Q&A with Ellie Heffernan of Mountain State Spotlight

Ellie Heffernan is a Report for America corps member and community watchdog reporter at Mountain State Spotlight, based in Charleston, West Virginia. She is a graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill and has written for several North Carolina publications, including INDY Week. In this interview, conducted by email, Heffernan discusses her role at Mountain State Spotlight, including…

A wealth of reporting from Puerto Rico

This semester, students in a multimedia course at UNC-Chapel Hill traveled to Puerto Rico during spring break. Their mission: Cover issues affecting the island and its people five years after Hurricanes Irma and Maria struck. After their trip, students in my News Editing course back on the mainland contributed by editing drafts of feature stories…

Q&A with Adrienne Lu of the Chronicle of Higher Education

Adrienne Lu is a senior reporter at the Chronicle of Higher Education. She has previously worked at Stateline, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The (Bergen County) Record in New Jersey, and The News & Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina. This interview was conducted by email. Q. Describe your job. What is your typical workweek like? A. I…

Q&A with Sara Salinas of CNBC.com

Sara Salinas is deputy business editor at CNBC.com. A native of Maryland, she has worked in various roles at CNBC since earning a degree in journalism from UNC-Chapel Hill in 2017. In this interview, conducted by email, Salinas discusses her role at CNBC (including editing and headline writing) and offers advice to college students interested…

How to prepare for the Dow Jones News Fund editing test

Students attend an editing bootcamp at Temple University. The week of training is part of the Dow Jones News Fund internship program. (Photo by Margo Reed) It's Dow Jones season. That's when journalism students apply for internships with the Dow Jones News Fund. Interns will work at over 100 news organizations across the United States…

Q&A with Meg Kinnard, politics reporter for The Associated Press

Meg Kinnard is an Associated Press politics reporter based in Columbia, South Carolina. A native of Tennessee, she is a graduate of Georgetown University and UNC-Chapel Hill, where she earned a master's degree in digital communication. In this interview, conducted by email, Kinnard talks about her work at the AP, discusses her diagnoses and treatment…

Q&A with Rogelio Aranda, local news editor at The Charlotte Observer

Rogelio Aranda is local news editor at The Charlotte Observer. He started at the Observer in 1998 as a copy editor and page designer in the sports department, and he has served in various roles there over the years. In this interview, conducted by email, Aranda discusses working with reporters and how editing and headline…

Q&A with Sarah Nagem of the Border Belt Independent

Sarah Nagem is editor of the Border Belt Independent, a nonprofit news organization that covers four counties in southeastern North Carolina. She previously worked at The Salisbury Post and The News & Observer. In this interview, conducted by email, Nagem discusses her role at the BBI and her transition to a small, nonprofit newsroom. Q.…

Q&A with Elizabeth Baier of WUNC

Elizabeth “Liz” Baier is digital news editor at WUNC. She joined the radio station in 2016 after eight years of reporting for Minnesota Public Radio News. Prior to that, Baier worked as a newspaper reporter at The Miami Herald and South Florida Sun-Sentinel. This interview was conducted by email. Q. Describe your job. What is…

Q&A with Foon Rhee of CalMatters

Foon Rhee is a deputy editor at CalMatters, a nonprofit, nonpartisan journalism venture based in Sacramento, California. He started his career at The Charlotte Observer, where he spent 16 years as a reporter, before becoming a local news and state Capitol editor at The News & Observer in Raleigh. Rhee went on to become city…