#MediaMonday – Richard Ruelas
Each Monday, we are posting a blog to help our readers get to know the media just a little bit better.
With a TWIST!
No, we aren’t posting story pitch tips or media lists, but instead great stories from the media themselves about their lives, their work and other little known facts! Think of it as your first “networking” opportunity of the week!
Today’s #MediaMonday comes to us from Richard Ruelas, feature writer for the Arizona Republic, AZ Magazine, AZ Central and more. He is also a faculty member at the Walter Cronkite School for Journalism and Mass Communication at ASU – and even let Alison speak to his class about ethics in the wild, weird world of public relations, marketing and media.
So, Richard, time to share!
*Note – he is not sarcastic at all*
Not.
What do you want to tell the blogosphere about yourself today?
I’m a reporter at The Arizona Republic, located about three miles from St. Joseph’s Hospital, where I was born. That makes me among the increasing number of Arizona natives here.
I graduated from Arizona State University and started work at the Associated Press bureau in Phoenix.
I immediately started filing stories.
Not on the wire, but actually filing stories away in folders and putting them in cabinets. I also changed the ribbons on the printer. As a clerk, I moved my first national stories to the wire, including some on the newly elected sheriff, some guy named Joe Arpaio.
I went to The Phoenix Gazette and worked there in various capacities until it eventually went out of business…
A joke I wrote at the time:
Me: “For breakfast, I had a Gazette omelet.”
Straight man: “How do you make a Gazette omelet?”
Me: “You slowly fold it.”
I ended up filing the last original story for the Gazette. It was edited by Clay Thompson. He’s great.
I was then absorbed into the Republic, working varying beats. I was a metro columnist for a few years starting in 2000, then moved to the features desk in 2007. I now write profiles of people.
Most of them are too long.
Along the way, I’ve grown comfortable being on television and have served as substitute host for “Horizon” on Channel 8.
I plan to be on television a lot more soon. KPNX-TV is moving into the Republic building next month and I plan to do a lot of walking in the background. Possibly waving or carrying a sign of some sort.
I am also the author of two books, both on the same subject, “The Wallace and Ladmo Show,” which was a purported children’s show that ran in Arizona for 35 years, ending in 1989. It was funny – like Captain Kangaroo written by Jon Stewart and David Letterman.
Really.
One book is out of print. The other, “Thanks for Tuning In,” the biography of Wallace is still for sale at most local bookstores and would make a good gift in case there’s some sort of holiday coming up.
Alright, back to work.
