It’s not everyday that an American journalist walks into The Bugle office. 

“I used to work in a similar-sized newsroom in Fairfield, Ohio,” Christopher Ryan says.

The aforementioned journalist, Ryan, is actually Australian by birth (he was born in Perth), but moved to America at the age of one.

His parents moved back to Kiama when they retired. They selected the town because it’s the furthest that you can get from Sydney, and still have a direct train line, Ryan says.

He’s here for a visit, coming out about every 10 years.

“Australia’s not a weekend trip,” he chuckles. Ryan’s just been for a bush walk with a cousin. They were meant to go camping, but the dreadful weather put a stop to it.

Although, he doesn’t mind the rain, Ryan says. He lives in Boulder, located by the Colorado Rocky Mountains, where massive thunderstorms drenches the town during the summer months. 

After working as a general assignment reporter for local newspapers across Indiana, North Carolina, Florida, Ohio and Oklahoma, he switched to the technical side of the newspaper business about a decade ago. Now, he runs FutureOfNews, LLC.

“I still consider myself a journalist,” Ryan remarks.

Excitedly, he pulls out his smartphone to show how the interactive audio news, which he's set up, works. “Hi, Alexa. Give me the top 10 news in Colorado,” Ryan instructs. 

Fully automated, it draws stories from Colorado's daily newspapers RSS feeds. Within seconds, he has the biggest stories in his palm, ranging from the Northern Lights setting the Colorado sky aglow to a 50-year-old cold case murder finally being solved.

Ryan’s curious to find out more about local journalism in Australia, especially how community newspapers utilise technology. 

He shows his bag where he’s stocked up on a variety of dailies from the newsagent. There’s a copy of the recent The Bugle in there as well.

“I like the diversity of Australian media,” he comments. “Very good.”

Safe travels, Ryan, and we hope to welcome you back soon again.