Colin McEwen, Patch Staff

I am the editor of Lakewood Patch and a local news enthusiast.

I joined Patch because the company is at the forefront of the future of journalism — and I am deeply committed to this changing media landscape. And, I love Lakewood.

I have delivered, printed, packed, stacked, written for, edited and, of course, read newspapers. My first reporting gig came in the fourth grade when Mrs. Williams ordered – since I talked so much — that I report news and weather to begin the class each day. No sweat.

So, the kid with soda-pop-bottle eyeglasses began his career, sharing the latest news and weather forecasts with a room full of confounded classmates. 

Since then, I have worked in different media environments, and worn several different hats. I have picked up a camera; learned to handle video equipment and edited my own work. I have kept a blog. I have taped interviews and posted them to the Web. These are a few of the skills that I have acquired in an ever-changing media environment. 

After stints in Chicago and Southern California, I returned to home to Northeast Ohio to attend the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Kent State University. I held a reporting internship at the Record Publishing Co. by day and worked in the Akron Beacon Journal production department by night, stacking newspapers.

I later worked as a reporter and wire editor at the Record-Courier and received several awards for news and sports reporting. 

In my freelance work, most notably for hiVelocity, I have followed the changing economic landscape in Ohio. I have identified start-up bio-tech and biomedical companies as they sprout up around the fertile health-care industry, with area institutions of higher education propping them up. The state's economy is changing.

Not unlike my own industry.

I live in Lakewood with my wife, Kelly Flamos, and our children, Ruby and Clyde.

Kelly co-owns and operates Mahalls 20 Lanes with my brother-in-law, Joe Pavlick.

... In case you're curious, that will never affect my ability to report news professionally and fairly in this city that I love.