#MediaMonday – Kris McDowell

Happy #MediaMonday! Our latest feature comes from our Public Relations Global Network partner agency in Seattle, Fearey.

Briefly share the path to your current career – why journalism?

I have a degree in Communications from the University of Minnesota and post-graduation, I began applying my skills to event planning for non-profit organizations, later transitioning to meeting planning for trade associations. I began the writing portion of things contributing to an online beer publication, for my own beer blog and for the Oregon Beer Growler. After jobs in the beer industry – working for Brewvana Brewery Tours and as a sales rep for a small, local beer distributor, I learned that The Southeast Examiner was being put up for sale by its owners of 25 years. My combination of writing and sales background seemed to be a good fit and in 2019, I became the new owner (also editor, writer, ad sales rep, etc.).

What do you look for in a story?

Being that The Southeast Examiner is a community newspaper (one of many community newspapers in Portland and the metro area), stories that specifically apply to the SE area of Portland are of greatest interest. While some articles cover items that are city-wide or state-wide, finding those ones that are relevant to our readership is important. Oftentimes, those are articles that wouldn’t be covered by larger publications, or not in as much detail.

What is something unexpected that you have learned during your career?

Overall, I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how transferable my skills are, from those learned in school to the ones I used as an event planner, all the way through to my job today. One I can point to in particular is the organizational skills that I developed producing events. Those skills have been vitally important as a small business owner. Since purchasing the paper, one thing that has surprised me is how much more connected I feel to the community. That’s come from a combination of needing to be more in touch with the things going on in the community to be able to provide relevant content to readers and also getting regular updates from neighborhood associations, who I offer column space each month to let readers know what is happening in each neighborhood.