Fresh out of the University of Central Florida, twin brothers Alex and Isaac Babcock worked for the Seminole Chronicle in 2004 before taking over the then Oviedo Voice in 2007. Jenny Andreasson and Jon Gallagher joined them as a reporter and copy editor, respectively, where they worked as a team to produce news for Greater Oviedo and Winter Springs. That newspaper was brought under the fold of the Winter Park-Maitland Observer [Observer Newspapers] and later evolved into the Seminole Voice, covering all of the county.
Alex took a hiatus from local news and became a journalist in the Army. Isaac stayed on and led the Voice, and Andreasson headed the Observer. In 2008, Observer Newspapers brought on Megan Stokes who led the East Orlando Sun, whose coverage areas included Bithlo and Chuluota. Gallagher copy edited all three publications and helped design them. Eventually Andreasson became managing editor for all three newspapers and she and Isaac married a few years later.
Economic forces and changing media tastes brought the demise of those newspapers, but the five team members stayed in touch. Their shared love of quality journalism and the Greater Oviedo & Winter Springs area birthed this project, with the goal of better news coverage for the community that focuses on the readers’ needs.
