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Info
- Senior Director, Digital Media at NBC NewsBroadcast Media | Greater New York City Area, USSummaryI'm a hard-worker and self-starter who is passionate about storytelling.
Won an Emmy as part of team producing, "Outstanding Morning Programming."
Started working in television news production in 2002.
Have strong interests in social media.Specialties: Producing video, working on tight deadlines, digital news-gathering.Experience- Oct 2011 - PresentSenior Director Digital Media / NBC News
- May 2010 - Oct 2011Director of Social Media / NBC News-Oversee social media initiatives across the news division. -Manage NBC News’ usage of social media to increase awareness of show programming, interactivity with viewers, and outreach to target audience groups.
- Aug 2007 - May 2010Multimedia Producer / NBC News-Produced live and tape segments for NBC's Today. -Contributed stories to NBC Nightly News and MSNBC.com. -Created and maintained @todayshow on Twitter.
- Sept 2006 - Jul 2007Associate Producer / NBC News-Worked overnight shift. "Crashed" late-breaking news for NBC's TODAY. -Traveled to Athens and Torino to cover Olympics. -Pitched and booked guests.
- Oct 2004 - Aug 2006Researcher / NBC News-Worked closely with anchors on "day of air" segments. -Covered breaking news. -Booked guests.
- Sept 2002 - Sept 2004Production Assistant / NBC News-Formatted rundown of live show. -Printed and ran scripts.
- Oct 2001 - Aug 2002Page / NBC Universal-Held assignments within corporate communications, news media, and studio operations. -Worked on production of SNL, Late Night with Conan O'Brien and internal events. -Performed guided tours of NBC studios.
Education-
1997 - 2001Vanderbilt UniversityB.A. in English, Spanish
Activities: Vanderbilt Hustler, Pi Kappa Alpha
Additional Information-
Websites:
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Interests:broadcast media, social media, movies, rock and roll
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Tweets
- @jesseredniss Cool. Will do.
- @mcatwellons Thanks for playing.
- @gavinpurcell Definitely. So many vendors and most don't actually work but have been really impressed by them.
- Includes perspective from @KellyMcB and @DMeeksDC. RT @nbcnightlyvideo Video: Times-Picayune driven to downsize http://t.co/FVByrJddMay 24, 12 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- RT @msnbc_pictures Fight breaks out in #Ukraine parliament over official use of #Russian language. http://t.co/eA8wSWx5May 24, 12 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- @iAustinHunt I'm too busy responding on Twitter. :)
- @joshsternberg It is a wasteland.
- The Facebook phone. http://t.co/963Qy4hV
- @JennMarss You don't need tickets to come to plaza but get here early.
- @NishaChittal I'm also curious. Will share how many people do it. Have you used?
- RT @Viggle Contest Alert! Check into NBC's @todayshow for 500 pts. & a shot to win 2 Pitbull concert tix! http://t.co/aHzWwou6 #PitbullTODAYMay 24, 12 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- "I feel like I'm giving everything I have for these images." Such a beautiful spot by @Asch5: http://t.co/vZekVY3Z #TheTutuProjectMay 24, 12 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- @jtramsay Didn't know. Crazy to think of all that talent together. Thanks for sharing.
- @johnkeegan "Don't work with assholes" was my favorite part.May 23, 12 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- This advice from @SG had me at Silver Jews quote but got only better as continued reading. Applies to more than PR. http://t.co/SRYNV0OuMay 23, 12 from web Reply, Retweet, Favorite
- @MsLaurenRae @JohnNess That place has a real life Instagram filter.
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Photos
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Videos
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Posts
- Jun 30, 11
It has been a little over a year since I changed jobs. While some days I still miss producing TV, I have enjoyed the challenge of focusing on social media. I'm always learning but below are five lessons, both professional and personal, that I wanted to share.
1) Titles Mean Nothing
I'm convinced that there are people who are moving forward with new ideas and there are those who are standing still. From business unit to business unit, there is no correlation between where these two groups sit within an organizational chart. The best ideas can come from anywhere and the challenge is to stay open to them.
2) Scale
"Does it scale?" is a question that TV producers don't have to answer. When working in television, you have a good idea and with some very hard work it finds its way on to the TV screen. When working online, a good idea needs scale. Key questions to answer: Would this concept work across other properties? Can we itirate the idea and over time make it in to something bigger?
3) Developers are the New Cameramen
I was always amazed by a how good shooter could take a mediocre story and make it great. Making sure a cameraman was caffeinated and well fed were habits that I picked up quickly while working in the field. As I've learned more about the web, a similar dynamic applies to developers. They are the ones who turn concepts in to reality and separate the great from the mediocre.
4) Community is King
I hate to play off a bad media cliche but a common theme that I have seen across the most successful brands online is that they allow their fans to feel a part of the product in a unique way. No matter the platform, the secret sauce is community.
5) Family is All that Matters
About six months ago, I became a dad. Every day I'm so grateful for my family. My wife and daughter are a constant reminder of what is most important.
- Jun 18, 11
Most of the stuff that parents do with flashcards and special drills and tutorials to hone their kids into perfect achievement machines don't have any effect at all. Instead, parents just have to be good enough. They have to provide their kids with stable and predictable rhythms. They need to be able to fall in tune with their kids' needs, combining warmth and discipline. They need to establish the secure emotional bonds that kids can fall back upon in the face of stress. They need to be there to provide living examples of how to cope with the problems of the world so that their children can develop unconscious models in their head.
-David Brooks, "The Social Animal"
- Dec 01, 10
5) "Trouble" by Ray Lamontagne
Forget your umbrella, just remember this album.
4) "Being There" by Wilco
Some great ups and even better downs, this album always play well on a rainy day.
3) "Time (The Revelator)" by Gillian Welch
An album made for stormy weather.
2) "Rainy Day Music" by Jayhawks
Too easy but definitely solid.
1) "Heartbreaker" by Ryan Adams
Perfect for a bad breakup or a bad downpour.
*List inspired by @MSLaurenRae's tweet.
- Aug 22, 10
I recently finished reading "The Facebook Effect" by David Kirkpatrick and highly recommend it. Below are a few interesting quotes that I think offer some insights, especially for news organizations.
"Facebook is founded on a radical social premise--that an inevitable enveloping transparency will overtake modern life. But through strength of conviction, consistency, and strategic flexibility, Zuckerberg has been able to keep Facebook true to this premise despite the pressures that have come as it grows toward 500 million users. To understand Facebook's history you must understand Zuckerberg's views about what at Facebook they call 'radical transparency.'" (pg. 200)
"..the rationale Zuckerberg gave internally for the News feed: 'A squirrel dying in front of your house may be more relevant to your interests right now than people dying in Africa.' Now your every move on Facebook might become news for your friends." (pg. 296)
"So how do traditional media organizations fit into this new personcentric information architecture? Paradoxically, if they are to most benefit from the Facebook environment they have to learn to function within it as if they were individuals. The playing field has been leveled by the site's neutral way of treating all messages as similar. Any media company, newspaper, or TV station can create its own page on Facebook. But then it faces the same mandate to generate interesting, relevant, and useful messages that an individual does." (pg. 297)
- Aug 01, 10I find a lot of inspiration in the music of the Hold Steady. The lyrics of Craig Finn focus on universal themes of redemption, forgiveness and the power of positivity.I've been thinking about how a few of his lyrics seem particularly relevant to the current state of media. Below are my favorite examples.
"It's one thing to start it with a positive jam and it's another thing to see it all through."
Lesson: Too many focus on an idea and not the execution.
"God only knows it's not always a positive thing to see a few seconds into the future."
Lesson: The first steps of innovation are often met with resistance.
"Everyone's a critic and most people are DJs."
Lesson: Everyone has an opinion.
"There's gonna come a time when the true scene leaders forget where they differ and get big picture."
Lesson: The biggest challenge is not from competition but instead from within organizations that are tied to institutional process.
"Words alone could never save us."
Lesson: Enough talking about it already.
- Jun 27, 10
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Posts
“I can’t say it enough times: Stay true to your vision. Remember why you do it… What you do, who you are – that’s your art. That’s all you have.”
Flight of Passage – beautiful short film about perseverance and doing what you love, narrated by Beta Band Steve Mason and featuring skateboarder Ben Nordberg. Directed by James Gardner.
Forget your personal tragedy. We are all bitched from the start and you especially have to hurt like hell before you can write seriously. But when you get the damned hurt use it—don’t cheat with it. Be as faithful to it as a scientist—but don’t think anything is of any importance because it happens to you or anyone belonging to you.
Hemingway’s letter of advice to F. Scott Fitzgerald, a fine addition to other notable advice on writing. (via explore-blog)OK, Plants & Animals. You’ve either wittingly or unwittingly set the bait, and I’ll bite. But this better be damn good.
I didn’t make that up and that’s a fact. It came from a small paragraph in a paper which means you kill yourself and you make a big old sacrifice and try to get your revenge. That all you’re gonna end up with is a paragraph in a newspaper. Sixty-three degrees and cloudy in a suburban neighborhood. That’s the beginning of the video and that’s the same thing is that in the end, it does nothing … nothing changes. The world goes on and you’re gone. The best revenge is to live on and prove yourself. Be stronger then those people. And then you can come back. That’s kinda what I did. Now all those people who were my enemies want to be my friends. They don’t understand why, uh, I don’t respond to them.
Though always unique in their own horror, each school shooting always makes me think of this interview with Eddie Vedder.The demand for online content globally is virtually limitless. In some cases it’s just an economic opportunity for content providers. But for many nations obtaining and distributing required content will be critical to their political stability.
Insight from Peter Francese at OPA Summit 2012There’s a period in your 20s when everyone’s partying and having fun. Then a few years later, it’s not so much fun. Some people adjust, and some people don’t. When I was in my early 20s, I worked in an office for a while, and I saw these people a little older than me just drifting. They were making just enough money to pay the rent and go out drinking. Before long they’re caught in something they can’t quite control; they feel trapped in their own lives.
Craig Finn talks to Paste MagazineJack White’s debut solo album, Blunderbuss, is out April 24. Listen to the first single here.
The working title of the LP that eventually became The Beatles was A Doll’s House, and this painting by “Patrick” (John Byrne) was commissioned, then rejected, for the cover.
If you look at your Facebook newsfeed you’ll see stories about cute animals mixed with breaking news mixed with personal updates mixed with humor and jokes and entertainment and so you know, why not create a content site for that world instead of a world where you have to pretend that everything on one site is serious, and everything on another site is a joke?
PC Mag interviews Jonah Peretti.
“Take Bath”
Woodie Guthrie’s New Year’s resolutions list heading into 1942. A fine addition to the lists, to-dos, and illustrated inventories of famous creators.
Actress Rebecca Hall stars in the new video for James Blake’s “A Case of You”.
That night I met you I wrote: It is possible i have imagined my entire life.
Sarah Manguso, Address to an Absent Lover (via kellybergin)
What a beautiful thought to have about someone.
(via moorehn)
Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is non-existent. And don’t bother concealing your thievery—celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: ‘It’s not where you take things from—it’s where you take them to.’
Jim Jarmusch (via redvelvetteacake)BreakingNews expands overseas with UK launch: In our first international expansion, we’re excited to announce we’re rolling out a United Kingdom edition of BreakingNews in partnership with MSN UK. BreakingNews.com along with MSN UK’s redesigned site now feature real-time updates from the UK. We’ve also launched a new Twitter account, @breakingnewsUK, which complements @breakingnews with UK-focused updates.
Our new London-based team of Dave Wyllie (@journodave) and Tom McArthur (@TomMcArthur) are powering the new service. From the riots to the News of the World scandal, the UK has experienced a tremendous year of news so far. Our London team will help strengthen BreakingNews’ overall global coverage, including the European debt crisis and continuing unrest in the Middle East and North Africa.
MSN UK is our first editorial distribution partner to publish BreakingNews coverage around the clock. With a new focus on real-time news, MSN UK rolled out a full-scale redesign today. On the MSN home and news pages, we’re providing a continuous stream of updates and direct links to news organizations — and eyewitnesses on social media — who are first to break original stories.
About 350,000 people in the UK already follow @breakingnews on Twitter — the most for any country after the US. In addition to our relationship with MSN UK, Twitter analytics played a considerable role in informing where we launch our first international edition.
BreakingNews’ 24/7 editorial team uses social media tools to discover, verify and link breaking stories from news organizations and eyewitnesses in real time. For news organizations in the UK that frequently break original stories, the new BreakingNews edition will provide a new burst of referrals.
In fact, if you’re a publisher interested in learning more about getting your stories quickly in front of our editors, please take a look at our Twitter hashtag fast-track program. Over 160 publishers are adding #breaking and @breakingnews to their tweets, tipping our editorial team moments after the tweet is sent.
(Post by Cory Bergman, @corybe)Roadmap to world domination.
Earlier generations have weathered recessions, of course; this stall we’re in has the look of something nastier. Social Security and Medicare are going to be diminished, at best. Hours worked are up even as hiring staggers along: Blood from a stone looks to be the normal order of things “going…
One of the best pieces of advice I ever got, back when I was 23 and newly out of school, is this: look around and figure out who you want to be on your team. Figure out the people around you that you want to work with for the rest of your life. Figure out the people who are smart & awesome, who share your values, who get things done — and maybe most important, who you like to be with and who you want to help win. And treat them right, always. Look for ways to help, to work together, to learn. Because in 20 years you’ll all be in amazing places doing amazing things.
John Lilly (via parislemon)
- 131 plays
