It’s been a while since I lasted posted. In fact, the last time I posted on my blog, I was a week shy of graduation from the Medill School of Journalism, where I got my Masters. Well, a lot has happened since!

Soon after graduation, I got a call from NY1 News, the 24-hour Time Warner Cable news station in New York City, offering me a reporter position. I jumped at the opportunity, and less than two weeks later found myself uprooting to Manhattan and starting my first post-school job.

I work as a one-man-band reporter for NY1’s Local Edition. Basically, I’m a general news reporter assigned to cover either Queens, Staten Island, or Bergen County New Jersey, depending on the day. What does that mean? Well, here’s a look at my typical day:

Each morning, I call into the station and speak with the morning anchor for the borough I’m covering that day. We discuss what story I’ll be working on that day – sometimes there is breaking news, sometimes a pre-scheduled press conference or interesting event, and sometimes I’ll enterprise a story.

Then I head into the station in Chelsea, pick up my camera, my tripod and a car and head out to my story. After I’m done shooting, I head to one of our local bureaus in Queens, Staten Island and Jersey to write and edit. And after the package and a vo-sot version are all done, I head back to Chelsea, then back home.

Having never lived in New York City before, one-man-banding was an interesting challenge at first. I had to navigate streets I had never driven, and get used to working by myself essentially from the beginning of my day until the end. But the most rewarding part of one-man-banding is that every day I come out with a finished product that is entirely mine, from start to finish – my shots, my words, my editing – and that’s incredibly gratifying (Though a producer must approve my script and an anchor must approve my final package).

Over the last eight months, I’ve had some incredible experiences out in the field. I’d have to say my favorite memories from reporting were during election season. During the elections, I was mostly covering Staten Island and the congressional race between incumbent Democrat Michael McMahon and Republican challenger Michael Grimm. I loved covering the race, getting to know both candidates, and really learning about the ins and outs of political reporting.

Other great memories from election season were interviewing gubernatorial candidates Andrew Cuomo and Carl Paladino and interviewing former Mayor Rudy Giuliani. When I interviewed Carl Paladino it was actually the day before the primary race, where most people were focusing attention on his opponent Rick Lazio. He came to Staten Island to campaign and claimed that if elected governor, he would work to eliminate the tolls on the Verrazano bridge. And since he wasn’t yet the center of a media fire storm, it was actually just a one on one interview between me and him.

With Giuliani, I actually interviewed him twice. Once when he was campaigning on behalf of Congressional candidate Michael Grimm, and later on Veterans Day, when he was participating in the Stephen Siller Charity golf fundraiser in Staten Island. Since I had all my gear with me, he offered to drive me in his golf cart to the next hole. We talked about the golf course he was playing at, Richmond Hill Country Club, and how it was the only private golf club in the city.

Those are a few of my favorite memories from reporting thus far, but I’m going to save the rest for future blog posts! Thanks for checking back in! And make sure to catch my stories at www.ny1.com.