Jonathan Williams

The Columbia-Pacific’s communities are full of world-class artisans dedicated to their crafts. It deserves a weekly arts and entertainment publication like Coast Weekend to cover it.

As the new editor of Coast Weekend, I plan to make it an integral publication for all things culture. I am extremely excited to learn even more about the area and meet the drivers behind new and familiar artistic events.

As a native Astorian, I’ve seen the city transform itself from a seasonal tourist destination to a year-round, thriving, artistic community.

I’ve read Coast Weekend since I was an adolescent and have enjoyed contributing articles to it and Our Coast Magazine over the last few months.

I grew up immersed in the arts scene as a violist at Astoria High School, playing in the North Oregon Coast Symphony, Columbia River Symphony and the Little Ballet Theatre’s “Nutcracker” orchestra. I also took lessons with Roger Thompson, of Thompson’s Instrument Repair.

At Linfield College, my passion for the arts merged with my interest in words. I majored in English and mass communication and served as editor-in-chief of The Linfield Review during my junior and senior years. I swam competitively all four years and played in chamber music ensembles. I also completed internships at All Classical Portland and with Oregon Public Broadcasting’s weekly arts and culture show, “State of Wonder.”

These experiences led me to complete my master’s in arts journalism at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. There, I contributed features to The Post-Standard newspaper and completed an internship at Symphony Magazine in New York City. For my capstone course, I covered the Spoleto Festival USA, a classical music, opera, theater and dance festival in Charleston, South Carolina, for The Post and Courier newspaper.

I plan to bring all of my experiences covering the arts across the U.S. to Coast Weekend.

Coast Weekend covers a nearly 70-mile radius of cultural events from Manzanita to Ocean Park.

I plan to continue the legacy of Coast Weekend as a bedrock publication covering the local arts and entertainment scene. I will strive to make it an even more robust source full of indispensable cultural news.

My goals are to expand the coverage of music, art, theater, food and drink, dance, literature, ideas and the outdoors through multiplatform storytelling, including audio and video stories, social media posts and through features, profiles and trend stories.

I plan to increase news highlighting members of the community and having new articles on Coast Weekend’s website daily. I also plan to cover annual events in new ways.

If you are interested in freelancing or have a story you’d like to pitch, you can email me at jwilliams@dailyastorian.com or call 971-704-1720.

For any Music Happenings or See+Do calendar items, please email calendar@dailyastorian.com.

When I’m not editing a story or reporting on an event, you can find me at a concert, art walk, show, swimming laps at the Astoria Aquatic Center or running the hills of Astoria.

The Columbia-Pacific region is a truly singular place and I am extremely excited to start my career in Astoria, a city I believe in.