Long-time area newsperson Dan Brannan and content specialist Brittany Kohler have officially joined RiverBender.com and the new EdGlenToday.com.

Before coming to Riverbender, Brannan was executive editor for nearly 17 years of The Telegraph. He left The Telegraph in December 2013 and has spent time grant writing and was a regional sports consultant for Campbell Publications. Brannan also worked around the country at various papers and has 25 years of experience as top editor at daily newspapers. He is also the author of several books.

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EdGlenToday.com is RiverBender’s new affiliate website focused on Edwardsville, Glen Carbon, and surrounding communities. 

John Hentrich, owner of RiverBender.com/EdGlenToday.com, said he was excited to grow the editorial side of the business. Some content additions include expanded regional coverage along with added local human-interest stories and sports coverage.

“This is something RiverBender has been looking forward to for a long time,” he said of the two staff additions and enhanced content. “Our strong point has always been our database work, graphics, and video.  These highly technical skills have helped us to develop classifieds, autos, real estate, business directory, calendar, ecommerce, and custom websites, but now we can offer even more to our customers.  Dan Brannan is so well known and respected in the community. His experience in journalism is going to be a great addition to this company. I am so excited to be able to offer our readers more in-depth stories and editorial content with the addition of Dan and Brittany Kohler.”

Brannan said he is most excited about returning to the River Bend area and working with people and communities throughout the region. He encourages residents to start sending e-mails to his new address, danbrannan@Riverbender.com with any news, human interest or sports suggestions or contributions.

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“John Hentrich and his wife, Dawn, have accomplished a considerable amount with RiverBender.com and the Riverbender.com Community Center and also been such good community citizens,” he said. “I have always admired both John and Dawn." 

Kohler is a 2006 graduate of Alton High School and a graduate of Lewis and Clark Community College. She was in the Marine Corps for four years and worked in public relations and as a combat correspondent in the Marines, primarily at Marine Corps Air Station New River Base in Jacksonville, N.C. She is pursuing her bachelor’s degree online and believes this is the perfect place for her next career step.

“One of the things I enjoy most is being directly involved in the community and with Alton being my hometown on top of it all, it is just perfect,” she said.

Over the past year, Hentrich said there have been significant additions to RiverBender.com from the Associated Press content to a new mobile website, a ROKU channel, and now the new expanded reach into Edwardsville Glen Carbon with EdGlenToday.com.  

“With these additions, I can’t think of anything else we could possibly pack into Riverbender.com” he said. “We get quite a bit of content from the community now, and we always encourage more contributors, but now with Brittany and Dan we will really be able to organize and manage that information better.”

Monday, it was also announced that Edwardsville Community School District 7 has partnered with Riverbender on the new website www.edglentoday.com.  The site is targeted to Edwardsville and Glen Carbon, as well as the communities within District 7 boundaries.  The school district and Hentrich both encourage people to sign up for the new mailing list. The address to subscribe is www.edglentoday.com/subscribe 

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