The best advice I've been given......wasn't actually meant for me. It was part of a story told over my second mug of a Bell's Two Hearted beer at Roscoe's Pioneer Bar, a baseball's throw away from the newsroom's front doors. Sitting across from me, also on his second Two Hearted was Brooks Johnson, an investigative reporter for the Duluth News Tribune. He was regaling for me tales of his younger years as a reporter, bathing in the nostalgia that comes with reminiscing about the days when a journalist develops, evolves and discovers the kind of writer he wants to be. He was describing what his editor said to him after he had just finished painting a draft of his in red ink (or were they Microsoft Word strike-throughs?).
"Tell me what you want to tell me." No shit, right? But if you're like Brooks, you want to guide the reader with a labyrinth of flowery vocabulary, visually-inviting analogies and a lede that graces the reader with a coy introduction into a story that will change their world forever. But this isn't a 10th grade English class novel. This is the news. And most people don't read articles for the words chosen to convey the story (Go to CJR if you want that). They just want to know what is happening. So when I think of the job of a reporter, it's to explain to readers the news and why it matters to them; to report. I have visions of writing for the Atlantic or the New Yorker, which invites writers to use those long anecdotal ledes that some people enjoy reading. But before I can master that brand of journalism, I have to get better at the basics. I hope as you explore my website, the evolution of that goal becomes clear. Who knows? Maybe I'll even get hired. |
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Hello and welcome to my digital home!
What started out as the pet project of a journalism class during my undergraduate years has morphed into a virtual front where I can showoff my experience and refer back to my favorite work. And it only cost a biannual rate of $216! While I find myself in job-profession limbo, caught in the purgatory of a post-graduate-current-internship-pre-job world, it's hardly the only thing I spend my time thinking about. I'm slowly dipping more toes into the world of photography. I'm in the throes of producing my own podcast. I even like to ponder if its worth spending this much money on a public storage space of "Jack's Greatest Hits." |
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I took a fifth year in college to complete my masters, receiving a second degree in environmental journalism. Pursing that interest, I followed a reporting internship to Duluth, Minnesota, working as a stringer for the Duluth News Tribune before continuing as their interim night GA reporter. There are few places as perfect as Duluth for the writer looking to blend the politics of mineral rights and water conservation with environmental journalism. Plus, where else would you want to spend a summer along the Great Lakes?
I joke with my work colleagues (I think I can call them that now) that when I'm ready to raise kids, own a home and rationally justify buying $5 coffee, I'll sell my soul to the PR devil. But until I get to that point, I'll take the weird hours, stupid AP style rules and constant claims of liberal bias. My day is far more interesting for it anyways.
I joke with my work colleagues (I think I can call them that now) that when I'm ready to raise kids, own a home and rationally justify buying $5 coffee, I'll sell my soul to the PR devil. But until I get to that point, I'll take the weird hours, stupid AP style rules and constant claims of liberal bias. My day is far more interesting for it anyways.