Reflecting on 20 years in Journalism

Depending on how you marked time, today marks 20 years in the journalism business for me.

Not counting the 5 internships before between 2002 and 2004, two decades ago today, I officially started my first job in journalism at The Press-Enterprise in Inland Empire in Southern California as a staff writer.

Like many of my peers at the time, if you did well at your summer internships and kept in touch and kept learning, there was a good chance you’d have the opportunity to come back. I got that chance on December 27, 2004.

Thanks to a stellar summer internship at the PE’s Banning bureau, back when the paper had 8! bureaus and zoned editions and freelancing on the weekends afterwards as I wrapped up my final semester at LMU, I kept in touch with the paper’s editors and recruiters. As it turns out, they were expanding their Southwest bureau which was based in Temecula.

It was there where I picked up much of what I still use today on the other side as an editor - covering a beat, talking to sources, verify and storytelling. Thanks to the PE, I’ve been able to keep evolving my career at local, national and international news orgs from California to New York to Texas.

I don’t think I could have imagined this is where my career would lead me but I’m grateful to those editors at the PE who believed in me back then and gave me my shot: Jose Arballo Jr, Mark Acosta, Maria De Varenne and so many others. RIP to Ray Griffith - the PE recruiter and editor who offered me that summer internship and later my first job. Thank you for giving me and many others their start.