The Men of Ink took a trip to the Inner Harbor and the Baltimore Banner, looking for an overall better understanding of Journalism and how the process works.
The Baltimore Banner is a newer online paper in the Baltimore area, on its 507th day online when we visited, that aims to be an indispensable resource that strengthens, unites and inspires our Baltimore community. “We will accomplish this,” according to their mission statement,” through trustworthy, quality journalism that tells the varied stories of our people, delivers local news that readers are willing to support, and holds our leaders accountable.”
We met with many different types of people from Richard Martin, the Deputy Managing Editor, to Hugo Kugiya, the Breaking News Reporter, and T.J. Ortenzi, the Director of Audience Engagement.
Richard Martin is the deputy managing editor at The Baltimore Banner. He oversees the day-to-day news operation, leading a growing team of journalists covering an array of beats in Baltimore, its surrounding counties and the state. He returned to Baltimore after spending three years as the criminal justice editor at the Los Angeles Times, where he oversaw coverage of some of the paper’s biggest stories, including the college admissions scandal and the 2019 deadly boat fire off the Santa Barbara coast, which was recognized as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news reporting.
Richard introduced us to everyone when we arrived. He explained who he was and what the Banner is, and he let us know we should be leading this. In addition, he shared with us his time working for different newspaper organizations and his personal rise as a journalist.
T.J. Ortenzi, the Director of Audience Engagement, shared some interesting stories and perspectives we had not heard before, showing us the marketing and analytical side of running a newspaper.
Ortenzi worked at The Washington Post for nearly 12 years in various newsroom roles before joining The Banner. He tweeted breaking news for The Post, led their Facebook Live programming, anchored a major newsletter and assigned stories on the General Assignment desk. Prior to his time at The Post, T.J. was a homepage editor for HuffPost, The Seattle Times and NOLA.com. He lives in Towson, but his family has roots in Baltimore’s Brooklyn and Curtis Bay neighborhoods and he grew up hearing stories about his grandmother’s shifts at the McCormick factory.
Hugo Kugiya shared the most interesting stories with us during our time there and really got us engaged. Now a reporter for the Express Desk, he has formerly reported for the Associated Press, Newsday, and the Seattle Times. Kugiya told us about some of his most memorable profiles from Muhammad Ali in his older years, to a local Baltimore drug dealer looking back on what had happened after his time in prison.
As a group, the Banner staff showed us what it is really like to be a journalist. Sometimes the story will find you and you just have to follow the feeling. Also that you will not find a story sitting at your desk; you have to go out and be out there and it will happen. Being out of the office and in the world, according to these pros, leads to more ideas and connections.
Journalism is not always what you think it is. Without this visit, we would still be oblivious to what really goes on behind the scenes between the marketing, the interviews and the day to day operations.
The Inkwell 