YOUNG NEWSIES Click this image to see a short video about Manor Ink produced in 2024 by the Sullivan County Youth Bureau.

About Manor Ink

Manor Ink is a youth-driven, community-supported monthly newspaper that was started in 2012. Since then we have come a long way. We’ve covered everything from high school graduations and annual trout parades to fires and devastating floods.

Manor Ink began because there was a need in our community. Livingston Manor, a small town on the edge of the Catskill Mountains in Sullivan County, NY, had no local news outlet. The hamlet’s newspaper had ceased publication in 2009, a victim of the great recession, and even the high school newspaper had closed due to lack of funding.

After several years without a hometown news source, a local mom had an idea. “Why not start a community-wide newspaper staffed by the hamlet’s teens?” she asked. “It can be sponsored by the Manor’s library.” It was a brilliant idea, and within a few months, Manor Ink was born.

The paper has been a vehicle to grow awareness of events, opportunities and businesses locally. Manor Ink has empowered its young staff to find and use our voice in the greater community and given us skills that we will use for the rest of our lives. It has highlighted the importance of local news production and literacy as part of the “glue” of a community.

After providing our community with local news for four years Manor Ink took a short hiatus and is now restarting with new energy and continued support from the library and local community. To support our local newspaper, written by young people in our little town, please consider becoming a sponsor! Help to keep our story going. For more info email manorink@gmail.com and keep your eyes out for the papers coming out once a month!

Who we are

Cat Slattery, Editor-in-Chief

Cat joined the paper in 2024, and has become our latest editor. In her time with the Ink, she’s done stories about an assistance organization in Monticello, a former race car driver with a garage full of exotic automobiles, what working for Dollar General is like and the impact of food assistance cuts on local families.

Rachel Zuckerman, Assistant Editor

Rachel has become assistant editor after three years of writing important and heart-felt stories for the paper. One of her early pieces was about the condition of autism, a story that won a NYPA award. She has also investigated issues with the Manor’s laundromat and has written about LMCS’s Operation Holiday.

Ethan Sprouse, Reporter

Ethan joined the paper’s staff as our youngest member in 2023, and right away authored a game review for the paper’s Inkwell of Happiness pages. He followed that with an update about the O&W Rail Trail plans to extend the hiking and biking pathway from Parksville to Livingston Manor’s Rotary Park.

Eva Wells, Reporter

Eva is one of our younger staffers, having joined the paper in December 2025. A capable writer, her first assignment was a breaking story about Liberty High School’s champion pole vaulter, rated No. 1 in New York State. We expect great things from Eva, and she’s just getting started!

Halle Thomas, Reporter

Halle is our youngest staff member, having join the paper when she was in third grade. Her first contribution to Manor Ink was a clever poem about love for the February 2026 issue’s Valentine’s Day page. With many years ahead before she graduates, we expect she will write many fine articles for our readers.

Skyelar Roberts, Reporter

Skyelar, who joined our staff in 2025, is an athlete and sports enthusiast, but he is also fan of movies and pop culture. He has written reviews of recent films and has also shared his experience playing football in Dallas, TX, at the Cowboys’ stadium. Most recently, he has profiled a recording studio in Livingston Manor.

Jameson Barerra, Reporter

jameson is a recent arrival at Manor Ink, and he frequently brings his latest drawing or creation to the paper’s newsroom round tables. His enthusiasm for the paper is contagious, and thus far he has contributed a “Spot the Difference” feature to our Inkwell of Happiness pages and has taken a stand-alone of daffodils.

Kara Didrich, Reporter

Kara is a live wire, full of story suggestions and inside info about Livingston Manor and the surrounding towns. An avid horse woman, she has written stories about a Livingston Manor Fire Dept. cadet, the hamlet’s Eastern Star building, the derelict Willowemoc Motel and a Local Heroes profile for our back page.

Carol Gugliotta, Reporter

A BOCES student, Carol has the inside track on technical classes at that venerable trades learning institution, and also knows about fire rescue and prevention as a volunteer cadet for the Livingston Manor Fire Dept. She has contributed to stories about those organizations, and also profiled RCS’s “Wolfpack Wishes” program.

Leah Staudt, Reporter

An Ink staffer who has recently joined the paper, Leah has done a fine interview with retiring Rockland schools Superintendent John Evans and a series of engaging “Catskill Critters” columns, introducing readers to the exotic highland cow and describing the red horse of the Chinese New Year.

Diana Fredenburg, LMCS School Advisor

As the liaison between Manor Ink and Livingston Manor Central School, former LMCS teacher Diana Fredenburg also helps the paper’s student reporters with their articles, provides access to school activities and information about school policies and the administration. She joined the paper’s adult staff in 2021.

The Ink’s adult mentors