Amanda Lee Myers

WORK EXPERIENCE

USA TODAY, remote

General assignment reporter for premium/subscriber stories, April 2022-present

• Pitch and report stories aimed at attracting new subscribers and engaging current subscribers
• Shoot and edit videos to accompany stories and make them more engaging
• Write SEO headlines, subheads and summaries designed to pull readers in

The Associated Press, Los Angeles 

Entertainment producer/videographer, May 2019-April 2022

• Develop video and text enterprise stories on the entertainment and lifestyles beat
• Interview celebrities, directors and producers for stories about film and television
• Work award shows and other major events, including being AP’s main interviewer on the red carpet for the Oscars and the Golden Globes in the 2020 awards season
• Act as a videographer for other producers as needed, shooting b-roll and interviews
• Editing video footage I either produced or shot and file them to the AP wire

Law enforcement and courts reporter, May 2015-May 2019

• Develop a law enforcement and federal courts beat covering Los Angeles County and beyond. Coverage includes officer-involved shootings, civil rights lawsuits against police and crime statistics.
• Tackle breaking news, including weeks-long coverage of the terror attack in San Bernardino. Others include the high-profile murder-suicide that locked down the UCLA campus, a wildfire that surrounded cars and people after it jumped in interstate, and fatal flash floods that trapped drivers in northern Los Angeles and Kern counties, some as long as 10 hours.
• Use social media to identify sources during breaking news events, both for color and quotes, and to get user-generated photos and videos that make our coverage stand out. For instance, for the UCLA murder-suicide, I used social media to find students posting about how they couldn’t lock their classrooms to keep a potential shooter out. That allowed me to do a same-day story that went beyond the initial breathless coverage.
• Shoot and edit photos and videos to either go with stories or stand alone. It was my idea to wear a GoPro and ride down a new glass slide 1,000 feet above downtown Los Angeles. The video was by far the most downloaded for AP in June 2016, and the two GoPro videos I posted to YouTube got nearly 1 million views.
• Write, edit and file breaking news and other items to AP’s California wire as a breaking news supervisor on some weekends. As the only person in the office, these shifts require impeccable news judgment and skillful prioritization.

The Associated Press, Washington, D.C.

Breaking news supervisor and law enforcement reporter, September 2014-May 2015

• Wrote, edited and filed breaking news and other items to the AP’s D.C., Maryland, Delaware and northern Virginia wires.
• Developed a law enforcement beat covering police agencies in the Washington, D.C. area, focusing on the FBI and D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department.
• Responded to the scene of breaking news stories and broke news off of big stories, including the officer-involved death of Freddie Gray and the subsequent protests, a mansion fire that killed six family members and a plane crash that killed a woman and her two youngest children in their home.
• Participated in the FBI’s Citizen’s Academy to learn about the agency inside-out and meet some of its top-level agents and leaders, including Director James Comey.

The Associated Press, Cincinnati and northern Kentucky

Breaking news and legal affairs reporter, August 2012-August 2014

• Covered local and federal courts, high-profile crime, executions and breaking news, and led coverage of Ohio’s gay marriage fight, which became the heart of the Supreme Court case.
• Identified court cases of interest, including white-collar crime, violent crimes, juvenile cases, and lawsuits involving libel, allegations of excessive use of police force, and discrimination.
• Developed strong enterprise stories, including a major investigative piece that revealed problems with bite mark evidence, which led to the exoneration of 24 men convicted or held on charges of murder and rape.
• Deployed to Arizona based on past extensive coverage of wildfires to cover the deaths of 19 firefighters killed in the deadliest wildfire in state history.

The Associated Press, Phoenix

Breaking news and legal affairs/law enforcement reporter, February 2006-August 2012

• Covered breaking news, high-profile court cases, executions, and developed enterprise in a short-staffed bureau in an extremely newsy state.
• Led The AP’s coverage of the Rep. Gabby Giffords’ shooting, breaking news in the following weeks and months. Won AP’s Beat of the Week award from Giffords’ coverage.
• Covered and broke news in high-profile trials including: Jared Lee Loughner in the Giffords shooting, two serial killer cases, and the trial against two white supremacists accused of sending a mail bomb to a black diversity officer.
• Used Spanish to develop an immigration beat. Produced news and narrative related to the controversial SB1070, including: how immigrants fled Arizona because of the new law, how the legislation affected day laborers, and how immigrants died crossing the desert.
• Created a mini beat about Arizona’s death row. Covered nine executions, poring over court documents and cultivating relationships with attorneys, families and victims.
• Regularly worked as a desk supervisor, editing and filing reporters’ and newspaper members’ copy.

The East Valley Tribune, Phoenix

Reporter, January 2005- February 2006

• Wrote about the business and politics of art in the posh suburb of Scottsdale.
• Covered breaking news, including being embedded on the second-largest wildfire in state history.

RELATED SKILLS

• Fluent in Spanish. Interview Spanish-only speakers for immigration stories and crime- and court-related stories.
• Command of social media. Developed a following on Twitter. Regularly post stories or tweet updates. Used Twitter and Facebook to develop and find sources. Trained other AP staff on using social media as a reporting tool.
• Skilled in multimedia: Regularly shoot photos and video to accompany stories. One photo, a weather shot of a dust storm in Phoenix, made A1 of The New York Times. One of my videos did the best engagement AP has seen on Facebook Instant Articles.
• Mastery of AP style, copy editing and proof reading.
• Experienced with WordPress, HTML, Excel, and familiar with CSS and InDesign.
• Knowledge of SEO guidelines.

EDUCATION      

Arizona State University

• Graduated cum laude with a B.A. in journalism and a minor in Spanish in 2005

San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon talks to reporters, including myself at the front, during a news conference Friday, Dec. 4, 2015, in San Bernardino, Calif. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)