Soon after I graduated from the University of Maryland-College Park in December 2012 with a master’s degree in multi-platform journalism, I moved cross country to Seattle and began a search for a full-time job that would incorporate my new multimedia skills with my continued love of writing and editing.
What began in summer 2013 as a freelance gig doing social media consulting and web stories turned into a full-time job for me in December 2013. Since then I’ve been the multimedia editor for NORTHWEST CATHOLIC, the official publication for the Archdiocese of Seattle.
I came aboard right as the archdiocese’s long-running weekly newspaper, The Catholic Northwest Progress, transitioned into a new monthly magazine, website and multi-platform initiative. What had been a fairly small circulation newspaper suddenly became a print publication that went to 123,000 homes in Western Washington state and a website that could potentially reach far beyond that.
My job includes overseeing Northwest Catholic Online, including updating the site daily with international and national news, handling Northwest Catholic’s social media presence, integrating photo/audio/video components between the website and the magazine, and writing feature and web stories.
Despite the vast transformation in the journalism world from a print to a digital focus, one of the ongoing challenges for NORTHWEST CATHOLIC has been getting the word out that we are “more than just a magazine.” In fact the bulk of my daily work focuses on NWCatholic.org, social media and multimedia.
In June 2015, NORTHWEST CATHOLIC won 19 awards from the Catholic Press Association, many of which were for work that never appeared directly in the magazine. The awards validated the work of our relatively new initiative, and I’m excited to continue finding new ways to expand and enrich our online and multimedia content in particular.
