Reporter Sarah Kessinger leaving HNS Bureau

TOPEKA — Harris News Service senior correspondent Sarah Kessinger is moving on to a new challenge after a decade of covering state government and statewide issues.

Kessinger, who reported for Kansas-based Harris newspapers out of the group’s Topeka bureau, left Friday to take a job at her hometown’s weekly newspaper in north-central Kansas.

Starting next month, she’ll be the editor of The Marysville Advocate, which is owned and published by her parents, Howard and Sharon Kessinger.

Kessinger, 43, said it would be nice to return home and was looking forward to covering the place where she grew up.

“I think there’s still a lot of value in community journalism,” Kessinger said.

Kessinger covered a variety of issues, including a historic school-funding debate, while working in the Statehouse. She said she’s found increased debate about environmental topics and demographic changes resulting from immigration particularly interesting.

Jeanny Sharp, editor and publisher of The Ottawa Herald, said Kessinger was a talented reporter who provided good insight on legislative activities in Topeka and how they affected readers.

“We’ll miss Sarah’s insightful reporting, but know she’ll continue to make positive contributions in the field of journalism in her new role at her hometown newspaper,” Sharp, who leads the committee of publishers overseeing the bureau, said.

Kessinger first joined Harris News Service in 1997 as a correspondent. In 2003, she became the bureau’s senior correspondent.

Prior to working in Topeka, Kessinger was features editor and deputy metro editor at The Monitor in McAllen, Texas. In the early 1990s, she was an education reporter and assistant managing editor at The Garden City Telegram.

She also launched the Spanish-language weekly La Semana in 1991 for The Telegram.

The bureau serves The Ottawa Herald, as well as The Garden City Telegram, Hays Daily News, Hutchinson News and Salina Journal.