AllOtsego Hires New Staff Writer, Adding To Original Reporting

COOPERSTOWN—Eric Santomauro-Stenzel, 24, of Long Island joined AllOtsego’s team on Monday, September 15. Raised in Suffolk County, New York, Santomauro-Stenzel earned his undergraduate degree at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York in May 2024. He immediately followed up with a master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in New York City in May 2025.

“From the shores of Fire Island, to bustling Brooklyn, to the hills of Oneonta and beyond, I am a New York State patriot,” Santomauro-Stenzel said. “Some of the people I’ve spoken to both here and back home seem surprised, particularly as a young person, that I want to live in rural upstate New York. To that I say: take a look at Otsego Lake at about 7 o’clock, a.m. or p.m.”

Darla M. Youngs, general manager and senior editor of “The Freeman’s Journal” and “Hometown Oneonta” locally-owned newspapers and the companion AllOtsego.com website, is excited to have Santomauro-Stenzel on board.

“Since joining the staff here three years ago, I have been incredibly blessed with a number of excellent writers who have helped share the work load and kept us moving and growing at a time when small, rural newsrooms are really struggling,” Youngs said. “Eric comes to us fresh out of Columbia with a strong portfolio and real reporting chops. Our readers are going to see a big difference in the weeks and months to come.”

“We have a wonderful stable of freelance contributors and columnists. Eric is the piece of the puzzle that has been missing. I can’t wait to see where this team goes from here,” Youngs added.

Santomauro-Stenzel evolved from an interest in politics, law, and community organizing into journalism over his time at Hamilton College. As editor-in-chief of an alternative paper there, “The Monitor,” he pursued breaking news, features, investigations, and multimedia reporting. He has also written freelance stories for papers across New York State, most locally for the Utica-Rome “Daily Sentinel.” At Columbia, he learned about all kinds of reporting from video to investigations—with ample practice covering the global news events happening right outside the classroom, as students protested for Palestine, and the federal government pressured the university.

“I chose this field because I felt it was where I could make the most positive difference,” Santomauro-Stenzel shared. “When we don’t have the facts—not just the who, what, when, where, but the critical ‘why’—we can’t make decisions that serve the public interest, whether it’s what food is safe to eat or how to use our sacred right to vote.

“The act of reporting has made me realize, even more than my high-school debate career, where I had to win both sides, that every story has many perspectives, often conflicting, often insulated in a bubble, often coming from places equally legitimate,” Santomauro-Stenzel said. “My job is to bridge the gap, and get as close to capital-T ‘truth’ as possible, questioning readers’ and my own assumptions along the way.”

Santomauro-Stenzel will be covering all things Otsego County, and sometimes nearby or at the state level, ranging from human interest stories like this week’s article on a new “Men’s Shed” group to local government stories like last week’s article on the retirement of the Cooperstown police chief. He will also be contributing photos and growing the online presence of AllOtsego. Santomauro-Stenzel welcomes news tips for potential investigative stories that uncover harm at erics@allotsego.com.

“I’m excited to add some more first rough drafts of history to such a historic region, for such a historic paper,” Santomauro-Stenzel said.