holloway earns Emerging Journalist award

BAINBRIDGE — Inspiration is a funny thing. It can be the product of positive reinforcement … or just the opposite.

When Bainbridge Post-Searchlight Managing Editor Jill Holloway, who grew up in Albany and attended Deerfield-Windsor School before earning a degree in Communication and Information Sciences at the University of Alabama, received the Georgia Press Association’s Emerging Journalist Award at the organization’s recent annual banquet, the 25-year-old admitted that it was a little of both that led her to her career.

“I had a teacher at Deerfield, Irmgard Schopen-Davis, who was super inspirational,” Holloway said in a telephone interview. “We had a connection and she really encouraged me to write.

“I also had a teacher, who I will not name, who did just the opposite. She told me I should quit wasting my time, that I would never be a writer. I guess winning these awards was kind of inspired by both teachers … for opposite reasons. The first, I wanted to show she was right to have confidence in me. The second … well, I also just wanted to show her.”

Holloway, who also took second-place awards in the Post-Searchlight’s division for Breaking News Writing and Best Magazine Front Page Design, said she was inspired to take the job offer by the Bainbridge paper one week after graduation because her father, businessman Mark Holloway, made it clear that her time as an adult had officially begun.

“That’s his work ethic,” Holloway said of her father’s insistence that there would be no decompression period after completing degree requirements. “He told me, ‘If you think you’re going to come home and lay around here and just wait for a job, you’re wrong.’

“I’d applied for about 30 jobs listed on JournalismJobs.com, and one of them happened to be in Bainbridge. Our family has a place on Mexico Beach (Florida), and I’d passed through there several times. One of the jobs I’d applied for was a reporter’s position at the Post-Searchlight. I wanted to stay in the South, so I followed up with the job opening. I got an interview, got the job, and started to work.”

The Post-Searchlight was publishing its print product twice a week before COVID (once a week now), and, unknown to Holloway, was heading into a tumultuous period that would leave her, for a while, as the only full-time writer on staff.

“During COVID-19, The Post-Searchlight’s part-time reporter took a hiatus, leaving me as the only full-time reporter,” Holloway said. “A short while later, the paper’s managing editor decided to pursue a law degree, leaving me to, basically, write stories, photograph, design and produce special editions most of the time on my own.”

The roller coaster ride didn’t stop there, though.

“A short while later, the paper’s general manager, Mark Pope stepped aside, leaving me with little help and little guidance on what I should be covering,” Holloway said. “For a while there, I was covering it all.”

During this time, Holloway had struggles with her health and had two operations. But she took only a one-day break to ensure readers still got their paper on time.

“It’s been an interesting ride getting to this point,” the young journalist said. “I’ve had to cover sports that I know nothing about, and I was so overwhelmed at times that I was falling out of love with writing. Thankfully, the management at the paper showed that they appreciated my work and made me managing editor.”

And, at 25, Holloway’s journalistic journey has just begun.

“I really like it here; it’s a lot like it was growing up in Albany,” she said. “I would like to eventually get back to my first love — magazines — but right now, I’m pretty happy. These awards are kind of vindication for the hard work I put in.”

At least one Deerfield-Windsor teacher is smiling.

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