SINCERELY, KRIZELLE
My name is Krizelle Solidum and I am a senior journalism and public communications major at the University of Alaska Anchorage. Currently, I am interning at The Skagway News, which is in Skagway, Alaska. Due to COVID-19, I am interning remotely in Anchorage, Alaska. The Skagway News, which was founded in 1978, is the only news source in the community and has been recently bought, by new owners, Melinda Munson, and Gretchen Wehmhoff earlier this year.
It is common that every year, the newspaper takes on an intern, and flies the individual down to live there for the entire summer. Though I would have loved to experience meeting the friendly folks that live in Skagway, it did not take away from learning what it’s like to write for a small rural community. I was responsible for writing between three to four articles bi-weekly. The articles ranged from news, editorial, and columns. All categories of news that I’ve never really had experience with. News stories are always the most challenging and intimidating for me to write. The reason being is that these types of stories are fact-heavy and if you aren’t careful with checking, you can accidentally provide false information, which makes people mad. I had my first incident with misquoting what an interviewee had said. The individual was very kind when she returned to my editors with corrections. From this one incident, which I doubt will be the last time because it comes with the territory; I learned to always fact check. I’ve learned from my editors that you don’t have to read aloud the entire article, but just the one quote you want to verify.
With writing the articles, I was tasked with research about the topic and interviewing at least three sources regarding the subject matter. Interviews were probably one of the most challenging parts of the internship, especially because I was remote. At times it’s a game of phone tag or certain individuals only want to be interviewed via email.
I’ve always been a people person and never really struggled with talking or getting others to talk. Before taking on this internship, I’ve had limited experience with conducting interviews, especially with people I didn’t know. Learning how to interview and the types of questions readers would ask, is a new skill I’ve gained. Throughout this summer, I’ve become so comfortable with calling my interviews and elaborating on their answers. This is one reason I knew I was fit to become a journalist because I’m always so inquisitive. It’s been really rewarding knowing that I have interviewed people who were Assemblymen, the Mayor, and local business owners.
Once I finished the research and conducting interviews, my next steps were to write the article and submit it to my editors for edits. But before submitting, I spend a lot of time perfecting the headline and lede. I’ve definitely improved with writing headlines that summarize the entire story but is catchy. The same goes for writing a lede that provides the main topic of the article. Sometimes this can be so tricky because an article may contain so much content that I have trouble getting to the root of the most critical information I am trying to inform readers about.
The next part after writing the article is collecting photos and writing captions. Another area that I have immensely improved in is writing captions. Not just any captions, but audience attention-grabbing ones. My other assigned duties included reorganizing the subscriber's list. Because the paper had to go digital due to COVID-19 and not being able to have access to the printing facility, we needed to make sure that we had email addresses for the more than 450 subscribers we had. This included calling and getting updated contact information and verifying that all subscribers had received every issue since going digital and creating a list of which individuals needed any back issues.
Another rewarding experience gained from my internship was the ability to learn how to do the layout for a paper. I’ve only ever learned once prior, but every layout editor has a unique style. But if I had to choose the highlight of my entire experience with The Skagway News, it would be educating my family and friends about local news. It’s really fulfilling when you help educate and open someone’s eyes about important topics that they weren’t away about. Being a person who didn’t really read much news until I became a journalism major and more so, after this internship, it might be one of the best gifts to give anyone. Throughout my internship, I’ve had family and friends tell me that they learned something they didn’t really know about because of one of the articles that I wrote.
Lastly, The Skagway News allowed me to connect with a community of people that I wouldn’t have otherwise ever had the chance to meet, even if it’s only through the phone, email, or Zoom calls. Growing up in Anchorage, it’s rare to these days to know your neighbor, let alone have the cell phone number of the Mayor This internship has paved the way of my impact on the world of news and my life’s purpose. I thank The Skagway News for the networking connections I’ve made but more importantly reminding me of the meaning of being connected to your community. A community that relies on its local newspaper to deliver accurate and up-to-date news coverage.