On this episode, Mark Simon is joined by Richard Ruelas. Richard has been a reporter and metro columnist at the Arizona Republic for 30 years. He has moderated debates, written a book, and also reported and anchored a podcast series about a murdered Arizona journalist, Don Bolles. And he’s an adjunct professor at Arizona State.

Richard talked about all aspects of his career, including his reporting on Turning Point USA, his moderating a contentious debate for Arizona Secretary of State, his podcast work and the time he had a gun pointed at him by an Arizona politician. Throughout, he provided advice to future journalists, most notably, decide early if this is the career for you.

Richard’s salute: Tony Ortega, The Underground Bunker (scientology reporting)

Thank you as always for listening. Please send us feedback at journalismsalute@gmail.com, visit our website at thejournalismsalute.org and Mark's website (MarkSimonmedia.com) or tweet us at @journalismpod.

On this episode, we’re joined by Peter Rice. Peter is the editor of Downtown Albuquerque News in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He’s been a reporter for both print outlets and local NPR stations and has written multiple books. Downtown Albuquerque News is what it says it is – a digital news outlet serving downtown Albuquerque and surrounding neighborhoods. Hyperlocal news.

Peter talked about his and the newsletter’s origin story, gave a couple of examples of the type of coverage his news outlet does, and offered advice throughout to those interested in doing something similar in their community.

DAN Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/downtownalbuquerquenews/

Peter’s Salute: New Mexico Foundation for Open Government

Thank you as always for listening. Please send us feedback at journalismsalute@gmail.com, visit our website at thejournalismsalute.org and Mark's website (MarkSimonmedia.com) or tweet us at @journalismpod.

On this episode, we’re joined by Rebecca Johnson. Rebecca is a graduating senior from the University of Pittsburgh who plans a career in journalism. She’s just finishing her tenure as editor in chief of The Pitt News, overseeing a staff of 18 editors and 150 contributors. She’s also done multiple internships, including one covering education for the Austin American-Statesman.

Rebecca talked about her journalism origin story (she just wrote about it too), discussed what went into daily coverage and the challenging stories that the newspaper has covered this year.

She also talked about the work she did covering education in Texas in the wake of the Uvalde massacre. Rebecca is headed to the Chicago Tribune on a reporting internship after graduating.

Rebecca’s salute: The State News, Michigan State’s school newspaper.

Thanks to Pitt professor Harry Kloman for the interview recommendation.

Thank you as always for listening. Please send us feedback at journalismsalute@gmail.com, visit our website at thejournalismsalute.org and Mark's website (MarkSimonmedia.com) or tweet us at @journalismpod.

On this episode we’re joined by Sydney Ross. Sydney is a graduating student at North Carolina A&T majoring in multimedia journalism. She’s the managing editor of The A&T Register, the school’s newspaper and the founder of the non-profit, Change the Type.

Sydney is headed to North Carolina’s journalism school graduate program but took time to reminisce about her journalism origin story and her time at the Register. She talked about the challenges of being a managing editor, getting the opportunity to cover a Joe Biden speech on campus, and why doing alumni interviews was important to her.

She also explained what her non-profit does, sharing stories to change stereotypes seen in the media about Black people.

Sydney’s salutes: A&T Register editor-in-chief Melvin Harris and local TV journalist and NABJ vice-president Ken Lemon (a former guest on this podcast)

Thank you as always for listening. Please send us feedback at journalismsalute@gmail.com, visit our website at thejournalismsalute.org and Mark's website (MarkSimonmedia.com) or tweet us at @journalismpod.

With some of our student listeners looking for work, I thought this would be a good episode to provide guidance should any of them wish to do freelance work.

Pete talked about his freelancing career and provided instructive examples from work he’s done, including a recent Q&A with former Super Bowl-winning coach Tom Coughlin, as well as feature profiles, movie reviews, oral histories, and his book on the growth of the NBA, From Hang Time To Prime Time.

 Pete provided examples on how to handle idea generation, pitching, question writing, and organization, as well as overarching advice for aspiring freelancers.

Pete’s salute: Parker Molloy

Thank you as always for listening. Please send us feedback at journalismsalute@gmail.com, visit our website at thejournalismsalute.org and Mark's website (MarkSimonmedia.com) or tweet us at @journalismpod.

On this episode we’re joined by Monica Samayoa. Monica is a climate reporter for Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) and is co-chair of the steering committee for The Uproot Project, a network of environmental journalists of color.

Monica did not expect to become a climate reporter and filled us in on the path that took her to this job. She walked us through the different kinds of stories she covered, with examples. She included tips for aspiring radio reporters as well (“record at all times!”).

She also explained the purpose of The Uproot Project and why its existence is so important.

Monica’s salute: Meerah Powell, higher education reporter at OPB

Thank you as always for listening. Please send us feedback at journalismsalute@gmail.com, visit our website at thejournalismsalute.org and Mark's website (MarkSimonmedia.com) or tweet us at @journalismpod.

On this episode, we’re joined by Idaho Capital Sun reporter Mia Maldonado.

Mia never took a journalism class in college but was able to start her career as part of the Voces Internship of Idaho program, which coordinates internships for aspiring Latino/Latina journalists with local newsrooms.

Mia talked about her time as an intern at the Capital Sun and as a breaking news reporter at the Idaho Statesman. She recounted some of the prominent stories she’s covered and talked about how being a journalist has influenced her worldview (and led to her getting a dog). She also explained the importance of the Voces program to her career.

We were also joined by Ximena Bustillo, a reporter for NPR and co-founder of the Voces Internship program along with journalist Nicole Foy. Ximena explained the origin story of the program, why this program was needed, and what the program’s goals are moving forward

Voces on Twitter: http://twitter.com/vocesinternship

Mia’s Salute: Investigative Reporters & Editors

Thank you as always for listening. Please send us feedback at journalismsalute@gmail.com, visit our website at thejournalismsalute.org and Mark's website (MarkSimonmedia.com) or tweet us at @journalismpod.

On this episode we’re joined by Tim Whitaker. Tim has been a teacher and a journalist and is the executive director of Mighty Writers.

Mighty Writers is a Philadelphia-based non-profit that teaches 3,500 kids per year to think clearly and write with clarity. It works out of Pennsylvania, New York, and New Jersey.

Tim talked about the highlights from his lengthy career as a journalist in Philadelphia, most notably as editor of Philadelphia Weekly Magazine. He explained the transition to running a non-profit and shared the work that Mighty Writers does in helping kids.

Tim’s Salutes: The Philadelphia Citzen, The Philadelphia Inquirer, WHYY Radio

Thank you as always for listening. Please send us feedback at journalismsalute@gmail.com, visit our website at thejournalismsalute.org and Mark's website (MarkSimonmedia.com) or tweet us at @journalismpod.

On this episode, we’re joined by Laurie Ezzell Brown. She was the publisher and editor of The Canadian Record, a community weekly covering Hemphill County in the northeastern Texas Panhandle from 1893 to 2023, and a legacy business owned and published by the Ezzell family since the late 1940s.

Laurie spoke about being born into her journalism origin story and provided an oral history of the Ezzell family and how the small, rural newspaper lasted so long before publication was just suspended (however it lives on, for now, on Facebook.

She explained the relationship between her newspaper and how the residents of a town that voted nearly 90% for Donald Trump in both elections were upset at her decision to suspend publication. And she shared how a newspaper can make a community matter to itself.

Laurie’s salutes: The Daily Yonder, The Rural Blog

Thank you as always for listening. Please send us feedback at journalismsalute@gmail.com, visit our website at thejournalismsalute.org and Mark's website (MarkSimonmedia.com) or tweet us at @journalismpod.

On this episode, we’re joined by Sarah Spicer. Sarah is a news editor for the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). She was just named to Editor & Publisher’s “25 Under 35.” Sarah is a graduate of Emporia State University in Kansas, where she was editor-in-chief of her school paper, as well as Columbia School of Journalism.

Sarah talked about her current role and the work that CPJ does to fight for reporter’s rights and safety worldwide (the organization helped free 130 journalists in 2022). She also shared her journalism origin story and walked us through the award-winning team coverage she was a part of at Emporia State exposing a Title IX sexual assault cover-up involving a tenured professor and a student. She spoke about her time in the Report for America program covering climate change and what a polarizing topic that was in Kansas.

Sarah also discussed the dangers of being a journalist in 2023, gave advice for aspiring journalists specific to finding a niche, and told us about some of her other projects, including a memoir about her life and the navigation of Kansas’ foster care system.

Sarah’s salutes: Nellie Bly, Dorothy Thompson, Emily Atkin, Zoya Teirstein.

Thank you as always for listening. Please send us feedback at journalismsalute@gmail.com, visit our website at thejournalismsalute.org and Mark's website (MarkSimonmedia.com) or tweet us at @journalismpod.

On this episode, we’re joined by Tiffany Tan, a reporter for the non-profit VTDigger who covers southwest Vermont. Tiffany’s career has taken her around the globe, in the Philippines as a TV producer, in Singapore and China as a writer and editor. She’s worked in the United States in both South Dakota and Vermont.

Tiffany talked about her reporting experiences both abroad and in the United States. She explained the mission of VTDigger and why doing this kind of work was important to her. She also walked us through the process of covering stories, including a local sheriff who moved to Tennessee(!) and a criminal case that lasted more than 30 years.

Tiffany’s salutes: Katharine Graham and Maria Ressa.

Thank you as always for listening. Please send us feedback at journalismsalute@gmail.com, visit our website at thejournalismsalute.org and Mark's website (MarkSimonmedia.com) or tweet us at @journalismpod.

On this episode, Mark Simon is joined by Luella Brien. Luella is the editor-in-chief at Four Points Press, an independent media company which covers the Crow Indian Reservation in southern Montana. Luella also teaches high school journalism and has taught college in the past too. She was the primary narrator in the new Showtime docu-series, Murder in Big Horn.

Luella talked about her passion for journalism from a young age, how she hopes to grow her non-profit to tell both contemporary stories and those lost to history. the importance of Native representation on big projects like Murder In Big Horn, and what her teaching experience has been like.

Luella’s salute: Native journalist Hattie Kauffman

Thank you as always for listening. Please send us feedback at journalismsalute@gmail.com, visit our website at thejournalismsalute.org and Mark's website (MarkSimonmedia.com) or tweet us at @journalismpod.

On this episode, we’re joined by Jared Council. Jared is a senior editor at Forbes. He covers stories that touch on Black business, Black culture, and Black power. He’s a graduate of Hampton University who previously worked in Indiana and Virginia and also at the Wall Street Journal. He’s based in Philadelphia.

Jared talked about his unlikely journalism origin story, one that began with he and his brother filming local rap battles. He discussed how he got basically a business school education with the work he’s done at his different jobs.

Jared went in-depth on two pieces – one that was part of a Pulitzer Prize finalist package for the Wall Street Journal about the insurance exclusions for Black residents that came after the Tulsa Race Massacre. The other, also with a history focus, was on past Black women who had been passed over for Supreme Court nominations.

You can find Jared’s current work here:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jaredcouncil/

Jared’s salutes:

Justin Tinsley, Andscape

Jordyn Holman, New York Times

Dominic Madori, Tech Crunch

Richard Prince, veteran journalist

Thank you as always for listening. Please send us feedback at journalismsalute@gmail.com, visit our website at thejournalismsalute.org and Mark's website (MarkSimonmedia.com) or tweet us at @journalismpod.

On this episode, we’re joined by Roxanne Scott. Roxanne is a senior producer for Futuro Media Group, an independent non-profit media organization producing multimedia journalism that gives a voice to the diversity of American experience. You may know it best for Latino USA and the person who runs the group, Maria Hinojosa

Roxanne has previously worked as a reporter in Louisville and Atlanta. Prior to being a journalist she was a teacher – in Costa Rica, Mexico, and China.

Roxanne talked about the multi-faceted role she has in investigative pieces that Futuro Media produces, using as an example of an investigative report on problematic U.S. policies for border patrol dealing with migrants in the Arizona desert.

Roxanne also talked about some of her other written and audio work, including a story about “poo and doo” and problematic sewers in Queens, N.Y., how public records were vital to her work tracking COVID cases in an ICE facility in Georgia, and how wind turbines in Louisville were important to farmers in Nigeria.

Roxanne also discussed the value of voice memos and what journalism taught her about being a more proactive person.

Roxanne’s salutes:

Gil Noble

Gwendolyn Brooks

The Ida B. Wells Society

Amsterdam News

Thank you as always for listening. Please send us feedback at journalismsalute@gmail.com, visit our website at thejournalismsalute.org and Mark's website (MarkSimonmedia.com) or tweet us at @journalismpod.

On this episode we’re joined by Karen Hawkins. Karen is a longtime journalist and is currently a story editor for The 19^th*, a newsroom that operates at the intersection of gender, politics, and policy. She is also a board member for the NLGJA, the association of LGBTQ journalists, of which Karen is one.

Additionally, she is the founder and rebelle in chief of Rebellious Magazine, which delivers a unique feminist perspective on Chicago news, politics and culture. She is also the former co-publisher and co-editor in chief of the Chicago Reader and the co-host of a podcast about mental health.

Karen shared her journalism origin story, talked about what her job as a story editor entails and how she approaches the editing process. She talked about her future hope for The 19^th*, which is that it continues leaning into the asterisk and is inclusive of marginalized groups, and the year ahead for the NLGJA.

She also shared trends she’s noticed in coverage of the LGBTQ community, reminisced about her time at the Chicago Reader, and told the story of her passion projection, Rebellious.

Karen’s salutes:

The first African-American writer to publish a short story, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper

Journalist, author, teacher Jamal Jordan and Derrick Clifton

Journalism Websites: The Triibe, City Bureau, Scalawag

The NLGJA Mentoring Program

 Thank you as always for listening. Please send us feedback at journalismsalute@gmail.com, visit our website at thejournalismsalute.org and Mark's website (MarkSimonmedia.com) or tweet us at @journalismpod.

On today’s show we’re joined by Bobbi-Jeanne Misick. She is the justice, race, and equity reporter for the Gulf States Newsroom, a collaboration between NPR and radio stations in WWNO and WRKF in Louisiana, WBHM in Alabama, and Mississippi Public Radio working with NPR. She has previously been an editor and writer for Essence and a reporter and producer in the Caribbean.

Bobbi-Jeanne talked how the September 11 terrorist attack influenced her career decision to become a journalist and discussed her career path.

She discussed three stories she’s worked on in detail – producing an interview with the Washington D.C. Sniper early in her career, writing about laws enacted to prohibit hair discrimination in the workplace, a thorough examination of how Cameroonians seeking asylum were being treated poorly by the justice system.

Bobbi-Jeanne’s salutes: John Washington and Jim Mustian

Thank you as always for listening. Please send us feedback at journalismsalute@gmail.com, visit our website at thejournalismsalute.org and Mark's website (MarkSimonmedia.com) or tweet us at @journalismpod.

On this episode, we’re joined by Erin O’Hare, the neighborhoods reporter for Charlottesville Tomorrow, a hyperlocal non-profit news website serving Charlottesville, Virginia (cvilletomorrow.org).

Erin explained what a neighborhood reporter does in a city of about 45,000 people, everything from reporting on the changing demographics of neighborhoods to making zoning ordinances understandable, to alerting people to the opening of a bathroom at a mall (the quotes in this one are great!), to writing impactful pieces that help residents living in shelters. Often, she focuses on people whose voices aren’t typically heard in mainstream media.

She also explained what it was like to cover the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, how that deeply affected her as both a journalist and a person, and how she wants to show that the city should be known for much more than that. And she shared her other writing interest – telling stories about culture, art, and music.

Erin’s salutes: Vinegar Hill Magazine and In My Humble Opinion, both parts of Charlottesville Inclusive Media

Thank you as always for listening. Please send us feedback at journalismsalute@gmail.com, visit our website at thejournalismsalute.org and Mark's website (MarkSimonmedia.com) or tweet us at @journalismpod.

On this episode we’re joined by Margo Snipe. Margo is a reporter for Capital B (CapitalBNews.org) covering critical issues affecting the mental and physical health of Black Americans. Capital B is a non-profit newsroom serving both local and national Black audiences.

Margo talked about Capital B’s mission and how she comes up with story ideas. She went through examples of stories she had done, including a story on how doctors treat black patients complaints and how the Damar Hamlin incident of cardiac arrest is part of a larger story. She also discussed covering politics and how her time living abroad as a child shaped her worldview.

Margo’s salute: The 19th (19thnews.org)

(listen to our interview with their writer, Mariel Padilla)

Thank you as always for listening. Please send us feedback at journalismsalute@gmail.com, visit our website at thejournalismsalute.org and Mark's website (MarkSimonmedia.com) or tweet us at @journalismpod.

On today’s show we’re joined by Amir Khafagy. Amir is a labor reporter for Documented – journalism created with and for immigrants and how policy affects their lives. He’s of Egyptian and Puerto Rican descent and grew up in a Muslim household. He’s with Documented as part of the Report for America Program.

Amir talked about his working-class upbringing, his work as a student and labor organizer that preceded his time as a journalist, and the work he currently does. He discussed the importance of covering both labor and immigration and explained how he comes up with story ideas (sometimes they even come from The People’s Court!).

He also spoke about the importance of Report for America and why the world needs more journalists from working class backgrounds.

Thank you as always for listening. Please send us feedback at journalismsalute@gmail.com, visit our website at thejournalismsalute.org and Mark's website (MarkSimonmedia.com) or tweet us at @journalismpod.

Amir’s Salutes: Labor reporters Mike Elk, Kim Kelly, and Claudia Aponte.

America Needs More Working-Class Journalists article

https://www.nbcuacademy.com/catalog/working-class-journalists

Follow Amir on Twitter at http://twitter.com/amirkhafagy

Find his work here - https://documentedny.com/author/amirkhafagy91/

On this episode, we’re joined by Raegan Miller. Raegan is a reporter for KRBD, a radio station in Ketchikan, Alaska. She covers Alaska Native and rural issues as part of the Report for America program.

Raegan talked about making the transition from print to radio and covering stories in very small towns where she often gets recognized. She discussed about the kinds of stories she covered and how she works through everything from getting sound to writing. And she explained what went into a 20-minute interview with a group that included the governor of Alaska.

Raegan also talked about the help she’s gotten from the Report for America program and gave tips to those who might end up participating in it.

Thank you as always for listening. Please send us feedback at journalismsalute@gmail.com, visit our website at thejournalismsalute.org and Mark's website (MarkSimonmedia.com) or tweet us at @journalismpod.

Raegan’s salute: Theo Greenly, KUCB Radio in Unalaska, Alaska.

Raegan’s stories can be found at https://www.krbd.org/author/raegan-miller/

More information on Report for America can be found at ReportforAmerica.org