The Coastal Point is a local newspaper published each Friday and distributed in the Bethany Beach, South Bethany, Fenwick Island, Ocean View, Millville, Dagsboro, Frankford, and Selbyville, Delaware areas.
About Us
The Coastal Point is an independent weekly newspaper founded in 2003 in Ocean View, Del., by a group of local newspaper veterans and investors who sought to provide a true voice and information source for the Delaware beach community.
First published Feb. 2, 2004, and every Friday since, the Coastal Point prides itself on in-depth, locally-focused coverage of the events, information and experiences that are important to those who call this area their home, or their home away from home.
From the Indian River Inlet south to Fenwick Island, from Bethany Beach west to Dagsboro, and everywhere in between, the Coastal Point strives to bring our readers the most accurate, entertaining and informative newspaper publication in the area.
Whether you live in Ocean View, Frankford or unincorporated parts of Sussex County, such as Clarksville or Sea Colony, you’ll find in the Coastal Point the news that matters in your daily life.
Whether you work in South Bethany or in Selbyville, you’ll read about what’s happening in this community. Whether you’re visiting the shore in Bethany Beach or heading to Millville to shop, you’ll discover things you never knew and people you wish you did.
Sports fan or “beach potato,” artistic visionary or sandcastle aficionado, the Coastal Point brings to our readers the news they count on and the stories that make their day.
With an award-winning team of reporters, designers, editors, photographers and columnists, we bring you timely reporting on breaking news, clever and thought-provoking commentary on local happenings and life in general, striking imagery and creative advertising that lets you know what our local businesses have to offer.
But that’s only part of our team. The other part is you. We at the Coastal Point count on you, our readers, to help keep us informed about what’s going on in your lives, to let us know about that special event or your concerns about local government, and to keep us working hard to bring the best we have to offer to you every week, on the page and online.
We’re pleased to have been welcomed so warmly and incorporated so thoroughly into your lives, and we hope you’ll continue to pick up the Coastal Point each Friday – and read us online. And we hope you will also continue to let us know how we can serve you, our readers, even better in the future.
The Coastal Point can be reached at the following contact information:
P.O. Box 1324
Ocean View, DE 19970
302.539.1788
302.539.3777 [fax]
Staff
Susan Lyons, Publisher Susan has been in the newspaper business longer than she’dreally like us to mention. She’s lived in the Ocean View area for even longer, since she was born and raised here. But she’s taken advantage of both of those legacies to the benefit of the Coastal Point, which she started with Editor Darin McCann and a group of investors in 2003.
Susan started in the newspaper business in 1984 as an advertising representative and has worked as an advertising manager, general manager and, now, publisher. Susan is also one of the Coastal Point’s star photographers, gracing the pages of numerous issues of The Point and our annual calendar with her scenic photos. She’s been married 29 years to Andy Lyons, with whom she has three children and now two grandchildren. When not at the Coastal Point’s home base or with Andy, Susan loves getting out from behind a desk to work with clients and do some photography. She can often be found outside, kayaking the area’s canals and bays, chasing her Bernese Mountain dog, Tuck, and working on her secret garden. She is a member of the Barefoot Gardeners, Preceptor Omega and Mariner’s Bethel United Methodist Church. Susan has been very active with the Bethany-Fenwick Area Chamber of Commerce, serving three different stints on its board of directors. |
Darin McCann, Editor Darin grew up in Washington, D.C., somehow managed to escape a life of petty delinquency and competitive sports, and studied journalism at Temple University in Philadelphia. He served in combat in the United States Marine Corps, and was decorated for his efforts in the first Gulf War.
He has worked as a reporter and editor in California, Philadelphia, Connecticut, Maryland, Atlanta and various other locales. He’s been a full-time editor since 1999, and, despite his roving ways, has been with the Coastal Point since the paper’s inception in 2004. (Coincidentally, he has not been seen with hair since that very day.) In addition to his editorial duties, Darin also pens a weekly column that expounds on such things as sports, pop culture and the immanent threat to humanity posed by a renegade Sussex County band of mutant raccoons led by the great and genuinely evil Leviathan. Darin is now officially more influential than Oprah, being single-handedly responsible for the sale of 59 neti pots after chronicling his experience with using one. Sinus cavities of the world, be free! In his free time, Darin enjoys sports, studying Roman, American and Irish history, and playing poker with a local group of players. He is married to the lovely and tolerant Jamie McCann, and wastes a ton of energy chasing around their two dogs, Bailey and Guinness. (Bonus points if you can figure out where they got those names…) |
Shaun Lambert, Art Director When the Coastal Point fields a team for the Exercise Like the Eskimos ocean splash every New Year’s Day, we do it with expertise. Team Coastal Point Captain Shaun Lambert is an Inuit Eskimo and Athasbascan Indian (Native Alaskan). He was born and raised in Alaska, and lived there for 22 years. He considers January ocean temperatures in Delaware to be “good summer swimming weather.”
Since moving to Delaware in 2001, Shaun has taken the graphic design skills he began accumulating in high school and employed them in the newspaper business, working for local weeklies until he joined Mission Coastal Point in January 2004 and developed the look of the Coastal Point in print and on the Internet. He has since earned multiple Maryland, Delaware, D.C. Press Association (MDDC) awards for advertising design and page design, as well as designing the Coastal Point’s cutting-edge Web site makeover for its February 2008 debut. With a passion for computers and gadgets, Shaun is also the Coastal Point’s in-house tech support guy, as well as occasional author of some of our technology columns. In his free time (which is mostly in the wee hours of the morning), Shaun loves to play Texas Hold’em poker, listen to music and raid with his druid character in the online role-playing game World of Warcraft. |
M. Patricia Titus, News Editor Tricia likes to tell people she was a journalism major in college. For a week. After growing up in Northern Virginia and working on all three of her high school publications, Tricia went off to the University of South Carolina, where she promptly changed her major from journalism to media arts so she could indulge her love of music and pursue her career goal of becoming a recording engineer and working with rock stars.
Many moons later, Tricia returned to journalism and her childhood vacation spot in Delaware, working as the copy editor and music columnist for a local weekly newspaper before expanding into layout and editorial duties. Starting her first work on “hard news” when she jointed the Coastal Point in 2004, she has become known for her attendance at nearly all municipal meetings on her beats, attention to detail on regional issues such as beach replenishment and inability to write a story in fewer than 6 million words. At least a few of those words have earned her multiple awards from the Maryland, Delaware, D.C. Press Association (MDDC). When she’s not attending a meeting or writing a headline, Tricia is generally attending to her 2-year-old son, who keeps her on her toes and fills her with joy. Even on trips to the beach, she is generally accompanied by a Windows Mobile smartphone that keeps her up-to-date with the latest news for her Coastal Point technology columns and also, happily, keeps a 2-year-old entertained. |
| Chris Allen, Ad Representative Chris is a native Sussex Countian, born and raised in Lewes, Del. After attending college in the Midwest, she returned to the beach, starting a family and taking a management position in a Baltimore-based financial institution’s credit card operation for 10 years. Chris traveled for the bank on their acquisition team, while also being responsible for a staff of 118 employees. After a career move, Chris obtained her real estate license in both Maryland and Delaware and remains an active sales associate with RE/MAX By The Sea in Bethany Beach. She is the current co-chair of the Realtor Community Service Committee and serves on the board of directors of the Sussex County Association of Realtors’ Community Service Foundation, raising and distributing more than $70,000 per year for needy children in Sussex County. Chris also volunteers for the American Heart Association. Chris joined the Coastal Point in December 2006 as an advertising representative. She resides in Ocean View with her husband, Bob, a West Highland white terrier named Max and kitty-cat Linus. She has two sons, Brad and Blair, and a new granddaughter, Chloe Elizabeth Allen. |
Carolyn Fitz, Ad Representative Carolyn has been selling advertising for the Coastal Point since 2004 and is one of its most senior staff members. In addition to her work in advertising, Carolyn is also wife and mother to two beautiful young girls. |
| Beth Long, Office Manager It’s Summer all year ’round for Beth Long, half of the dynamic duo known as the Coastal Point’s Office Management team. After a brief semi-retirement, Beth has rejoined the Island of the Misfit Toys. When Beth isn’t typing up obituaries, or DNREC and other press releases, tracking account receivables and expenses, and shopping for office supplies, she can be found relaxing in Atlantic City with her best friend Dave, clutching tissues. |
Monica Fleming With a bachelor’s degree in English and a concentration in business and technical writing from the University of Delaware, Monica Fleming was dead set on writing technical and software manuals, but the Coastal Point and its quirky journalistic style came along and swept her off her feet. She currently job-shares with Beth Long in office management duties, writes for our “green” section, writes feature stories, and maintains content on our Web site, at www.coastalpoint.com. On days when she is not here in the office, you can find her being a full-time mother, life manager and entrepreneur. Monica has previously been awarded several of the Coastal Point’s own annual Pointies awards, including “One Cool Customer,” the “Theodore Roosevelt Award” and “The Golden Compass.” |
Ryan Saxton, Staff Reporter Ryan joined the Coastal Point in 2006, shortly after his graduation from the University of North Carolina, and promptly slipped into our vacant reporter spot like a foot into an old slipper. He’s covered town government, sports, feature stories and most recently stepped up to cover Sussex County government. All the while, he’s kept up the pressure while behind two face-down cards on the poker table.
Ryan also turned down a potentially lucrative career as a professional chef to devote himself to his work at the Coastal Point. After working at the Fenwick Island Crab House since his teens, Ryan did a brief spell as the cook at the Chalkboard restaurant in 2007 before finally deciding it was too hot and getting out of the kitchen. When the Coastal Point hosts its next bachelor auction, Ryan is likely to be our top price-getter. But we fear we’d never get him back, so we may have to scrap the idea altogether. However, Ryan does still cook occasionally and loves dogs and long walks on the beach, so look out, ladies… |
Ruslana Lambert, Staff Photographer Rosi, as she is known here at the Coastal Point, was born in 1982 in Sofia, Bulgaria, and attended New Bulgarian University, majoring in art and commercial photography. Rosi is a Maryland, Delaware, D.C. Press Association Award-winning photographer and ad designer, who also freelances in art and commercial photography, and graphic and ad design. |
| Jane Johnson, Classifieds Jane Johnson, BS, CDE, has been with the Point for what seems like forever now. She comes with an extensive background in customer service. She is responsible for all of our classified and service directory ads, as well as for legal advertising and religious services, and took home a Maryland, Delaware, D.C. (MDDC) Press Association award for her work on the classifieds in 2006. When she is not in the pulpit, she volunteers at a local youth hostel and likes to work with various plant species. |
Bob Bertram, Graphic Artist A self-described “angry old man” Bob has worked in graphic arts for almost 39 years (yes, he is as old as he looks.) Since the first time he walked into a newspaper pressroom he’s had a passion for the printed word and newspapers in particular. What initially drew Bob to the Coastal Point was its small size and giant local viewpoint. What has kept him here is the people and their passion for what they do. That, and a weekly poker game. (No girls allowed.) Simply put, Bob is our resident genius, coming up with unique and colorful ideas that have led to a bevy of Maryland, Delaware, D.C. (MDDC) Press Association awards for advertising design. Tune in each week to the staff box in our printed edition as Editor Darin McCann crafts a new job title for Bob, who has likely earned most – if not all – of the pointed jabs and at least as many of the accolades. |
| Jaime McNamee, Graphic Artist Jaime Ellis arrived at the Coastal Point in 2006, ready to take on a burgeoning workload of advertising design for the ever-expanding newspaper. Less than six months later, she’d decided she wanted a change. So she changed her last name by getting married. (He’s an Irish-American fellow, obviously.) Along with a feistiness that lets her accomplish nearly any task set before her (and needle Editor Darin McCann more successfully than most), Jaime possesses a bachelor’s degree in graphic design from Salisbury University and a gift for tripping over level flooring surfaces. Jaime is also responsible for adding Maryland, Delaware, D.C. (MDDC) Press Association awards to the Coastal Point’s Hall of Honor (Girl power!). But the thing she wants most from the spring of 2008 is the safe and healthy (and quick) arrival of her baby girl in May. |