#MediaMonday – Jennifer A. Johnson
One of the newest faces to join the media family here in Arizona is Jennifer A. Johnson, who joined the Phoenix Business Journal this summer in the banking and finance beat.
In an effort to help welcome her to the family, today’s #MediaMonday profile is all about Jennifer!
New to #MediaMonday?
Basically, it is a weekly profile of someone in the media – but 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! (For a look at recent profiles, please click here.)
So, Jennifer, time to share!
What do you want to tell the blogosphere about yourself today?
Some folks are just born curious. I plead guilty. My first reporting job was for my grade school paper in seventh grade! I’ve been hooked on the news ever since.
I grew up in St. Louis, but have lived in New York, Chicago, Brussels, Belgium, Aarhus, Denmark, and now Phoenix since finishing my undergraduate degree in 2006.
Yup. I’ve been busy! You may have guessed by now that I love to travel. I think it goes along with being pretty darn curious. I’ve been everywhere from Ljubljana to Bratislava to Paris.
I studied abroad at the Danish School of Journalism for six months at the end of my undergraduate degree. There I wrote about the Muhammad cartoon crisis, learned about what the Danish call “risk” or war reporting, and spent a lot of time on my bike in the rain.
My first reporting gig after graduation was as a freelance writer at a suburban paper called West Newsmagazine in St. Louis. I wrote a lot about commercial development and other municipal issues. I also began working as a freelancer for the St. Louis Business Journal.
In the meantime, I received an offer to return to Europe as a trainee for a Slovak member of the European Union. I spent a spring in Brussels soaking up the international trade committee meetings and learning about the Doha Development Round of the World Trade Organization. It was at that point that I fell in love with business and economics. That internship paved the way for a full-time job as a political assistant at the European Union Parliament in Brussels.
When I returned to the states, I spent a lot of time researching Master’s programs that would combine my love for both reporting and economics. I was incredibly impressed after flying out to Phoenix to meet with Andrew Leckey, the president of the Donald W. Reynolds Center for Business Journalism at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Leckey also leads the new business journalism specialization.
I graduated with my Master’s in mass communication and business journalism in December 2010. I completed my capstone at Cronkite News Service, the statewide wire service at Cronkite. I also completed two internships at Bloomberg News in both Chicago and New York on the commodity and equity teams. It was an amazing experience!
At this point, I’ve written about topics including the NYSE Euronext bidding war, soaring cotton prices, copper mining, land swaps, the Canadian stock market, ballot propositions, parking meter debt sales and everything you can imagine in between.
I’m thrilled to be the newbie at the Phoenix Business Journal and to call the Valley home. I’m looking forward to working closely with the banking and finance community here. Please feel free to reach out to me with your stories and ideas. Jennifer
