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Submitted by The Associated Press
Tom Tait, the Las Vegas-based Associated Press news editor who hired reporters, mentored writers and guided coverage in Nevada and surrounding states for more than two decades, has announced his retirement.
Tait (picture at left) is Southwest news editor for Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada. He said he will step down June 1 after 45 years in journalism. His departure has been planned for several months.
“I think a news editor can be measured by the quality of the report and the character of the people they enlist for the job,” said Ken Ritter, a longtime AP news reporter who has worked with Tait for almost 25 years in Palm Springs, California, and in Las Vegas. “The roster of reporters Tom has managed speaks volumes.”
Tait edited the Spartan Daily at San Jose State University in the 1970s. In California, he worked at the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, the Camarillo Daily News, the Daily Pilot in Costa Mesa and the Orange County Register before spending nine years managing and editing The Desert Sun, a Gannett newspaper in Palm Springs.
Among people Tait hired in Palm Springs are current AP editors Tom Verdin and Brian Skoloff. AP’s West Palm Beach correspondent, Terry Spencer, and Ritter were on the Desert Sun reporting staff.
“Tom hired me to work at The Desert Sun when I was living in a tent in the woods for six months,” said Skoloff, AP’s deputy West region video news director. “He literally hired me from the forest and gave me my first real journalism job. He’s the reason I’m with AP.”
Verdin, AP’s state government team editor, called Tait’s announcement a bombshell.
Tait became AP news editor in Las Vegas in February 2000.
He joined a Nevada AP staff including Robert Macy, Angie Wagner, Lisa Snedeker, Scott Sonner, Sandra Chereb, Tom Gardner, Martin Griffith, sports columnist Tim Dahlberg and the venerable Brendan Riley in Carson City.
“Tom was a good editor, a supportive editor and just a great guy to work with,” said Riley, who retired in 2009 after 39 years at AP. Riley said the key was “the trust factor.”
Tait hired or guided journalists including Oskar Garcia, Adam Goldman, Kathleen Hennessey, Christina Almeida Cassidy, Hannah Dreier, Ryan Nakashima, Ryan Pearson, Kimberly Pierceall, Cristina Silva, Regina Garcia Cano, Michelle Rindels, Riley Snyder, Sally Ho, Michelle L. Price and Sam Metz.
His name wasn’t in the AP byline. But his imprint was everywhere.
In Nevada, Tait oversaw coverage of elections; the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001; entertainer Roy Horn’s mauling by a white tiger at The Mirage; the 2006 shooting death of a judge in Reno; the 2007 arrest of O.J. Simpson and his trial, conviction and release in October 2017 – the same day a gunman killed 58 people in the deadliest shooting in modern U.S. history on the Las Vegas Strip.
There were corruption scandals, casino implosions and openings, the effects of the Great Recession of 2008, the Sagebrush rebellion and an armed standoff at the Bundy ranch, the long political fight before the federal Yucca Mountain nuclear waste project was shelved, the rise and fall of water levels at Lake Mead, and the coronavirus pandemic and casino closures in 2020.
Staff photographers have included Laura Rauch, Joe Cavaretta, Julie Jacobson, Jae C. Hong and John Locher.
While overseeing Utah, Tait hired Brady McCombs and Lindsay Whitehurst in Salt Lake City.
He brought Jonathan J. Cooper to an Arizona staff that today also includes Paul Davenport, Anita Snow, Bob Christie, Terry Tang, Felicia Fonseca, Jacques Billeaud and Walter Berry.
He managed Susan Montoya Bryan, Russell Contreras, Morgan Lee and Cedar Attanasio in Albuquerque. He said Montoya Bryan will guide the Southwest news report after June 1.
Tait is 67. He and his wife, Robin, have been married 47 years. They have three children and eight grandchildren. He said they’re going to plan some family visits and vacation trips in coming months.