About

Hello!

I’m a do-it-all journalist with a proven record of producing engaging stories, compelling pictures and lively layouts on a deadline. I’m a talented networker, a dedicated team player and I am looking for a new job in the communications field.

I was educated at Mississippi University for Women where I earned a Bachelor’s degree in Communications/ Journalism with a minor in English. MUW, usually referred to as “The W,” was where I found a love for writing, photography, and print media. I joined the student newspaper, The Spectator, and was appointed Editor-in-Chief my junior year.

I started work at The Commercial Dispatch, a daily paper in Columbus, Miss., working part-time during school and full-time through Summers and holiday breaks. They took me on as a full-time reporter upon my graduation. A couple of years later I moved to a competing newspaper, The Columbus Packet, a shoestring, seat-of-the-pants operation run by a former pizza parlor owner. At this yellow-tinged weekly tabloid, known for its coverage of late night stabbings, shootings and other mayhem, I was the only employee with any journalism education or experience. I saw a way to expand the paper’s scope, readership and marketability.

I launched a new features section – while still producing news content. The initial issues I produced with no additional pay, because I believed in the idea and knew it would take off. Take off it did, resulting in a 15 percent circulation increase and ads from businesses that previously did not want to be associated with the paper. My new section gave the paper a more balanced personality, more credibility and a higher profile in the community. In my many hours of interviewing, writing, editing, designing and photographing, I have become a versatile journalist who can handle everything.

In 2013, I took a reporter job in Hammond, Louisiana, a 20,000-person town next door to Baton Rouge and New Orleans with a fast-growing airport, university and industry centers.  The Daily Star is  a daily paper with a paid circulation of 12,000 and a free circulation of 35,000.

I covered the City of Hammond including business, features, government and industrial development. I wrote at least three articles a day with additional work for the weekend papers, special sections and online. I also served as the lead editorial photographer, with art filling 1A daily, and shooting for advertising as needed.

I stepped in for the editor whenever she was out, and often did layouts, page orders, editing and other tasks beyond my job description. Because there was no possibility for advancement at the paper until the editor’s retirement, I started pursuing other opportunities after two years.

In August of 2015 I moved to the petite, but bustling, city of Mena where I took over a weekly broadsheet paper that has been printing since 1896.

I am responsible for covering all aspects of the town of Mena and the surrounding Polk County and managing reporters, interns and contributors. I write, photograph and layout the majority of the content published and am responsible for website and social media traffic.

One of the most challenging parts of my editorship has been ethically competing with a newer tabloid-style paper that has nearly unlimited staffing and fiscal resources but no journalism background. I’ve responded to this by releasing better, more factual, news and engaging articles on a daily basis. I have also been tasked with repairing relationships that were severed between the newspaper and many community members during previous paper leadership. Steadily, I have earned the trust and respect of this tight-knit community through honest, good reporting and coverage of every community event, no matter how small.

Despite a great enjoyment of running my own paper, I am seeking to bring my talent, drive and nose for news to another organization. I hope it will be yours.

Sincerely,

Sarah Wilson