BlogAsheville's Uberblogger leaves Xpress for hardcore blog life

Cross-posted from Asheville's alt-weekly, Mountain Xpress. BlogAsheville wishes the Chuck Norris of bloggers well on his latest endeavor.

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Multimedia editor Jason Sandford leaving Xpress for Ashvegas

by Jon Elliston in Vol. 16 / Iss. 33 on 03/10/2010

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After serving as Mountain Xpress' multimedia editor for the past two years, veteran local journalist Jason Sandford is moving on to pump even more lifeblood into Ashvegas, his popular blog about all things Asheville.

Eye on Asheville: Xpress' outgoing multimedia editor, Jason Sandford, who's preparing to pump up the volume of his blog, Ashvegas. Photo by Anthony Bellemare

Sandford, who was born and raised here, studied journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and has worked as a reporter at publications including the Elizabethtown, N.C., Bladen Journal; the Elizabeth City, N.C., Daily Advance; the Florence, S.C., Florence Morning News; and European Stars & Stripes (while based in Germany). He also worked for nearly a decade at the Asheville Citizen-Times, as both a reporter and editor.

Now he's leaving Xpress to focus on Ashvegas, which Xpress readers voted Best Local Blog in our last two Best of WNC polls. He started the blog in 2005 to feed his hunger for spreading news and what he calls "rumors of news," and in the years since, it has grown into a lively forum for local scoops of all stripes. (See the blog at http://www.ashvegas.squarespace.com.)

Sandford leaves behind a rich and varied body of work at Xpress, from in-depth articles on local matters to scores of photo galleries and videos on our Web site. Given the Xpress' focus on collaboration and civic dialogue, he says working alongside community activists on stories such as the challenges facing the Burton Street neighborhood have been among the most rewarding.

"I'm proud to have worked with Mountain Xpress and its employees, who share my love of this community," Sandford says.