5 questions with CNN senior producer Kendall Trammell
On finding audiences, finding jobs and finding purpose
In PRESS AHEAD’s 5 Questions series, journalists share practical advice about journalism jobs and newsroom careers.
Kendall Trammell knows her audience. As senior producer for CNN Digital’s weekend programming, she creates pathways into the day’s top news through headlines, alerts and social posts on (and off) CNN’s platforms, for millions of audience members.
Since she graduated from the University of Georgia in 2016, Kendall has guided coverage for audiences of some of the world’s most pivotal moments, from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to the protests that followed George Floyd’s death.
I caught up with Kendall — a 2022 Gwen Ifill Fellow — to talk about her own pathways, the best advice she’s gotten (“data or it didn’t happen”), early career uncertainty (“It's OK if your plans change”) and more.
Why journalism as a career for you?
I had an end of year project for my AP European History class my sophomore year of high school where we had to apply to a college, select a major and put together a presentation on why. I was a student who had a lot of interests and was relatively good at your usual core classes. My strongest subject was English, but I had a biology teacher who pushed me to see how good I was at science because my science fair projects followed the scientific method very closely. You pair this with my interests in subjects like civics, Spanish and theater, and somehow journalism rests in the center. I realized to be a good journalist, you had to be empathetic and a good communicator (theater and English), you needed to be willing to explore the answer to a question (all of those science fairs I entered) and naturally be curious about a number of topics (everything else that piqued my interest). It wasn't until I had this project that I truly realized journalism was a career and one I thought could be a good fit for me.
My family will tell you I LOVED talking when I was growing up. (Listening is an important part of journalism, too. I just learned that a lot later.) I think it's because of my exposure to news at such a young age. I have these previous memories of sitting on my grandfather's lap when I was a toddler, and we would watch CNN while solving The New York Times crossword puzzles. On the way to school drop-off, my parents would listen to talk radio and when we got home, we'd watch the evening news. On a daily basis, I saw how journalism shaped the conversations happening right at my dinner table. Then those conversations would influence public opinion, election outcomes and how we remember history. That's a powerful role to play, and I wanted to be a part of it.
What was your first job and how did you get it?
I was a shareable content specialist at Rare.us, an online trending news site, through Cox Media Group's Digital Talent Program. I created the brand's video distribution strategy and produced social-first videos and learned a lot about how to connect with audiences through headlines and social copy written with voice.
The Digital Talent Program placed recent college graduates at properties with full-time positions. I made a strong connection with a supervisor at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution after she had interviewed and offered me a summer internship. When I started, she had just left the company for a new role at Rare. It was conveniently a few floors down, so we kept in touch, and that's how I learned about Rare along with the Digital Talent Program. That involved several rounds of interviews, but it felt natural because I was already familiar with the company and they were familiar with me.
What specific advice do you have for someone breaking into journalism?
Read. A lot. Of course, stay up-to-date on the news, but diversify your news sources and how you consume news (newsletters, audio, social platforms, mobile versus desktop, print versus TV, etc.). Also, make sure you're staying across trends happening across the journalism industry. You can follow organizations like the American Press Institute, Pew Research Center, Neiman Lab and Digiday to keep you informed about the issues and conversations happening across media.
What’s the best career advice you’ve ever gotten?
Track everything you do. Not just the stories you've produced or projects you've been a part of, but how those stories performed and what came out of those projects. Someone once told me "data or it didn't happen." You need data or "evidence" that supports what you say you've done and can do. I keep a folder in my email with projects I'm proud of, shoutouts I've received, analytics on stories I've worked on and even screenshots of moments that illustrate my strengths.
Anything else you’d want to tell student journalists/early career journalists?
It's OK if your plans change. After I started my first job after graduation, I realized I wanted to focus my career elsewhere and that meant changing companies after 12 months. I was self-conscious about that for a while. I felt defeated as if I was already messing up my career and worried about how that might look on my resume to a future employer. But journalism — as a product as well as a career — is constantly changing. People make horizontal pivots just as much as they seek promotions. All of these experiences, whether you see them as positive or negative, can help us grow and shape our careers into something special. Everyone's path is different. Take the time to reflect and then ask yourself, "How can I turn this into an opportunity?"
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Thank you for sharing your experience and specific advice, Kendall!
Everyone, I hope you are inspired and enjoy a peaceful weekend (wait, did I just jinx the weekend news crews?).
— Amy
Here’s a cat gif for further inspiration and as thanks for reading. And if you want to learn more about finding jobs and navigating newsrooms, consider a subscription. It’s more fun than a cat conducting a Q&A. 👇 More good stuff after the cat 🐱👇
Good stuff links!
Revenue for hundreds of local news orgs went up last year, according to one set of numbers (Nieman Lab)
What is the ‘product’ of journalism? David Cohn writing for Poynter:
“We could just throw up our hands and find product people from outside our industry to solve this, but if products are a kind of manifesto on how journalism can be rethought, is this really something we should outsource?”
Local news field guide workshop series from Google News Initiative/Chalkbeat
Moving from ads, cheap subscriptions to events, newsletters, memberships — Project to test new business model for rural, weekly news (University of Kansas)
What’s ahead … on PRESS AHEAD!
🔔 Coming later this month: Career Kit 🔔
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THE RESUME: Journalism-specific resume tips and templates for working journalists, students looking for their first full-time jobs and students seeking internships
THE PORTFOLIO: Journalism-specific portfolio advice and sample/template portfolios for news
THE INTERVIEW: 10 common job interview questions (and suggestions on how to frame your journalism answers so they don’t sound like BS)
+ Journalism-specific interview questions if you’re a hiring managerTHE CAREER: DIY Career Clinic: Where do I go from here? Some questions and action steps to guide you on your journalism career path
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