Simone Johnson is new Press education reporter

The Riverdale Press welcomes yet another Bronx native into its ranks as Simone Johnson joins the reporting team focusing on education, traffic and other community assignments.

She replaces Lisa Herndon, who took on a position outside the newspaper industry closer to her Manhattan home.

“Lisa was a wonderful member of our team, and someone I knew would be difficult to replace,” Press editor Michael Hinman said. “We needed the right person with the right energy and the right talent — and we found all of that with Simone. Journalism runs through every cell of her being, and our team operates best when we have born reporters as part of our staff.”

Johnson is a graduate of the University of Rochester, where she double-majored in English language media communications and film media studies production. While she values all forms of journalism, writing is her first passion.

Johnson has been fascinated by journalism since middle school, growing up in the Bronx, and firmly believes knowledge should be distributed and shared.

Although her career post-college has focused on freelance work, Johnson said she’s found her home in The Riverdale Press.

In her free time, Johnson enjoys video editing and reading fiction. She also likes writing poetry. 

Education is important to residents in Riverdale and Kingsbridge as Johnson will focus not just on the various public schools in the area, but parochial, private and charter schools as well.

And then, of course, there are the post-secondary schools like Manhattan College and Lehman College, both which Johnson is ready to hit the ground running to cover.

The Press was founded in 1950 by David and Celia Stein, and is currently published by Clifford and Stuart Richner.

The paper has won a number of awards over the years, including the coveted Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing in 1998.