Lovato steps in as new editor

SEELEY LAKE - After more than 40 years and an award-winning career as a print journalist, Vince Lovato is excited to return to his roots of community journalism.

Stepping in as the new editor of the Seeley Swan Pathfinder, Lovato said he looks forward to bringing his professional and life experiences and grasp of technology to continue to be a steward of the paper for the community.

"It is my goal to help improve the Pathfinder as it forges into its next era working with a small company that can make us all better," Lovato said. "I want to make sure the people here feel that this is a community paper, that they have input, that I will be approachable and that I'm listening. As long as we are not cursing, calling names or making threats, I'm going to listen to what people say and I'm going to report it that way. If they want to write letters to the editor, they are going to get in." 

Lovato grew up in Barstow, California, a military and logistics town, in the middle of the Mojave Desert. He grew up racing dirt bikes, playing sports and, "enjoying the freedoms we enjoyed at that time in rural California."

Lovato attended California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo on a football scholarship and studied engineering. As a starting linebacker his sophomore year in 1980, Lovato took a hit following a kickoff that resulted in a compound fracture in his lower right leg. 

"You are playing for the National Championship three days before Christmas and on Christmas Day you are back on your parent's coach with a hip cast on," Lovato said. "Your scholarship is gone... It was pretty depressing."

Even though he had a reputation as a hard worker, no one would hire him until he could walk. His hometown newspaper, the Desert Dispatch, picked him up as a stringer to cover sports.

"I never thought I'd be a writer in my life. I never thought about it as a career journalist or anything," Lovato said. "It was a very unique, fun thing for me to be that young."

After a few months, Lovato changed his major and shifted his career path towards journalism. At age 21, the Desert Dispatch offered him the sports editor position making him the youngest sports editor of a daily paper in the history of California.

Lovato finished his associates in engineering and got a Bachelor of science in the arts with a minor in psychology. He was already starting to build his reputation in the media industry.

"I was naturally curious, good at my job, enthusiastic and I would say yes to everything," Lovato said.

Lovato worked his way up to working for the L.A. Times Company, Gannett Publishing and the Associated Press wire service. He covered the Rams, Raiders and was the beat reporter for the Angels. He had bylines across the world.

"The wires are powerful," Lovato said highlighting the reporting he did that broke the Hinkley story which later was made into the movie Erin Brockovich. "Then you get out on the wire, the next day you are famous. You are getting calls from people all around the world."

Lovato appeared on area TV and radio and national TV. Throughout his career he has been interviewed by major news outlets and hosted a radio show. 

He returned to school and earned a Master of education. He began teaching in 1991. He taught writing, journalism and multi-media at public schools and colleges.

He and his ex-wife, who was also a journalist, were so heavily invested in their careers, their three children often craved more attention. To have more time with family, they started their own newspaper, the Garage Sale Gazette, in Silver Lakes, California. They later renamed the Silver Lakes Gazette to help attract more regional advertisers.

"We were in a media dark zone. The big papers didn't cover us and there was a lot going on community-wise and people wanted to read about it," Lovato said. "I thought I was going to be bored to death not working in a big market but quite the opposite. I found that the smaller the place the more intense the news is because it is so close to everyone's home. It really makes for a different level of intensity that, as a journalist, I love."

Lovato also funneled stories to the leading Los Angeles-area radio station. He was naturally curious, still had a nose and a passion for chasing a good story and maintained his web of connections and informants.

While running the Silver Lakes Gazette, Lovato started investigating a series of robberies in the HOA. He identified a pattern and then started working with law enforcement. He was promised exclusive coverage and he was able to go on the raids. 

"Tell me one editor in the country that doesn't want that story, a civilian reporter with a camera covering a raid," Lovoto said. "Everyone they busted was drugs, theft, larceny, human trafficking and we got them all."

Over his career, Lovato broke seven national exclusives and 13 regional exclusives garnering seven California Newspaper Publishers Association Awards. While the story content was horrific, Lovato is most proud of his reporting on the story of a five-year-old girl. She died within two days of showing flu-like symptoms. The autopsy showed she was sexually molested post-mortem. While surveillance video placed the couple that transported her body with the girl during the time the foreign DNA was deposited and they were arrested, there was no law on the books for molesting a dead body.

"The (state) senator and the legislator in our area introduced legislation to make it illegal to harm a body, based on my reporting," Lovato said.

After his three children turned 18 and left home, Lovato and his ex-wife decided to move. Lovato said they hated what California became.

They moved to Washington for a few years and then landed in Montana in 2013 in search of the rural lifestyle. 

Lovato started as an editor in Polson. However after a falling out, he and his ex-wife branched out on their own and started the Montana Health and Wellness Seniors Magazine. In 2014, they launched the weekly Bigfork Beagle and Flathead Otter.

"We [took] pictures of cute kids, dogs, pretty girls and hunky guys and put in the calendar and the churches," Lovato said. 

Still living in Polson while running the two newspapers, he added expanded his online paper, Polson Live, to print in October 2019. When COVID hit, the advertising dried up so he went dark. Instead of returning to California, he moved to Lone Pine, MT, and took a job as a bulk mail driver just to get through to retirement. Through COVID he connected with an old friend named Carole on social media and they eventually married.

While helping an old colleague with a job search, Lovato saw the editor job for the Seeley Swan Pathfinder posted. Since he loved small-town community journalism, he applied.

"I really want to have fun," Lovato said. "I want to be part of the community. That is what a community paper is."

Lovato considers journalism a lifestyle and is the current "steward" of the Pathfinder.

"If you aren't living this job 24/7, if you aren't getting story ideas when you're shopping at the store or coaching a little league team, you are not doing your job. Some of the biggest stories I ever got came from being a member of the community I lived in," Lovato said. "I hope, however long I'm here, that I leave it as good or in better shape than it is now."

Lovato continued, "[A community newspaper] is one of those symbiotic relationships where the community appreciates you being here, they are willing to put money where their mouth is and you're willing to give them the content they want and deserve."

When he is not working, Lovato has flipped homes, enjoys working on cars, carpentry, coaching athletics, playing golf and watching the Los Angeles Rams. He donated a great deal of time and money to support animal rescue, military veterans and anti-suicide campaigns. 

He encourages the community to continue to reach out to him at pathfinder@seeleylake.com or call 406-677-2022.