January 28, 2010

Rob Morris, the former North Carolina editor for The Virginian-Pilot, has started a new Web site, www.outerbanksvoice.com, which will focus on news of the Outer Banks and will provide a forum for folks who live, work, own property or simply have an interest in Dare County and the northern Currituck beaches.

“Our goal is to complement local news coverage and provide original reporting you won’t see elsewhere,” Morris told readers on the Web site when it went online earlier this month. “We’ll also provide links to stories from other Web sites, blogs, newspapers, and magazines and be your one-stop source for local news.”

The Voice will also be a forum for local opinion.   Morris says he will actively seek columns from local decision-makers, interesting people, and regular writers that he will be lining up.  Moderated discussion will also be a feature of the site.

“We want readers to contribute,” Morris said on the site. “We would like to hear your ideas. We are ready to read your submissions and post those we think will be interesting to your neighbors.”

Morris said that “While the Voice may choose to take positions on local issues of interest to our readers, they will never be to the exclusion of differing points of view. We encourage discussion and debate on our digital Town Square.”

Rob Morris was the North Carolina editor for The Virginian-Pilot for 12 years. Before that, he held a variety of editing and writing posts at the Pilot in the Hampton Roads area for 15 years and played a role in numerous award-winning projects and breaking news stories. He was a reporter and writer with The Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette and the Daily Press in Newport News, Va.

During his career, he has led coverage of major hurricanes, blizzards and a riot at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront, an investigation of police brutality and a scandal in the Virginia Beach mayor’s office. He helped cover a historic United Mine Workers strike in the late 1970s and followed then-Gov. Jay Rockefeller during his second campaign for governor of West Virginia.

He is a member of the First Flight Rotary Club and is a substitute teacher. He lives in Nags Head with his wife, Patty, and his daughter, Libbie, when she is home from school at East Carolina University. His son, John, better known now as Dabney, is a musician living in Nashville, Tenn., who also creates Web sites, including The Outer Banks Voice.

“Rob is a seasoned reporter and editor, and I welcome his Voice to the Outer Banks news community,” said Irene Nolan, editor of The Island Free Press. “There is so much happening in our area that no one of us can report on all of it.  We need all the journalists we can get to help us keep islanders, off-island property owners, and those who just plain love the area informed.  The Island Free Press will be linking to articles on the Outer Banks Voice.”

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