Five Ws and an H

Movin' on to metro

2007-06-05T19:22:00.000-05:00

I had an interesting meeting this morning with the metro editor and managing editor. A breakfast meeting, no less, which meant I had to chug my iced Americano with nonfat milk before I arrived at the restaurant or risk lots of monosyllabic mumbling.

So here's what my big bosses had to say: They want to move me to the metro staff, asap. Meaning next week. I'll be supervising our summer interns, covering education and filling in for the enterprise team leader for about a month when she's on vacation. Thank god the education beat is a little slower in the summer. Otherwise, I'll probably need a cot and a sleeping bag next to my desk. Definitely need to upgrade my a.m. Americano from a single to a double.

Greensburg

2007-05-13T14:22:00.000-05:00

As a features writer, I'm sometimes frustrated by how fluffy my assignments can be (two recent stories come to mind, one consisting of date night tips, another devoted to new advances in umbrella technology). Every once in a while, I get pulled away from these scintillating stories to help with breaking-news coverage. Such was the case last week, when I spent the day at a shelter for tornado evacuees from Greensburg, Kan. The storm, one of the most destructive types of tornadoes, had leveled the town of 1,400 about 36 hours before. Ten people died and the survivors were just starting to make sense of their losses. One couple was gracious enough to sit with me for nearly an hour to share their story. It and a few other vignettes I wrote ran along with the hard-news coverage. I hope their stories helped put a human face on the tragedy.

I always approach these assignments with mixed feelings: compassion for those who've lost so much; guilt that I can go home to my normal life; the adrenaline and anxiety that comes with deadline pressure; and the heavy responsibility of telling the story as truthfully and honorably as possible. But once the stories are filed, I go back to writing about pop culture and feel empty inside. Some of my co-workers on the news side say they envy my freedom from the daily grind. The truth is, I'd trade it in a minute for the feeling that what I did every day mattered.

Using your voice

2007-04-28T20:58:00.000-05:00

I'm not a columnist, so I don't get to write in first person very often. On occasion I get to fill in for my columnist colleagues, which is a treat. It lets me express my opinion on everything from video games to Chinese food, and to work universal themes into my stories.

As much as I enjoy putting together a deeply reported story, these little pieces are so satisfying because they're quick, voice-y and fun. And who couldn't use a little more fun at work?

KPA awards

2007-04-22T18:03:00.000-05:00

The ceremony for the Kansas Press Association awards was this weekend. I didn't attend the schmoozefest in Topeka, but one of my
stories won first place in the "youth" category. It's no Pulitzer, but at least I can call myself an award-winning journalist.

Features section Q&A

2007-04-22T15:03:00.000-05:00

This is a little profile of me that ran in the paper in December '06. It gives a good overview of my work and my life in Wichita:

Meet the people behind WichiTalk

Jillian Cohan, 29, reporter

I get paid to...

Party! Well, kinda. I write about pop music and pop culture for The Eagle, which means I go to a lot of concerts and hipster happenings like poetry slams and roller derby bouts. When it comes to WichiTalk, my editor says I specialize in stories about cool women doing cool things.

Personal history

I'm a New England native (a Vermonter, to be precise). I studied English lit at a college in western Massachusetts (in one of those quaint towns where there's ivy on every building and a million coffee shops to choose from).

After working in magazines for a few years, I got a master's degree in journalism from a university in New York (the school shall remain nameless, but its basketball team was recently whupped by WSU in the Carrier Dome). I've also lived in Boston and southern Pennsylvania.

What was your first impression of Wichita?

To a girl raised in the mountains, it's really flat. I prefer to stay in town, where there are buildings to break up the skyline. Being out on the prairie makes me dizzy.

What's your current impression?

I love living downtown, for several reasons. 1) My co-workers immediately considered me a "hip urban dweller," even though I'm more dorky than trendy. 2) It makes my job easier because all I have to do is walk through my neighborhood to know what's new in nightlife. 3) I won't ever be stranded in the office during a snowstorm. 4) Even though Wichita is a sprawling city, Old Town feels as intimate as the town I grew up in (pop. 700).

Covering concerts: Perk or pain?

Depends on the night. I've covered concerts that were a blast (Michael Buble, pure showmanship; the late Lou Rawls, pure class), and I've been to shows where I wished for earplugs (Big & Rich, cartoonish; Raven Symone, a 10-year-old's delight and an adult's nightmare).

Just like a sportswriter covering a game, when I'm at a show I'm on a tight deadline. And because of that deadline I rarely get to see the end of a performance. (After the Rolling Stones concert, friends kept raving about "Sympathy for the Devil." I never heard it because it was late in the show. I didn't want to blow deadline.)

Favorite nightspot:

I tend to gravitate toward Old Town bars because I can walk home from them, but I steer clear of clubs that have a line on Friday and Saturday nights.

The Anchor and Oeno are my current faves since they accommodate nonsmokers. But I also enjoy the Vagabond's Wednesday night poetry readings enough to drive to Delano.

Canine or feline?

I have come to love a few pugs owned by friends, but I was born a cat person and I ain't changin'.

My Wichita family includes Miles and Jeff (you decide which is the boyfriend and which is the feline). When I was in high school and perennially single, friends always teased me I'd grow up to be a crazy cat lady. There's still time.

My resume

2007-04-22T14:04:00.000-05:00

Jillian Cohan

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E X P E R I E N C E

Metro Reporter, The Wichita Eagle, Wichita, Kan.
August 2007–Present
• Beat writer covering education and youth issues for the largest newspaper in Kansas, with circulation of 91,000 daily/149,000 Sunday.
• Acting enterprise team leader, July-August 2007.
• Intern program supervisor, summer 2007.

Entertainment Reporter, The Wichita Eagle, Wichita, Kan.
August 2005–July 2007
• Covered pop music, pop culture and general features topics.
• Compiled and edited stories for weekly personal-technology and music-review sections.
• Edited drafts of the Eagle’s nonfiction book about the BTK killer, forthcoming from Harper Collins.

Graduate Intern/GA Reporter, The Palm Beach Post, West Palm Beach, Fla.
May–July 2005
• Wrote news and feature articles in a suburban bureau of morning newspaper with circulation of 190,000.

Metro Reporter, The Post-Standard, Syracuse, N.Y.
January–April 2005
• Covered education and religion part time for a morning newspaper with circulation of 125,000 daily and 175,000 on Sunday.

Staff Writer, Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa.
February 2002–April 2004
• Wrote feature-length articles and news stories for Dickinson Magazine, an alumni quarterly.
• Created copy for admissions brochures, newsletters and other college communications pieces.

Freelance Writer, York, Pa.
August 2001–April 2004
• Wrote feature-length articles for local newspapers and magazines.

Managing Editor, Teen Voices, Boston, Mass.
June 2000–June 2001
• Managed the editorial and production departments for a national magazine with 75,000 readers, and for Teen Voices Online, a companion Web site.
• Coordinated all aspects of print production, from editorial proposal through bluelines.
• Supervised editorial assistants and led educational workshops for staff, interns and teenage editors.
• Oversaw article submission process, fact checking and copy editing.
• Developed budget and strategic plan for each fiscal year.
• Produced feature-length articles through mentoring program with at-risk urban teenagers.

E D U C A T I O N

Syracuse University, S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, Syracuse, N.Y.
July 2004–June 2005
• M.A. in print journalism; graduate assistant for Goldring Arts Journalism Program

Smith College, Northampton, Mass.
September 1995–May 1999
• B.A. in English Language and Literature with high honors, cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa

A W A R D S

• 2007: First-place winner in the “youth” category of the Kansas Press Association’s annual Awards of Excellence. The contest included more than 3,200 entries from 86 newspapers.
• 2003: Gold medal for excellence in feature writing from the Council for the Support and Advancement of Education (CASE), District II. CASE is the professional organization for college communications departments.

S K I L L S

• Microsoft Office, Harris Newsmaker, Dewar View, QuarkXpress, Adobe Photoshop and Typepad.
• Associated Press and Chicago style, fact checking, Lexis-Nexis, Proquest and other online research tools.