National Newspaper Week: Aiken Standard's Diane Daniell guides paper's advertising, strategic efforts

Oct. 5—Editor's note: To celebrate National Newspaper Week, the Aiken Standard is spotlighting employees with 25 or more years of service.

Diane Daniell, as a full-time employee of the Aiken Standard, is second only to DiAnn Bell in terms of tenure at the newspaper.

Daniell, the advertising sales manager, has been on board with the newspaper since January 1989. She wrote that her "primary responsibility at the newspaper is to increase management's effectiveness by training, coaching and counseling advertising sales staff; communicating values, strategies, and objectives; assigning accountabilities; planning, monitoring, and appraising job results; developing incentives; (and) developing a climate for offering information and opinions."

Her focus, she added, is also on the drive to "develop and sell new digital and print products, including special sections and magazines."

Daniell, whose husband is Walter Daniell, is a St. John's United Methodist Church member and has a family tree that includes two children: Matthew Sturkie (Leslie) and Emily Murphy (Drew). Also on the branches are grandkids Chase, Bailey and Bella Sturkie and Lance, Wyatt and Reagan Murphy.

"I love coming to work every day and know we have published a new product every day," she wrote, acknowledging that she and her co-workers sometimes joke about the newspaper being a miracle on a daily basis, "and some days it's just that."

Among Daniell's roles over the years has been that of board member at the Child Advocacy Center of Aiken County.

"She has provided us with such wonderful support and passion for our center," in the words of Maryann Burgess, the facility's executive director. "She is hard-working, and makes things happen! We are so thankful for her as she still looks out for us and believes in our mission."

Daniell, describing herself, noted that she loves "getting out in the community and getting to meet new people and help businesses grow by offering marketing solutions by advertising in the Aiken Standard."

She also offered some thoughts on the past few decades. She wrote, "The paper has mostly changed by how people receive their news — you now can have a print, digital or both subscriptions. We only printed six days a week, now we print seven. I started out as a receptionist, which lasted only three months — I had too much energy to be in one spot for eight hours. I moved over to advertising in 1989 and have been there the whole time from office manager, national ad coordinator, sales and sales manager. I always tell new hires; we publish a new product every day. No day is ever the same. I love this paper, and what it stands for in Aiken County."