Breaking news portfolio
Fire and EMS technicians gather around the scene where an 84-year-old woman was found dead June 7, in a creek near her home. I called in the story for the web and wrote another version for the next day’s paper. Photo by Marshall Gorby, displayed courtesy of the Springfield News-Sun.
First I’ll link to the story that corresponds with the photo, one of my first assignments at the News-Sun this summer. I knocked on doors around the home to get the best information about the diseased woman I could. The publisher and others praised my storytelling efforts on deadline. The piece ran as the local centerpiece.
To be frank, I haven’t done much automobile-fire-mayhem reporting at the News-Sun. I’d say one run every two to three weeks during my tenure here. But I did plenty of it at smaller papers in previous jobs. Here’s a clip from the Wilmington News Journal. I told a good story in the midst of a seemingly routine drug bust.
However, I’ve reported lots of news this summer on a 6 p.m. deadline after getting the assignment at 3:30 or 4 p.m. For instance, this piece that described how many local seniors were already looking for work when their retirement portfolios were hit with huge ups and downs. (Seen as a companion to the A1 lede)
Last but not least, I followed a story through several updates and one could be classified as breaking news. I reported that thieves looted a north side home that was contaminated with mercury weeks before. It ran as the local front lede.
