Internship 14

Kathy Day, La Jolla Light News Editor

La Jolla

What made you interested in newswriting?

I just started doing it in Junior High. I always liked it. It's a good way to get to know interesting people and talk to people, and you get to share interesting stories with readers and also give them information that helps them learn of the world around them.

What'd you have to do in order to become where you are today?

I had to have a degree in journalism. I had a summer internship that got my foot in the door during college and I got a job with it after I graduated. I was in public relations business, I've done freelance writing so I could great a broad view of the business. At first I was a copy editor, then a reporter, then a data reporter for a long time. Eventually, I worked my way up.

Why are you interested in newswriting?

I think it's important that people know more than what they get on a television, tv news, the internet, etc. In newspapers, you get to tell more of the story than tv news. It's always been my that people need to know what schools and government, etc. are doing. I really like being at the community level. Although I don't LIVE in La Jolla, I treat the readers like my neighbors. Readers and sources have to know about the readers to be on that level.

Sometimes, if you're working on a story and it's somebody you've known a long time and you have a good relationship with, but you find out they didn't tell the truth, perhaps broke the law, you've gotta step back from being nice to becoming the bad cop and wanting to push info out of them. Sometimes, you have to flat out say "you lied to me -- tell me the truth now." Sometimes you have to go around the backdoor in order to get information.

Sometimes you have to be hard nosed to get the story you need, you have to ask hard questions and the people you interview won't like it. But if you create a good relationship with your interviewees and they know you're just doing your job, then they're likely to open up to you more.