Covering court

Friday I had an opportunity that I never anticipated would come my way as an intern with the Tribune: I was allowed to cover a court proceeding.

Now for some of my fellow budding journalists the idea of covering court is enough to make them nauseated. But I was giddy with excitement. Maybe it’s the fact that both my parents were at one time practicing law, but I’ve always enjoyed learning about the justice system and observing in courtrooms.

So Friday morning I hauled it up to Greeley nice and early for the sentencing hearing of an inmate the Weld County Jail. I was lucky enough to be with the Tribune’s seasoned courts reporter who was beyond helpful. She’s really allowed me the chance to ask questions and learn all about covering courts — something I hope to do at some point in my career.

The case was a sad one, and both the defense and prosecuting attorney’s stood and spoke on behalf of the inmate, who was ultimately sentenced to serve 14 years in prison. I can’t imagine hearing some of the terrible things that happen in society each day, like the courts reporter does, but the experience was cool and I hope to continue to cover court in the future!

NY Times’ editorial cartoon contest

Photo: AP

The NY Times’ Sunday Review is gearing up for contest that calls for editorial cartoon submissions. The catch is that they will offer $250 to only the winning cartoon for a single-panel cartoon on page 2. Some editorial cartoonists are vocalizing their anger about the contest.

Jim Romenesko, a media blogger, shares the Sunday Review notice and a response from one St. Louis Post-Dispatch cartoonist.

Financial constraints seem to extend to practically every section of the journalism world.

Update: Interning at the Greeley Tribune

With fall semester finals, studying for the GRE and taking some time to relax over break, I’ve been a little remiss about updating!

But spring semester is in full swing and with that comes my new internship at the Greeley Tribune. I have the pleasure of working with Larry Ryckman, Nate Miller and Randy Bangert, along with the rest of the wonderful staff.

What’s been the most rewarding aspect of the internship so far is the mentoring I’ve been getting. Larry and Nate are wonderful about going through my work, line-by-line, even if it’s a brief. It’s been great to hear their thoughts on how I can improve and I know that this experience is setting me up to be a stronger writer after graduation.

I’ll be sure to post my favorite articles and other updates as the semester progresses!

Quirky article for journalism nerds

Check out this article from Vanity Fair about their predictions for the ways the media might cover the recent event in Ohio where the owner of an animal reserve freed his animal before committing suicide.

Just some funny commentary on different organizations!

Boulder Weekly highlights

As we roll into fall, I wanted to take a look back and talk about some of my favorite stories from my summer internship with the Boulder Weekly. My overall experience was wonderful and the entire staff was nothing but supportive and willing to work with me throughout the entire process of a story pitch to print. Here are my top three favorite clips and why:

3. A date with the Dessert Diva

I usually hate profiles. It’s impossible for a journalist, on deadline, to sit down with someone and learn everything that has made them who they are in two hours. But what I’ve learned from focusing on one of the Boulder Weekly’s quirky contributing writers is that you can really focus in on one aspect of someone’s life and take the approach of how that one role has shaped who they are now. This profile ended up allowing me to learn how to work smart on deadline while writing a profile and be clear and concise while trying to describe how a person has become who they are. Plus the free waffles weren’t bad either!

2. Summer of our discontent

This story taught me a huge lesson about real-world newsrooms: Take your own initiative. It’s hard when you’re an intern and it can seem like you are often waiting for stories to be passed along to you, but it’s important to be searching around town and through press releases for your own story ideas. This story idea came from a general press release about unemployment rates and I followed it up with some research. I pitched the story idea on my off week to my editor for the website and he passed it up the totem poll. The EIC liked it so much that she made it the cover story, and all because I took it upon myself to write something small for the website. Best lesson I’ve learned.

1. Pick Your Team

This story, which ran in the print back-to-school edition, was a lot of fun for me to write, particularly because I’ve always had a curiosity about the club sports world on campus and I found it to be one of the most informative stories I’d write all summer. The truth is, these 1,400 athletes are often overlooked and they have achieved some great things. The coaches and athletes I spoke with were beyond helpful when supplying me with information and it was nice to know that they felt the love about being featured. This was by far the story that felt the most personable for me.

Check out all my clips from the Boulder Weekly here.

Boulder Weekly update

With class, my internship and work, I’ve been a little behind the ball with updating my site with regards to my happenings at the Boulder Weekly. So here’s a quick run down:

I began as an editorial intern at the Weekly at the beginning of June and after a bit of a slow start, I hit the ground running. As an editorial intern, I get to work most with cuisine features and news briefs. The internship has been a great opportunity for me to grow as a writer and focus on writing longer, feature pieces — something that has always been a challenge for me.

I have listed some of my clips from the Boulder Weekly on my Writing Samples page, but a complete list of my work at the publication can be found by searching “Sarah Simmons” in the search bar of the Boulder Weekly page.

I’ll be sure to add more of my stories on a regular basis!

Allegations of homophobic comments made at close of CUSG elections

The polls for the University of Colorado Student Government spring elections may be closed, but the buzz surrounding the winning ticket, INVEST, hasn’t stopped. One candidate who ran on the PROPEL ticket, a member of the GLBT community, has made allegations that a member of the INVEST ticket yelled homophobic comments at him on the Hill. Many are asking that he be removed from his newly elected office, others say the incident didn’t even occur.

I tag-teamed the coverage of this alleged incident with another news editor since the topics were both politically charged and sensitive toward members of the GLBT community. You can read the story here.

Frozen Yogurt Wars

I’ve always had a insatiable sweet tooth. My biggest crutch? Frozen yogurt. Lately I’ve noticed that the fro yo environment has been evolving: existing companies were adopting new business practices, while numerous new shops were prepping to open around the Boulder area. I wanted to know more.

Before spring break, I had the opportunity to interview the owners of Boulder’s Smooch, Ripple and Maiberry. Smooch had just broken away from a franchise model, Ripple was brand new to the scene and absolutely booming, and Maiberry was staying steadfast in its old model.

Read up about how these companies are changing their customer-service philosophies in my first business story.

CUSG Diversity Director Resigns

The University of Colorado Student Government (CUSG) controls around $35 million dollars in student fees every fiscal year that they allocate to different student organizations and call centers around the CU-Boulder campus. I received a news tip that the diversity director, a legislative council member, had quietly resigned after another member found a racist website he had written. I quickly contacted the student who had given me the tip and the student who had resigned. Surprisingly, he was thrilled that I had reached out to him so he could, in his words, set the record straight.

The story ran in the CU Independent before quickly being picked up by the Daily Camera and the Huffington Post.

This piece is one I’m really proud of. Read it here.