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About Us Berkeley Independent

We are Summerville Communications, Inc. Our commitment to our local communities is shown in the pride we take in publishing the Berkeley Independent, The Gazette and Summerville Journal Scene.

We vow to bring the news of each community to the readers of our print editions with an strong emphasis on local content, local writers and welcoming feedback. Each newspaper strives to be a citizen of the town we represent and reflect the needs of each individual community.

The Summerville Journal Scene is published once a week and has roots dating dating back to the 1940. Wednesday's paper goes to 22,800 households in Dorchester County, both on the ground and by mailed subscription. While the ground delivery is free, mail subscriptions are available for $32 per year ($30 for Seniors, $38 out of county, $50 out of state). To subscribe please call 843-873-9424 or visit our Subscription Services page

The Gazette is freely distributed every Thursday to more than 11,000 locations around the Cities of Goose Creek and Hanahan.

The Berkeley Independent also serves Berkeley County, primarily the county seat of Moncks Corner and the surrounding communities. It is available by subscription each Wednesday for $25 per year in county ($22 for Senior). For more information call 843-873-9424.

 

Staff Biographies

Roberts, Brandon

Editor of Summerville Journal Scene, Berkeley Independent and The Gazette - broberts@journalscene.com

Brandon Roberts is an award-winning journalist with an extensive newspaper career as a reporter, editor and publisher.

Born and raised in a small coal-mining town in Eastern Kentucky, he was most recently a strategic communications project manager for a large engineering and architectural firm in Lexington, Kentucky, and spent time as a multimedia journalist with Spectrum News 1 KY. Before that, he worked as the publisher and editor of the Mitchell News-Journal in Spruce Pine, North Carolina, business editor and columnist at the Herald-Dispatch in Huntington, West Virginia, digital and special sections editor at the Ironton (Ohio) Tribune, editor of the Georgetown (Ky.) News-Graphic and managing editor of the Highland County Press in Hillsboro, Ohio.

In the midst of that, from 2009-13, he served as director of public relations for the Pike County Kentucky Government, where he gained television experience as a host/interviewer for PIKE-TV, the county’s government access channel. In that role, he earned five Kentucky Association of Government Communicators Awards of Merit and became certified FEMA public information officer.

He played football for the legendary coach Philip Haywood at Belfry High School. He then attended Eastern Kentucky University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism and a minor in political science.

A longtime guitar player and collector of sports cards, he also enjoys the beach, kayaking, the Natural Bridge-Red River Gorge areas of Kentucky, the Appalachian Trail, the Blue Ridge Parkway, Chicago and Gatlinburg, Tennessee. He is one of “those” University of Kentucky fans.

He loves music, mainly from the 1990s, particularly the Wu-Tang Clan and Green Day.

Married to Rhonda since 2012, they live with two dogs, Scout, a border collie, and Missy, a brown mutt. He has a stepson, Gabe, who attends Marshall University.

 

Gantt, Rob

Gazette sportswriter/Internet content mgr/Production, rgantt@ourgazette.com

Rob grew up in Aiken County, attending North Augusta High School and USC Aiken, before landing his first job with the Evening Post Publishing Company as a part-time sports writer with the Aiken Standard in 1995. He joined the company full-time in 1998, working in Aiken until moving to the Lowcountry in the summer of 2004 to take a position at the High School Sports Report. He accepted his current position with The Gazette in the summer of 2008 and has been a versatile employee since joining the small, dedicated Gazette staff.

Rob covers local sports for The Gazette and has also worked in production for the publication and its two sister papers, the Berkeley Independent and the Journal Scene. Rob is a past winner of South Carolina Press Association writing, page design and photography awards and continues to serve the company well.

Outside of work, Rob is a computer and TV junkie and spends a great deal of his free time watching movies, sports, TV shows and listening to music. He is the proud father of one son, Chayson, a graduate at Hanahan High School and current employee in the Charleston Southern sports video department. He has three sisters (Michelle, Holli and Lynli) and one brother (Marty), who played professional baseball in the Tampa Bay Rays organization and now helps coach the Double-A Montgomery Biscuits of the Southern League. He is the son of Patricia Bentley and Bobby Gantt.

 

Lee, Roger

Summerville Sports Editor, rlee@journalscene.com

Roger Lee is an aging writer who fears that with middle age on the horizon he may be forced to grow up sometime soon. As a young man he wanted to be a novelist, but discovered that requires more imagination than he is equipped with and turned to journalism.

He was born a Georgia Bulldogs fan, but the lures of a smaller party college and persuasion of some close friends drew him to Georgia Southern for his college experience. He loves the ocean so it was no big surprise his first job out of college was one with a view rather than one related to his major. Working on tour boats in Charleston Harbor was a great experience, but six years of annoying tourists and circling the same waters finally became more than he could bare so he switched fields, though not before totaling one of his employer's boats.

As a general-assignment reporter for a weekly in Vidalia, Ga. he covered many beats, but quickly developed a passion for the sports beat. In fact, he says the onion-crop beat doesn't even hold a candle. To his amazement upon moving to Summerville nearly eight years ago he found writing about local sports and being a sideline shutterbug was even more rewarding in the Lowcountry.

He spends most of his spare time agonizing over the latest shenanigans of his teenage daughter, Allyson, or trying to figure out ways to limit the damage his make-it-up-as-you-go parenting style will inflict. While he loves Allyson more than anything else and is grateful for her, he is absolutely sure she will be the death of him. He also loves all things football, music, superheroes, the USA series Psych (you know that's right) and game shows.