Spring is often thought of as a time of renewal, the first season. I’ve had some firsts over the past week or so.
Starting at home for a change, I can walk to back of the den without having to step over a box, for the first time. It’s a major accomplishment and I’m very proud. I make my way from the door (bottom left), past the computer (you see the chair), to the file cabinet. And there are actually things in the file cabinet now, which helps with boxes in other places. Just 35 days until my parents show up for their visit!
On Thursday, I did my first live tweet event during the Wellmont Health System–Mountain States Health Alliance merger announcement. (Click the picture if you want to read a sample.) It’s a very big deal in Northeast Tennessee and Southwest Virginia, and we broke the story Monday night at 5. Very exciting! Back to the announcement tweets, good thing I can type fast. Was fun, except hard to hear sometimes.
The station even showed our live stream coverage from the Web on their “proof of performance†promotions. (It was the first time I saw that.) The live stream page was even the #1 most popular page on the Web site for a while because of the announcement. (Another first, at least for my eyes.)
For the first time, I put 4 pictures together to make one graphic. Been practicing that sort of stuff lately. These are the folks who will be running the new, merged Wellmont Health System-Mountain States Health Alliance company if/when it happens. Looks good here.
Didn’t look good as the top story in a box that’s shaped this way. Gotta work that out. Sizing is tough when you’re dealing with different shapes.
I did my first story on turkey hunting season. Luckily, it didn’t do as well as I expected on the station’s Facebook page.
April 1st was the first time I was able to give the sales team analytics on the station’s Web site. I did it for the month and the quarter. Also, finalized the look and content of our new mobile news app because our current one will be going away at the end of the month.
Friday was the first time I left work early and the first time I went to a synagogue here. (Hat tip to everyone there who’s reading this: Rhona, Marisol, Marilyn, and apparently plenty of others!) It was for a Passover seder with Garry. Was very nice. Wish there were two. Garry took video, then had to spend way too much time chopping it again and again (I guess like charoset) to email to the station to air at 10 and 11. The file size was way too big. Only 8 seconds could get emailed at once. Unusable for air, even if labeled “amateur video” (except if it was the only video of a huge news event). Maybe recording on the station’s iPhone rather than my own would’ve helped. We ended up with everyone singing Dayenu rather than a few singing the Kiddish and that was a better, livelier choice. It didn’t make TV but it did make the Web site, somehow. Click it to enjoy. (By the way, Garry is now available for bar mitzvahs.)
Saturday marked 21 years since I first started my television news career at WSVN. Thanks again, Callie!
I got my first offer on renting the Miami condo, but they’re going to have to do better. We did lower the price a little. Hopefully that’ll be a last!
Have a good week and keep enjoying that matzah! It’s hard enough to find regular kosher stuff here. Passover is impossible. (By the way, the synagogue people drove down to Atlanta for the food.)
Until next time…
About the author
The journalism “business” has changed — from standards to platforms to layoffs — along with the American public, and I’ve managed to survive somewhat on my own terms.I started in 1994, becoming an award-winning and respected TV newscast producer.
Even better was creatively producing websites and social media, and serving as a station's digital media manager — writing news, creating graphics and getting evidence of growing my audience here in the nation's fourth largest market, Philadelphia.
I also taught first grade for eight years. My principal saw my class website and made me electronic gradebook manager to assist co-workers when we stopped using paper gradebooks.
In 2018, I took courses and earned the Google IT Support Professional Certificate.
In 2019, I was a freelance newspaper reporter, but enjoyed copy editing and reviving the publication’s social media even more.
That got me striking out on my own with a local news website to join the blog I created, designed and write.
Ask me about all the details.
I did drive Uber to make ends meet until I started as a customer service representative at one of the world’s largest web-hosting companies, with more than 8 million customer contracts and hosting more than 12 million domains.
With classroom and newsroom experience, I know how to prioritize, analyze and take the best course of action. Getting results means attention to detail, following through and following up.
