Anchorage Daily News

The Anchorage Daily News provided my foundation. It was the training ground, test lab and, really, the launching pad of my career.

First, I learned how to write. Daily deadlines, sheer volume and outstanding editors and fellow reporters made for great teachers. Covering the Alaska sports and news scene was a great introduction to content creation for a young man. I took my lumps, learned from them and got better exponentially.

I produced some of my favorite stories, including this one on a local high school diver and another on a high school basketball player who remains the best interviewee I have ever come across.

The most important and personally satisfying achievement was starting the online video movement at the ADN.

The need for multimedia at newspapers was just beginning, and I jumped on my broadcast and technical experience to start doing video.

Soon, I was coaching others, leading video production seminars and learning a lot myself. It taught me to push for high level changes, not be afraid to innovate and put continuing career education on my own shoulders, characteristics I have brought to every job since.  It’s not often in news that you create something whose impact outlives your tenure at the organization, but my efforts in multimedia did that.

So began my interest in multimedia and in the power of the Internet and technology to craft innovative, impactful, visual stories. I am better now, but my goals are still the same.