How do you get to be a Web producer at a major market station? For Sam Kosmas, it took a little luck and a lot of hard work. He’s 28 and works the early shift (starting at 4:30 a.m.) for the Fox station in Washington, DC.
When I visited the newsroom yesterday, Kosmas was dealing with a breaking news story. Police had made another arrest in the murder of Washington Redskins football player Sean Taylor. It was a big local story, but the arrest was made in Florida. The Web team headed by Rich Murphy needed to post a picture of the new suspect as well as a video update, but it wasn’t a simple process. While Murphy worked the phones and email trying to confirm information, Kosmas used multiple software programs to pull and convert video from the midday newscast and to resize a full-screen TV graphic for use online.
When Kosmas was a student, he says he never considered becoming a Web journalist. But now that he is one, he has some advice for anyone who’s interested in a Web journalism career.
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