Patrick Smith, ‘09, working as staff photographer in Utah
August 21, 2009
After years of working freelance during college and after his January 2009 graduation, Patrick Smith has taken a staff photographer position at The Daily Herald in Provo, Utah. Patrick fills us on in his new position:
I enjoyed my time in Baltimore freelancing for the all the newspapers and wires for the past couple of years, but finding a new home in Utah at a paper whereI can grow as a visual communicator and multimedia storyteller will be a great opportunity.Utah is actually one of the few markets where circulation and readership are rising. The circulation for the Sunday edition of the paper was up more than 8 percent from last year, the publisher announced this past week.I will be covering mainly Utah County, with typical newspaper assignments, yet with a local twist different than Baltimore, and minus professional sports. I will also have a chance to use the things I learned at Towson (such as worshiping the AP Stylebook and reporting) when I get my chance at writing my own stories monthly. The paper features a great perk for photographers allowing them each to go out and find their own stories, report, shoot, and produce for an A1 story called the “Monday Closeup.”As usual, I will be updating my blog with some of my favorite and most telling assignments. The address is: www.patricksmithphotos.com
We wish Patrick great success in his new venture!
Journalism alum writes travel articles for Los Angeles Times
May 8, 2009
Mike Morris, a 2003 Mass Comm grad in the journalism track, is based in California and writes travel articles for the Los Angeles Times. His most recent article was on the Mariposa, Calif., Butterfly Festival.
Morris and his wife, Amber, and daughter, Ediza, completed an around-the-world trip in 2008, where they visited New Zealand, China and many parts of Europe. You can read about their adventures on their blog, The Endless Sky.
May grad Ryan Reed hired at Smithsonian.com
October 31, 2008
May 2008 graduate Ryan Reed recently completed an internship with Smithsonian.com and has been hired on as a junior Web producer. Ryan writes:
It’s so crazy because not too long ago I was sitting in class learning about all this online stuff and now it’s my job.
Ryan has already produced one very nice video for the site — on the Star Spangled Banner.
Will Burns, 1998 journalism alum, now director of communications for Maryland Chamber of Commerce
August 7, 2008
William R. Burns, a 1998 Towson Mass Comm graduate, is now the Director of Communications for the Maryland Chamber of Commerce in Annapolis.
Burns formerly was a staff writer for Sergeants magazine, a publication of the Air Force Sergeants Association.
He can be reached by email at wburns@mdchamber.org.
Darnay Tripp, 07 grad, now a sports anchor in Montana
June 10, 2008
Darnay Tripp, a 2007 graduate of the Journalism/New Media track who also completed the broadcast journalism certificate, began his career three months after graduating from Towson University as the Sports Anchor/Director at KCFW-TV in Kalispell, Montana.
“There are a number of things that make working in Kalispell unique, not the least among them is the fact that I am the only member of the sports department at KCFW,” he says. “This means I am responsible for producing, reporting, anchoring, writing, shooting, and editing the bulk of the content that airs in the sports block of our weekday six o’clock newscast. While this can be challenging, it is a lot of fun learning to juggle the various responsibilities, and having the amount of creative control that the job allows.
“As far as coverage goes, my main responsibility is to cover high school sports in the area. That means shooting games and cutting highlights, as well as going to practices and interviewing players and coaches. Another thing that makes Kalispell unique is the amount of outdoor activities. There’s more to sports in Northwest Montana than football and basketball games. I have covered fishing, skiing, golfing, skijoring, lumberjack sports, rodeo, bowhunting, and various other sports that make the area a melting pot for athletic competition.”
Tripp says his journalism experiences at Towson made getting this job possible — “And this job confirmed what I discovered at Towson, that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life.”
MCOM alum runs marathon on Great Wall of China
May 17, 2008
Mike Morris, a 2003 journalism/new media graduate who was a senior editor at The Towerlight, will run in the Great Wall of China marathon May 17. Morris and his wife, Amber, and daughter, Ediza, have been traveling in New Zealand for the past three months visiting llama farms. Amber Morris worked on a llama farm near Sonora, Calif., where Mike worked as a reporter for The Sonora Union Democrat.
The Morris family has a blog about their adventures around the world at The Endless Sky. After their time in China, they plan to travel around Europe.
Former Towerlight Editor in Chief covers Ravens for The Examiner
May 10, 2008
Ron Snyder, a 2000 Mass Comm graduate, has recently been named the primary Ravens beat reporter for The Baltimore Examiner.
After Towson, where he was sports editor, news editor and editor in chief at The Towerlight, Snyder spent six years at The (Annapolis) Capital as a news/sports reporter.
He joined The Examiner in May 2006 and has covered all types of sports there, including high school, colleges and professional. His main beats over the last two years have been Navy football, men’s college lacrosse and Ravens football. He also serves as sports editor when the sports editor is out of the office.
Snyder has been married to Lori (nee Pickle), a 2000 Towson graduate and nursing major, for eight years. They have three children: William, 5, and twin daughters Megan and Marissa, both 1.
Three journalism alums help produce baltimoresun.com
April 30, 2008
Towson University graduates Lauren Eshkenazi, Dean Jones and Rebecca Hyler currently work at baltimoresun.com, the newspaper’s Web site that includes the full daily editorial and classified content of The Sun, as well as extensive archived and original content.
Lauren Eshkenazi graduated from Towson in 2002 and began working for baltimoresun.com in January 2003. As a Web producer, she created several online features and served as the lead designer and producer for MarylandWeather.com, a weather-related Web site serviced by The Baltimore Sun. Eshkenazi was promoted to Senior Web Producer in March 2006 (her title has since been changed to Production Technology Manager). Most recently, she was the lead project manager and market contact for baltimoresun.com’s redesign.
In addition to her position at baltimoresun.com, Eshkenazi teaches Digital Publishing in the Journalism/New Media track at Towson University.
Dean Jones, another member of the baltimoresun.com production department and a 2007 Towson grad, started working for baltimoresun.com in June 2007 as a Web producer. He works the weekend shifts, so his work week runs Thursday through Monday. On Saturday and Sunday, Jones is the only person in the office until the afternoon, so he’s responsible for checking the wire for possible stories, as well as posting any stories written by Sun reporters during the day.
Part of his job is morning production, which involves adding photos and other multimedia to stories, adjusting page layouts and editing headlines. After morning production is complete, he spends some time approving reader photos that have been submitted to user-generated photo galleries. Additionally, he monitors reader feedback and occasionally assists the sports department. Jones also serves as a regular contributor to “Those Fantasy Guys,” baltimoresun.com’s fantasy sports blog.
Rebecca Hyler, who graduated from Towson in 2006, works as a features producer at baltimoresun.com. Before she was hired, she completed an internship in baltimoresun.com’s features department. Hyler also interned with baltimore.metromix.com, a Sun-affiliated, youth-oriented entertainment Web site.
Hyler started working for baltimoresun.com about a month after she graduated. During her first several months at the site, she did morning production. However, as the site’s production department expanded, her duties became more features-focused. On a daily basis, she produces multimedia content for features stories, puts up entertainment news stories, monitors the events/venues database and creates special packages (such as arts guides and holiday packages). She also recruits, trains and supervises baltimoresun.com’s features interns.
Baltimoresun.com currently offers internships in its features and sports sections. Interested candidates should send a resume and cover letter to Rebecca Hyler (rhyler@baltimoresun.com) for the features internship and Pete Sweigard (psweigard@baltimoresun.com) for the sports internship.
Andrew Schneider, 2001 grad, serves as managing editor of Script magazine
April 25, 2008
Andrew Schneider, a 2001 Mass Communication graduate, has been the managing editor of Script magazine since graduation. Script, based in Baldwin, Md., is a bimonthly magazine for film and television screenwriters.
Schneider’s job of managing editor entails: working closely with major motion-picture and television studios to facilitate various interview requests with filmmakers and screenwriters; researching and proposing planned content; proofreading and editing the entire magazine (100 pages of a bimonthly publication) for correct grammar, punctuation and format; writing, rewriting and revising content; fact-checking to ensure accurate information; providing design input for the overall appearance of the magazine; supervising freelance and staff-writer assignments as well as assisting the editorial staff in various stages of production; all while working within the constructs of production schedules and deadlines.
Schneider began at Script as an intern while at Towson. The magazine still offers internships to Towson mass comm students each semester, and interested students can contact its editors to inquire about internships through the magazine’s contact page.
Sarah Breitenbach, 05 grad, covers education for Frederick News-Post
April 23, 2008
Sarah Breitenbach, a 2005 Mass Comm graduate and former Editor in Chief of The Towerlight, works as an education reporter at the Frederick News-Post, a 40,000 circulation daily newspaper in Western Maryland. She is responsible for covering public schools, three colleges and a number of private schools in our county.
In addition to writing daily articles, she works on long-term feature projects, writes a weekly “reporter’s notebook” column, blogs on education issues and creates scripts for a television news program owned by the newspaper.
Breitenbach also is an officer in the Maryland professional chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), where she is vice president. Breitenbach was active in the Towson University SPJ chapter while a student, and says “my position with SPJ is no doubt an extension of my service in the organization while a student at Towson.”
