#MediaMonday – Kelsey Myers
Kelsey Myers is a producer with CBS News, based in Los Angeles. He reached out to me as I was the spokesperson for a story he was working on. It was an intense couple days, lots of back-and-forth emails and phone calls. The stories turned out great.
About a week later, Kelsey called (yes, actually on the telephone!) and I assumed it was to ask some follow-up questions. Nope, he called to thank me for all my help. Made my day, well, actually made my whole week. I was really just doing my job, but it was nice to hear from a media colleague that what we do helps them do their job better.
When I was in LA a few weeks later to visit my sister, Kelsey and I met up for lunch. Great conversations and I certainly look forward to the opportunity to work with him again.
And I thought you’d like to get to know him as well, so Kelsey, take it away.
What do you want to tell the blogosphere about yourself today? How you got in the business, favorite stories, etc.
I am an editorial producer for CBS News. I develop stories for broadcast on the network and cover a wide range of topics. This includes breaking news, sports, science, features, investigations and enterprise projects.
I connected with Abbie while covering an evacuation at Havasu Falls. I value accuracy and empathy in reporting, especially when covering scenarios where lives are impacted. I will always remember how patient, thorough and understanding Abbie was during a moment of crisis. Taking the extra moment to help ensure information was communicated clearly made a substantial difference in our coverage. It says a lot about a public relations firm and a representative of the agency when the first thing you think when you get off the phone with them is “Wow, I wonder what other projects I could work on with them?!”
I can be reached for story ideas at myersk@cbsnews.com or @kelseymyers on Twitter.
And because we still want to know more, please tell us what is your….
Favorite type of music?
I’m a music nut- if it’s interesting and compelling, I’ll usually listen to it. I was raised in a classical music household. My grandpa, Harold Wolf, studied violin at Julliard when he was a kid and went on to have lifelong career performing. He rounded out his career by playing violin on most of the major studio movie soundtracks in the 80s and 90s. He passed away about 10 years ago but it is cool to hear his legacy live on in unexpected settings. Jim Carrey’s The Mask was on my TV the other day, and I could hear him playing on the soundtrack. My sister is a violin professor in West Virginia so it is great that his legacy continues- she performs on his violin.
My wife and I have two daughters. Our older one took up guitar a couple years ago. She’s got the music gene, too, and she started teaching me guitar, which has been a fun hobby to take up in parallel with her learning to play. Both our daughters are learning to sing.
Favorite local haunts?
I am always up for exploring new places every time I visit Phoenix!
Favorite places to visit?
Part of traveling and going on adventures is making discoveries and having experiences that are genuine—so I make an effort to stay clear of touristy areas. A creative way I do this, if I have downtime, is to head to a thrift store. It’s a good way to find interesting souvenirs from a place I’m visiting and often times it will put me in an area that I would never have even know about if I had not ventured out.
Favorite food?
Shrimp.
Favorite book?
I read EVERYTHING for work. For the past few years I’ve been focusing on learning about space travel and exploration. It has paid dividends because of the rapid growth in coverage and reporting on the private space sector. I feel like I have decent understanding of a lot of the vocabulary and fundamentals that go with telling stories in this beat… and there SO MUCH to learn… it constantly feeds my curiosity.
