Cannon Taylor knew joining The Park Record to fill its new position as Heber City reporter would be a crash course in small-town newswriting.
His beat covers, but is not limited to, the Heber City Council, Heber City Planning Commission and the Wasatch School Board, which have all been around in some form or another since the late 1800s.
“I’m constantly researching things and asking people to explain things to me as if I were 5, so I can explain these things to other people as if they were 5,” he said. “That’s not a bad thing, because it’s just been about learning a bit how the world works and then taking that and trying to translate that into something that intrigues people who aren’t already locally involved.”
Taylor jumped on The Park Record speedboat after his gig as the arts and culture writer for the Colorado Springs Independent, a position he took on after graduating from the University of Colorado Colorado Springs.
“I applied for (that) job on a whim three months after graduation,” he said. “I applied for a junior reporter position, but I think they forgot they posted that position, so I was hired as the arts and culture writer.”
The confusion is easily excused because the paper was in the midst of a relaunch after taking a brief hiatus, Taylor said.
“They brought on new ownership, and what got me that position was a specific story idea I pitched during my interview,” he said.
Taylor’s idea involved the state of stores that sold physical media — video games, movies and books, to name a few.
“The idea came up because I was so livid at the time about digital media being so impermanent,” he said. “You see whole TV shows disappear off streaming services forever as tax write-offs, and that was something that was weighing on me.”
The pitch aligned with the newspaper’s relaunch, Taylor said.
“It was the perfect idea because newspapers are also seen as a dying physical medium and they have become so digital,” he said. “They can also just disappear, along with a person’s whole life’s work, if a website goes down.”
Taylor enjoyed his time as the arts and culture writer because Colorado Springs is pretty large in terms of geography and population.
“There is so much happening in a given week, so it was about trying to figure out the most interesting story versus something that is just happening,” he said.
Taylor, however, didn’t have any plans to become a journalist while he was in school.
“I studied English rhetoric and writing, and I frankly thought I was too conflict-averse for journalism,” he said. “It all seemed intimidating to me.”
Still, Taylor worked at the university’s newspaper, where he had an epiphany.
“I realized most of the writing opportunities are in journalism and that I was probably not going to make it as an author or editor in the publishing world,” he said with a laugh.
Still, English and writing have always been Taylor’s passions.
“I found the word ‘author’ at a very young age, and I thought it sounded pretentious enough for me,” he said with another laugh. “So, I have been writing since I was a kid — very garbage novels, and I say novels very loosely. They were rip-offs of what I was reading, but I have always really enjoyed it.”
Taylor also enjoyed writing because of how he could express himself.
“I think I’m able to do that much better than I can verbally, which was, I think, another reason I was scared of journalism at first, because it involved talking with people,” he said.
Taylor lived in Orange County, California, until his family moved to Colorado Springs when he was 10.
“My family moved to Utah three years ago, but I lived in Colorado Springs until earlier this year,” he said. “Part of this move to Utah was to be closer to them.”
Even though Taylor’s family lives in Riverton, he applied to The Park Record because he was looking for Utah-based journalism jobs.
“I was also wanting to build my newswriting experience because, as an arts writer, newswriting wasn’t a skill I had honed, unless you count writing about elevator maintenance as news,” he said.
One of Taylor’s favorite writers is Hanif Abdurraqib, who writes for the New Yorker.
“What I really like is that his stories are about arts and sports stuff, but done more like personal essays,” he said. “Sometimes they are about larger-scale political and social movements, and sometimes it’s about just his life.”
While Taylor knows there isn’t a lot of room to get too personal in news writing, it is something he prefers to do in his own writing.
“I like to write in first person if the subject matter is appropriate,” he said.
In his spare time, Taylor plays video games as well as the guitar and bass guitar.
“I like indie rock stuff, and there’s this band I really like called Cafuné,” he said. “Recently I’ve been listening to a lot of Vocaloid stuff.”
Vocaloid is a singing-voice synthesizer software.
“It’s so insane to me that people can program a voice as an instrument,” he said. “I also have liked the Gorillaz for a few years, so I’m into the virtual-band thing.’’
Taylor also enjoys taking walks with his family’s dog, Fofo.
“He’s a cavapoo and looks like a little Beanie Baby,” he said.
One of the things Taylor looks forward to as the Heber City reporter is getting to know people.
“Something I’ve noticed about living in Heber City is how compact it is,” he said. “I feel like everyone knows everyone, and that’s not something I’ve experienced where I’ve lived.”
Taylor also knows how much Heber City residents love their town.
“They are really protective of it, and with all of the stuff that’s happening there can lead to a lot of drama — stuff that is rife for storytelling,” he said. “I think it’s rewarding to be in a line of work where you’re exposed to so many facets of life and so many different people. I think there’s also room for me to do profiles and features on interesting people and businesses in my area.”
Taylor also looks forward to learning more about himself.
“I really like journalism because it teaches me more about the world and how I fit into it,” he said. “I’m 23, and I think the 20s are a second puberty where you have to learn how to navigate through all of this stuff. I have found the constant process of learning very valuable.”