J-sch A-list Blog Writers Share Their Experiences

Story by Jaime Loke

 
Photo by Jaime Loke
From left to right: A-list blog writers Lauren Winterfeld,
JJ.Wells and Lene Lay.

"It's the coolest job!" proclaimed Lene Lay enthusiastically.

"It's fun because you're being paid to have fun," said Wells.

"It's really a way for me to get involved around town and be one-on-one with the community," said Winterfeld.

Lay together with Lauren Winterfeld and JJ Wells, second year undergraduates at The School of Journalism, are all writers on the A-list blog. The A-list blog is part of the Austin 360 website that covers events happening in Austin every week.

The A-list was started as a magnet to attract the younger crowd to the site and according to these writers it has been a huge success. The success was almost instantaneous. In the first two weeks, staff at the Austin 360 noticed the sharp spike in hits on the website.

"I don't remember the exact number Dave sent out but it was thousands and thousands and thousands more hits on a daily basis," said Winterfeld.

Recommended for the job by Dave Harmon, metro editor of the Austin American Statesman, who also teaches J315 Reporting, Writing and Editing here at U.T., the trio of J-sch students are very grateful for the opportunity they have to work on the A-list blog.

"It's been an incredible experience" said Winterfeld. "It's really extremely flexible."

"What's cool about the whole thing is that we never have to go into the office, there's no office and it's all about us doing our own thing and coming home to write the story and upload the pictures." said Wells. "It's really different."

The three writers are among the small team of writers responsible for covering all kinds of entertaining events around town -- from a rock concert to the opening of an art gallery. It is a freelance job and the writers have the liberty of selecting which events they would like to cover.

"The first go around, Gary [the editor in charge] emailed us specific events but then after playing around with it for a bit, he sends us a list of events that are going on that weekend and it's first come first served," said Winterfeld. "So we'll email him back and say hey, I want this one or, hey, I'm available for this night and he'll give us that one."

"Usually the people from the events contact Gary and let him know and then he decides with the other editors what's going to be on the A-list," said Lay.

According to these writers, the A-list is not so much a blog as it is a very informal story of what took place at a particular event. The editors of the A-list encourage the writers to be as conversational as they can in their stories so their audience will be able to relate more to their coverage.

"In fact, at the beginning we wrote them regular stories and they told us to be more informal," said Wells.

"We can really mold it to whatever we want it to be," said Winterfeld.

As much fun as they have had covering these events around Austin, they have learned a lot, too. For Lauren, she learned that being a critic was not always welcomed when a couple of bloggers angrily responded to her coverage of a band.

"When I got two angry comments for my story, I didn't really stay the entire time the band was playing so they could've gotten better...but despite those angry comments, I learned that I should stay the whole time during every event so I get a full taste of the event," said Winterfeld. "It's really important that I get the whole image of the event so I can portray it accurately."

For Lay, this job taught her to step out of her comfort zone.

"I guess I learned to put my foot out there and talk to people more, and just go for it. Don't hold back and find out what's going on and be assertive," said Lay.

Wells has not covered as many events as he would have liked to because of another job obligation which takes up most of his time. He did share that his most memorable event that he covered for the A-list was the tattoo art convention.

"There was a guy getting a tattoo of his father on his leg when I was watching," said Wells. "It was totally bizarre and cool at the same time."

For Winterfeld, her most memorable event was covering her high school crush --Brandon Boyd from the rock band Incubus.

"I had posters of Brandon Boyd on my wall when I was in high school ... so that was pretty amazing for me!" said Winterfeld.

The experience of being treated like 'real media' also contributed to the great experience.

"It was a completely different feel than some of the no-name bands I covered--like they take you in VIP, you are in between the front row and the action stage and they had all these guidelines for the media," said Winterfeld.

For Lay, her most memorable event was one of the first she covered of The Weary Boys band. "I guess the aspect of it being my first gig, and I was so excited to do the A-list and just being there with the packed crowd at the Continental Club and I had no idea what this band sounded like and as soon as they came on, it was amazing," said Lay. "I have never heard a band so good."

Lay managed to find out the inside scoop of the band when she was there. "I also found out through talking to people that the band was breaking up, so I felt like a real journalist uncovering this bit of information that not many had known about yet!"

The three writers are very grateful that Professor (and Editor) Harmon has given them this opportunity to be a part of such a cool new project.

"We have to thank Dave for this great job!" said Winterfeld.

"Absolutely," said Lay. "We wouldn't be here without him."

*As of the most current information available, the band "The Weary Boys" are still currently performing together as a group and have not made any official announcements about parting ways.*