255: What It’s Like to Be a Local & National News Multimedia Journalist w/ Nicki Mayo, Nicki Mayo News, LLC [Main T4C episode]

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Nicki Mayo founded and runs the eponymous Nicki Mayo News, LLC. She is a self-described “multimedia maven” and is also a full-time communications strategist. After earning her undergraduate degree in speech communications and African American studies with a minor in Spanish at Syracuse University, she interned at BET Nightly News and spent time teaching before working in newsrooms all over the United States. Nicki helped launch YNN Buffalo. She recently served as the first digital editor for the Philadelphia Tribune’s phillytrib.com and worked on various social media accounts. In the past, Nicki was as a political analyst and contributor on Philadelphia’s 900AM WURD Reality Check with Charles Ellison. She worked on TV One’s “News One Now,” “Fatal Attraction,” “Justice By Any Means” and “Thou Shalt Not.” For three years she covered breaking news for the Associated Press Network and is a member of the AP’s race and ethnicity team. She hosted NPR’s WAMU FM 88.5 in Washington, D.C., and anchored for 1430 WNAV radio news in Annapolis. When she’s not creating multi-media work for clients, Nicki works as a federal contractor covering STEM stories.  Whether you’re interested in journalism or not, fill up your mug and tune in to this caffeinated chat with Nicki to learn how to establish connections and start your own multimedia services company.

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT IN THIS EPISODE:

• What entrepreneurial journalism is, how it compares to freelancing and ways to pursue it
• How to locate and secure grant money to fund your storytelling side hustle
• Why it’s important to develop your online “digital storefront” early on in your career to showcase your work
• Why working in a traditional newsroom while simultaneously generating side stories is useful for creating your own brand and establishing a network
• Why it is important to develop a work/life balance in order to avoid burnout
• How to get your foot in the door in local news markets by looking at the Designated Market Area (DMA)
• What the inspiration is behind Nicki’s #journolife, its meaning and its role in highlighting news affecting African American communities