Jim Almy became editor and publisher of The Anvil's Ring in January 2012.

The college newspaper which Jim edited for two years in the mid sixties was typeset on a linotype machine. Big enough to fill most living rooms, part of its process included casting hot lead into letters. Twenty years later when he and his wife bought a rural weekly newspaper in a small town south of Tacoma, he also bought a little box from Apple with an eight inch screen that did everything the linotype did without melting any metal. In between Jim spent time as a reporter for the Booth chain of midwest newspapers, which included dailies in Detroit, Fllint and Grand Rapids, Michigan, and, later, as general manager of a group of weekly newspapers published on the eastside of Seattle in Redmond, Kirkland and Bellevue, Washington.
There's a story about how one gets from the plains of the upper midwest to the mountainous Pacific Northwest with Boston in between, but he says that'll cost you a beer.
Shortly after settling into the role of crotchety but diplomatic small town editor Jim says he met some of the most interesting people he'd ever run across, blacksmiths. Creative, determined to keep an ancient art form alive and growing, hard working, friendly and open with just enough reserve that you knew their final judgement on you would take a while, these were people he wanted to befriend. And did.
The Eatonville Dispatch, the newspaper Jim and Jamie owned and published for ten years, won numerous awards during those years for being the best newspaper in its circulation class in the state. Over that time technology changed rapidly, continuing education was an everyday process and the little box from Apple was still little, but much more talented. Also over that time Jim figured that, between the courses and years of hands-on experience, he, like many of us, had earned another degree in graphic design and computer engineering.
About seven years ago Jim was invited to publish the Hot Iron News, the quarterly magazine of the Northwest Blacksmith Association (NWBA). He met more blacksmiths from all over Washington, surrounding states and Canada. They were and are great people, he says, though some take a little longer to warm up to than others. He adds that it was, and is, greatly satisfying to be doing a job you love with people you respect and enjoy being around. Moving to the Anvil's Ring he's sure will magnify that feeling.
Jim says he has pounded hot iron over the decades of hanging out at forges, taking pictures and recording stories. Though becoming familiar with the terminology and process, he's clear that he'll never be an iron artist like the ones he reports on.
Jim's publishing company, Almy Publishing, is set up to support non-profit organizations and associations.

You can contact Jim via email at: areditor@abana.org