Meet the Emerald's New Managing Editor: Rosette Royale

by Jas Keimig

Rosette Royale ending up in Seattle was a matter of fate.

While working as a magazine editor in Provincetown, Massachusetts, a psychic who wrote the magazine's horoscope told Royale — a Gemini and Silver Spring, Maryland, native — that they should move to a town ruled by Scorpio. "Right now, you're in a town ruled by Scorpio," said the psychic. "You know what other place is ruled by Scorpio? Seattle!" At the time, Royale brushed off the comment, but during a cross-country trip in the late '90s, they found themself in the Emerald City, stunned by its natural beauty. So in 2003, the journalist and editor packed up his bags and settled in Seattle for good. It felt like home.

"I love that [Seattle] is a mix of things. We've got mountains. I love the surprise of the mountains — how, some days you can't see them, and then the next day you can," said Royale in a recent phone interview. "I love the queer community that's here. I love how people say hello or goodbye to the bus drivers when they get off the bus. People don't do that on the East Coast!"

Now in her 20th year calling Seattle home, Royale is opening a new chapter and stepping into the role of South Seattle Emerald managing editor after decades of experience in the field. Growing up, Royale always had a knack for storytelling and graduated from Colby College in 1989 with an English and creative writing degree. In the mid-1990s, they wound up in Provincetown writing for the Provincetown Banner, covering everything from municipal government issues to education to theater to HIV/AIDS education. "I did anything and everything," Royale said.

After Royale made the big move to Seattle, he worked at Real Change News in 2004 as a staff writer and eventual editor. During their time at the paper, she covered the city in over 500 weekly papers, coming to intimately learn the rhythms of the city from many different angles. For 11 years, Royale covered a wide variety of stories — the ups and downs of transit, a 15,000-word three-part series diving into the life a young man driven to suicide (which won the Society of Professional Journalists' 2008 Sigma Delta Chi Award for feature writing), a ticket-happy cop targeting Seattle-area pot smokers, the inspiring tale of a septuagenarian weightlifter. Regardless of the topic, what comes through is Royale's genuine curiosity and openness when it comes to telling stories about members of the community. It was something they picked up during their early years in P-town.

"When you write for a small-town paper [like in Provincetown], you can see repercussions immediately, because people will walk right up to you at the grocery store and tell you what they think. So I learned that I had to be responsible for what I wrote," said Royale. "I remembered that at Real Change, because I really loved the vendors. I was always trying to figure out ways to help them and also make sure I represented them fairly, because as the journalist and the writer, I had power in the newspaper that they didn't have. I had to learn how to be mindful of the power of being able to write about someone. When someone shares their life with you, there's such a responsibility about that."

In 2015, Royale stepped down from his position at Real Change to pursue work as a freelancer, digging into the gay history of Pioneer Square with HistoryLink and confronting their fear of camping in a touching personal project. From 2018 to 2021, she worked on the AIDS Memorial Project, recording the stories of dozens of queer people, politicians, and journalists in the region about the impact HIV/AIDS had on their lives, emphasizing the stories of Black and Brown people. "I was trying to find the widest range of people I could to paint this portrait of how HIV/AIDS has changed this area," they said. The throughline through all of their work is one thing: "I love to listen."

That line connects him with his new position as managing editor of the South Seattle Emerald. Royale expressed a deep admiration for the Emerald's mission statement to "amplify the authentic narratives of South Seattle." "I love how unapologetic it is about what it does," she said.

Their move into this position at the Emerald comes at a time of great uncertainty for local journalism. Newsrooms are shrinking, local journalists are experiencing unprecedented levels of burnout after years of the pandemic, and AI is threatening to wipe out what fragile news ecosystems are left. But Royale believes the Emerald's laser focus on underrepresented local communities is its strength.

"What it can provide is an opportunity for community members to find each other," said Royale. "With the Emerald, you can see yourself in some of the stories. It's you, because it's your neighbor or because it's someone who lives down the street or it's the community within which you live. That's not always represented in big newspapers. When you localize your news, it makes it easier for people to connect and to feel represented in the news."

As the road is laid out before him, Royale is most looking forward to working closely with writers to bring forth the incredible and inspiring stories of South Seattle. But when it comes to the specifics, Royale is open to the surprises that come with working in a new position.

"Every time I thought [I knew] what was going to happen when I started a job, that's not all that happens. When I started working for Real Change, I thought I was going to be writing stories, but what I realized is that I got to learn about the city and how a major metropolitan city works," she reflected. "So I imagine with the South Seattle Emerald, I'll be able to help think about how this region of this city, this part of this world, is portrayed and received and understood. But I have no idea what gifts it will give me. That's the unknown — and I love the unknown."

📸 Featured Image: Rosette Royale, the South Seattle Emerald's new managing editor, addresses the gathered party-goers from Rainier Arts Center's porch at the Emerald's 9th Birthday Party on Aug. 12, 2023. (Photo: Grant Wu)