CNA starts new reporter

There is a new byline for the Creston News Advertiser this week. She’s seen her name in print before.

Cheyenne Roche started Monday as the senior reporter for the newsroom.

“I saw it,” she said about the Creston News Advertiser’s help wanted ad for a reporter in early April.

That glance influenced her to look back at her past.

“I then looked at the things I had written. I was surprised what I wrote and said, ‘this is good.’”

Six years ago, Roche, 27, was chief copy editor for Inside Eau Clarie in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Before that, she was a reporter for the Chippewa Herald also in Wisconsin. Her work in Chippewa included working on the Sunday edition and was involved in social and community event coverage.

“That was great to see,” said Creston Managing Editor John Van Nostrand about Roche’s background and experience. “When we received her resume I didn’t waste any time calling her and she lived in Creston.” Roche has a degree in communications and journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.

She has lived in Creston since 2019. Her prior employment was Starbucks in Hy-Vee. Before that, she was at U.S. Cellular.

“I wanted another opportunity to write,” she said, as there was not a writing job for her she could find or felt right about after she left Eau Claire.

When not covering stories for the Creston News Advertiser, Roche reads other people’s works.

“I read a lot,” she said. “And a little bit of everything fiction.” She said her goal is to have a book finished in a week.

Her husband is Patrick, a Creston Police officer.