Past The 'Keeper

Jon DeNunzio began writing sports at the University of Virginia writing women’s soccer and fell in love with it all.

He covered high school sports, some college games, and began editing sports articles and eventuall got a full-time gig at the Prince William Express.

It’s imporant to pay attention to the “landscape” and must know what’s going on with everything around you. When George Solomon hired him as a full-timer at the Post, Solomon asked DeNunzio what he was reading outside of sports and journalism (hmm. Sounds like something our class heard on Tuesday). You gotta be well-rounded. Plain and simple.

As the User Activity Editor at the Post now, his job is to focus on user interactions on the editorial side of things. These include live chats, polls, crowdsourcing, comments. Basically he finds out what people and followers want to know to get stories on those things instead of only what is on the editor’s agenda.

Real reporters go into the heart of the story. At the 1996 Olympics, there was a bomb and a reporter he knew went straight toward the bomb.

That’s a real reporter.

What has not changed in journalism since he began:

• Ask the hard questions
• Find a job that pays well and secure your spot in the journalism business
• You are competing for jobs
• You must want to be a journalist and love it
• Must work hard and work long hours and must enjoy it — if you are busy, it is because people are interested and want to read your stories
• Must pay attention to details because it can get confusing (McLean School in Potomac, MD and a Potomac School in McLean, VA)

Without credibility as a writer, you have nothing!

• Keep it simple. The reporting and the facts is the most important — not the adjectives.

Twitter can help with keeping your writing simple. You can’t make things “flowery” with just 140 characters.

What has changed in journalism:

• Information is much more at your fingertips now than ever before
• The audience is more empowered now
• Readers don’t trust journalists the way they used to.
• Everything you say is evaluated — embraced or ignored
• The pace of the news
• Conversation is in real time
• Big-time personalities aren’t as influential as they used to be

As a final reminder and thought as DeNunzio leaves, make sure to listen to your audience.

They are who you are writing for.