The Journalism Salute

On this episode we're joined by Laura Robertson. Laura just completed a stint as a writer for The Nome Nugget – that's Nome as in Nome, Alaska – and the Nugget is an award-winning weekly that serves a population of 3,700 in western Alaska. It is Alaska's oldest newspaper. She is a graduate of Princeton University.

As she prepares to start a new job she talked about her experience both with the Nugget and in freelance writing. She shared examples of stories she's written (including an award-winning piece before going to Nome). She described what Nome is like and what kind of stories she covered.

She also had some profound observations about what it's like to be an early-career journalist in 2025.

Article examples

New York Press Club award-winning piece

https://nysfocus.com/2024/07/18/primecare-private-medical-contractor-jail-deaths

Gold mining story

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qvSugUUYYa6gUnJ6BrexfoSpzrxt9jiW/view

Laura can sing too - jazz and opera

Laura's salutes: Laurelai Ivanoff High Country News; Anna Lionis, Diana Haecker, and Nils Hahn of The Nome Nugget

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Thank you for listening. You can e-mail me at [email protected]

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On this episode, we're joined by Logan Jaffe. Logan is based in Chicago and is a reporter for ProPublica focusing on newsletters. She's been there for 8 years and her work often centers on using historical research to tell stories about the present. She is a 2011 grad of the University of Florida and is pursuing a masters in public/applied history from Loyola, Chicago.

Logan recently wrote about the floods in Kerr County, Texas, and how oral histories existed that refuted the idea that you couldn't have predicted such an event would happen there. Other examples of things she's written in other jobs include researching the murder of a Black baseball manager in the 1920s to provide answers to his descendants, and telling the story of her experience with racist household objects.

Logan talked about how she does her work and why history is so important to her.

Logan's salute: Laura Kebede-Twumasi, public historian

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Thank you for listening. You can e-mail me at [email protected]

 Visit our website: thejournalismsalute.org 

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On this episode, we're joined by Bryan Vance.

Bryan is the founder of Stumptown Savings, a newsletter and website that helps the people of Portland Oregon shop for food smarter. This is a chance for us to talk about creator-model journalism and service journalism.

Bryan talked about the motivation for starting Stumptown Savings (a combination of a Nieman Lab article and getting laid off), what he aims to offer his readers, the creator-model as a way of producing journalism, and much more.

Story examples

https://stumptownsavings.com/p/grocery-price-stress-portland-oregon-community-solutions

https://stumptownsavings.com/p/portland-oregon-grocery-deals-july-31-aug-5-hatch-chile-verde

Bryan's salute: Copper and Heat Podcast

Please support your local public radio station: adoptastation.org

Thank you for listening. You can e-mail me at [email protected]

 Visit our website: thejournalismsalute.org 

Mark’s website (MarkSimonmedia.com)

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On this episode we're joined by Jai Smith. Jai is the founder and editor-in-chief of Lehigh Daily. Lehigh Daily is a hyperlocal newsroom covering my community- the Lehigh Valley part of Pennsylvania. It has a presence not just as a website but as an Instagram account with 24,000 followers and a TikTok with 28,000 followers. And it's just over a year old.

Jai explained why he started the newsroom, how he and a small staff pursue stories and videos, and what he hopes this project will eventually become.

Please support your local public radio station: adoptastation.org

Thank you for listening. You can e-mail me at [email protected]

 Visit our website: thejournalismsalute.org 

Mark’s website (MarkSimonmedia.com)

Tweet us at @journalismpod and Bluesky at @marksimon.bsky.social

Subscribe to our newsletter– journalismsalute.substack.com

On this episode we're joined by Veda Thangudu. Veda will be a sophomore biology major at Purdue this fall.

Veda is a part of the Youth Environmental Press Team (YEPT), an organization whose goal is to elevate the voices of middle school, high school, and college journalists writing about the environment and the climate crisis. The program exists in 7 states. Students are paid to participate.

Veda has been a writer and is a director, so she helps run the program. She's been with them for 4 years under the mentorship of former journalist Jim Poyser.

Veda explained how YEPT works, shared examples of the stories she writes and described how she mentors other student writers.

Examples of Veda's stories can be found here

https://www.yept.org/latest-stories/youth-involvement-in-environmental-protection?rq=veda

https://www.yept.org/latest-stories/willow-project-approved-striking-controversies?rq=veda

For more on YEPT, visit http://www.yept.org/

Veda's salute: Covering Climate Now

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Thank you for listening. You can e-mail me at [email protected]

 Visit our website: thejournalismsalute.org 

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On this episode we're joined by Angilee Shah. Angilee is the CEO and editor-in-chief of Charlottesville Tomorrow, a non-profit newsroom in Charlottesville, Virginia.

A couple of years ago we interviewed someone from that newsroom, Erin O'Hare, in an interview that I've cited in every presentation I've done to students since. So I thought it would be good to talk to someone else from this organization.

Angilee is a thought leader in the industry (definitely worth a follow on LinkedIn) who has 20 years of journalism experience. She's a grad of Cal-Berkeley, class of 2004.

In our discussion, she talked about her introduction to journalism,, what it was like to work for The World, covering international news, and why she transitioned to local news. She explained how her organization covers the area and connects with the local community. And she offered advice for aspiring journalists ("embrace the struggle").

Work examples

Charlottesville's Housing Resource Guide

https://www.cvilletomorrow.org/charlottesville-and-albemarle-county-housing-resources-guide/

Yogaville's Toxic Work Environment

https://www.cvilletomorrow.org/she-left-yogaville-because-of-its-toxic-environment-but-wants-to-keep-telling-the-stories-of-survivors/

What Reporters Get Wrong About Immigration

https://www.angileeshah.com/2018/10/14/covering-immigration-what-reporters-get-wrong-and-how-to-get-it-right/

Angilee's Salute: Documented (immigration news website)

Please support your local public radio station: adoptastation.org

Thank you for listening. You can e-mail me at [email protected]

Visit our website: thejournalismsalute.org 

Mark’s website (MarkSimonmedia.com)

Tweet us at @journalismpod and Bluesky at @marksimon.bsky.social

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On this episode we're joined by Hanaa' Tameez. Hanaa' is a staff writer for Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University. Hanaa' and Nieman report on the future of journalism. She previously worked for the Fort Worth Star Telegram as its diversity reporter (one example here). Hanaa is a 2016 graduate of Stony Brook University, where she was editor in chief of the school paper. She has a masters in Spanish language journalism from CUNY Newmark Graduate School. She is Pakistani-American and speaks 3 languages.

Hanaa' talked about the types of stories she covers, everything from author Q&A's to clever ways newsrooms use language to teach climate policy, to the development of a news aggregator/dating app. She shared the challenges of working in the industry and how taking a class on the business of news changed her perspective for the better.

Her biggest piece of advice to future journos: read about developments in the industry!

Hanaa's salute: Journalists everywhere who are putting the public's right to know above their own safety.

Thank you for listening. You can e-mail me at [email protected]

 Visit our website: thejournalismsalute.org 

 Mark’s website (MarkSimonmedia.com)

 Tweet us at @journalismpod and Bluesky at @marksimon.bsky.social

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On this episode we're joined by José Ignacio Castañeda Perez. He's a reporter for Spotlight Delaware, a local independent journalism non-profit. He's been there for the last year and a half. Previously he covered border issues for the The Arizona Republic and Underserved Communities for The Wilmington Delaware News Journal. He's specializing in reporting on immigration in Delaware. He's a graduate of Arizona State and is a recent recipient of The Chauncey Bailey Fellowship, for which he'll be doing an investigative project.

José talked about all that covering immigration entails, the kind of stories that Spotlight Delaware pursues and how those stories are presented to their audience. He also shared advice for aspiring reporters and provided insights into some of the tough realities of the job.

José's salute: Migrant Insider

Thank you for listening. You can e-mail me at [email protected]

 Visit our website: thejournalismsalute.org 

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On this episode, Mark Simon speaks to Marcela García, associate editor and columnist for the op-ed page at The Boston Globe. 

Marcela often writes about Latinx communities in Boston including in a newsletter she launched, ¡Mira!, that is written in English and Spanish. She also writes some of the Globe's unsigned editorials.

For that, she and two of her colleagues were finalists for this year's Pulitzer Prize in editorial writing. As the Pulitzer board noted "For their politically courageous and deeply reported editorials on how Boston can humanely and effectively close underutilized schools in ways that improve student learning."

We talked to Marcela about the series, the work that goes into reporting and writing, and her advice for students with aspirations of writing op-eds and editorials. If you like the former podcast, Longform, I think you'll enjoy this episode.

Link to the Pulitzer series: https://www.pulitzer.org/finalists/22653

Marcela's salutes: New Bedford Light and Texas Tribune

Thank you for listening. You can e-mail me at [email protected]

Visit our website: thejournalismsalute.org 

Mark’s website (MarkSimonmedia.com)

Tweet us at @journalismpod and Bluesky at @marksimon.bsky.social

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On The Journalism Salute we interview journalists about who they are and what they do with the intent of showing that journalists are not the enemy. Today we're joined by Alan Tai. Alan just won the Journalism Education Association's Student Journalist of the Year award as a senior at Monta Vista High School in California.

Alan talked about his experiences on the student newspaper, El Estoque as an editor-in-chief and also as a writer of features and op-eds. He explained what the school's journalism program is like and how it successfully deals with school administration. He also shared lessons he learned and offered tips to guide future editors-in-chief.

This is the 4th straight year we've interviewed the national winner of that award, the first of them was Anushka De, also from Monta Vista High School.

 Alan's salutes: The Journalism Education Association, Student Press Law Center, Columbia Scholastic Press Association, and The News Literacy Project.

Story examples:

Feature on local residents who were military veterans

https://elestoque.org/2022/11/11/features/american-heroes/

Cheat GPT: Is It Time To Kill The Essay?

https://elestoque.org/2023/03/21/opinion/cheatgpt-is-it-time-to-kill-the-essay/

Thank you for listening. You can e-mail me at [email protected]

Visit our website: thejournalismsalute.org 

Mark’s website (MarkSimonmedia.com)

Tweet us at @journalismpod and Bluesky at @marksimon.bsky.social

Subscribe to our newsletter– journalismsalute.substack.com