I was promoted to the position of online multimedia journalist from my original position at The Oakland Press, Royal Oak Tribune, Macomb Daily, Morning Sun, News Herald and Press and Guide as a paginator, moving me from all print and some online to all online. I was offered the position in November 2018 and officially started on January 1, 2019, after wrapping up my pagination duties through December. I was honored to be hand-picked by the Regional Digital Editor, Stephen Frye.

As an online multimedia journalist, or online editor, I was tasked with making sure our websites were constantly updated, our content was edited appropriately in Blox, featured and shared on social media via SocialFlow, our newsletters were sent out regularly and our numbers were optimized. Mostly on Saturdays, I was responsible for uploading photo galleries to our website from SmugMug and making sure they had the right bylines, titles and captions, as well as formatting the gallery correctly and including it on our budget.

I was assigned primarily to The Macomb Daily, covering Macomb County, and our Downriver websites, The News Herald and The Press & Guide. I would call in for each paper’s meetings daily, listen to what stories and news was circulating for the day and read our numbers for Google Analytics and Facebook, which was later on Parse.ly, as well as address any other concerns each paper’s staff would have. I would also occasionally pop in on Wednesday mornings for their in-person meetings at their office in Southgate. I’m pleased to say I maintained a positive relationship with the team and worked hard to meet whatever online needs or concerns they had.

I also regularly wrote my own copy, including summarizing police reports, notices of upcoming local events and other press releases, searching for local news to write online and writing a daily coronavirus data story. This included being ready to and responding to writing up breaking news and accompanying stories with our photo galleries. I also occasionally got to do my own original reporting, for publication online and in print. As a result of my writing, I was published regularly online and in our print editions, including several front-page stories. Some of these front page stories were also published on holidays, such as July 4, Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. Clips of my work can still be found online at all six properties by searching my name.

I furthermore sometimes had the opportunity to shoot photos for these stories as needed. At times, I would also shoot file photos for reporters to use with their stories, including photos in downtown Mt. Pleasant, in the Downriver area, in Oakland County, of various police departments or locations, such as Kroger or the Secretary of State offices, or of specific events, such as the North American International Auto Show, if I happened to be there and no one else was covering it. Photos I shot continue to be used online.

I would also sometimes be asked to cover for my boss or reporters or editors on vacation, so I got the opportunity to contribute to their positions as needed. Thus, there were a couple times I got to handle the editor’s call and read the numbers for our sites on that morning call, assist with scheduling the budget for our Mt. Pleasant paper, The Morning Sun, and write several requested articles while a reporter, who solely covers our Dearborn paper, The Press & Guide, was on vacation.

I would also occasionally be asked to do things for reporters such as enlarging or editing photos in Photoshop, uploading or formatting videos or embedding posts or links into our stories. Or, at times, I would be called on to fix a story or take something down we were currently running online.

During this time, I earned the trust of my superiors and was granted the opportunity to regularly work from home. I’m proud to say I maintained this privilege and continued to do so during the pandemic. My name was also featured on our website, a privilege only given to certain newsroom staff.