Almost interviewing Gloria Borger & in a little slump

Wow, it is already week two! I had a lot of things this week, so let's get right into it.

Monday was my second day of remote work, which is included a lot of preparing for the rest of the week. I talked with the executive director of the Jewish Women's Foundation to learn more about the group and set up plans for covering their 20th year of grantmaking event the next day. Their keynote speaker was supposed to be CNN's Gloria Borger, but as a political analyst and with the current indictment of former president Donald Trump, she had to cancel. I prepared questions for an interview with their new speaker Sarah Hurwitz, former speechwriter for Michelle Obama; I then interviewed her later in the evening, which was interesting because I technically did my eight hours for the day already, but when you get a call, you have to take it in this industry. Outside of this story, I continued trying to set up pictures for the Whitehall street sign auction story. Something I have learned already is that some people are not great at answering their phone, making it hard to complete my stories

Tuesday was easily my busiest day of the week. I went to Greensburg and wrote a feature article based off my interview with Sarah Hurwitz from the day before, then contacted the Pittsburgh Regional Transit about additional information on one of my Taylor Swift stories from last week and also wrote up things from my interview with the Jewish Women's Foundation's executive director. I then went back Downtown to cover the event, which was interesting because I was told it was from 4-9, but the heart of the event with the speakers was from 7:30-8. It was kind of weird trying to interview JWF members and donors as they mingled with other guests, and a lot of donors did not want to talk to me. I think overall it was a good experience because you never really know what an event is going to be like, and it gave me a chance to get more comfortable with approaching people and handling rejection.

On Wednesday, I worked on a conglomerate of things. I had a quick meeting with one of the managing editors, who is also one of my supervisors. We talked about how my one Taylor Swift story about Pittsburgh's favorite Swift songs. It was heavily cut down to just the interview with the concert promoter, which I understood because he is pretty Pittsburgh famous, but I was sad that the interview with the newsletter director at City Cast Pittsburgh got cut. I think she has a very moving message and was relatable to a lot of Swifties. I think I am going to make a separate story out of her interview and either publish it on my website or Point Park's News Service website. I also got offered by the university to write a piece on Point Park alumni working for national television stations. I think this might be a cool opportunity to work it in with either The Globe or the News Service and maybe even something for The Trib. Another part of this internship that I am learning is that an interview might not always lead to a story or The Trib might not be the right place for a certain story. It has also been difficult to not take stories as we get them. Like today, we were sent a press release about Pittsburgh International Airport finding two guns in TSA in four days, but because it is in Pittsburgh and I am in Greensburg, my supervisor did not let me take the story. At least I am showing interest, I guess? I think what I want to get most out of this internship is to show my drive, dedication and potential. Also, another interesting thing to observe is communication between reporters in the newsroom. Obviously, people are coming and going and have known each other for a long time. My desk is also kind of in the back corner, so it has been hard to establish relationships with the staff, but it is only my second week, so I have hope.

Our weekly intern meeting was great as we had speakers from both the Pittsburgh City Paper and the Pittsburgh Institute for Nonprofit Journalism. It was great to roleplay "disaster" situations in the journalism industry and learn more about free public records resources. It was also nice to talk with other interns about what they have been working on. Three of the other interns have been able to sit in on the Pittsburgh Synagogue trial and help their outlets with updates, which I have to admit made me jealous. While their are no words for how awful the circumstances of the trial are, it would be a very valuable experience to help cover. I have mentioned my interest to my supervisors multiple times, and they said they will see what they can do. The trial is wrapping up and heading to sentencing, so there is not much time left. I feel like I have not been able to cover things of value or things I am really interested in and am just at a stand still, forcing myself to "trust the process." I am trying to be grateful for what I have done so far. All I can really do is keep showing my interest for hard news and hope that as time goes on during my internship, my supervisors will trust me with heavier content. I think I might also try digging into some local public records, as suggested from this week's intern meeting, to see if I can find a big story to work on.

Thursday was a fairly boring day, but it was nice to go in a little later, as I had a local knitting club event to cover in the evening. I mainly just waited around all day for a press release to come in that one of my supervisors wants me to turn into a quick story for tomorrow, but it never came in, so I had to write it the next day. I also worked on a few stories for school since I had the downtime. We also had a staff meeting, my first since my time here. It was cool to hear more about the ins and outs of what it takes to fill the daily newspaper, since what I have been working on has mainly been online. I think I am going to try to show interest in page layout to my supervisors as well because I am genuinely interested in it, to grow page layout skills and ideas for The Globe and maybe to impress my supervisors to gain their trust.

Here are my published stories so far!

https://triblive.com/local/westmoreland/westmoreland-court-administrator-leads-state-association/

https://triblive.com/aande/music/taylor-swift-concert-what-to-know-before-you-go/

https://triblive.com/aande/music/how-rare-are-taylor-swifts-2-sellouts-promoter-rich-engler-has-never-seen-it-before/

Friday was a quick remote day of work, tying up any loose ends from the week. I am ready for week 3!