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SARAH REED Public Relations Portfolio

Fall 2016                  

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Resume 3 Profile 4 News Release 10 Bio 13 Memo 15 Snapshot 17 Pitch 19 Speaker Introduction 22 Grammar-Style PowerPoint Presentation 24

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Feature Profile

For this assignment, I had to write a feature story on a Missouri School of Journalism graduate. I was assigned Robert Mays, 2010 graduate. Although he is a recent graduate, Mays has accomplished a variety of career goals as a sports writer. He is now a sports writer at The Ringer, a new sports and pop culture website. I was required to interview Robert, write the story, write a headline/subhead, secure at least one visual and write a caption, identify pull quotes and write tweets to promote the story. This story was a semester long assignment with several deadlines throughout the semester. Luckily, Mays had a great story to tell and was very easy to work with.

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A Fortunate Road to Success MU Journalism grad follows his passion of sports writing by Sarah Reed “Shortly upon arriving to Mizzou, I decided I didn’t want to do journalism anymore. I considered transferring even and my father essentially told me to go to hell and that there was no way I was doing that. So I wanted to go to law school and I wanted to get a journalism major, but I wanted do the least [journalistic] thing I could do,” 2010 University of Missouri School of Journalism alum, Robert Mays said.

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Regardless of his wavering thoughts about the journalism school, Mays graduated MU in 2010 with his bachelor’s degree in journalism with an emphasis in magazine writing. Only six years after graduation, Mays has worked at multiple media outlets including Grantland owned by ESPN and Sports Illustrated. He now writes for a new sports and pop culture website called The Ringer that is owned by Bill Simmons, an American sports columnist, analyst, author and podcaster. Even though he started off wary, eventually Mays learned to love journalism. Mays has always had a passion for sports. They have been embedded into his day-to-day life since he was a kid. Because of his knowledge and love for sports, he knew at a young age that he wanted to go into sports writing. “We were raised on [sports] when I was a kid. I played football all the way through high school. I played basketball for most of my life,” Mays said, “Chicago sports in my house are essentially what religion is to other people.” Mays made the decision to go to the University of Missouri fairly early in high school. He realized that he could do what he loved and eventually get paid for it as a career. In order to become a sports writer he decided that he needed a journalism degree, and he knew that MU had a great program. However, shortly after arriving in Columbia, Mays began to think that journalism was not his passion. He didn’t quite fit in with the Walter Williams Freshmen Interest Group, and the introduction to journalism classes did not catch his interest. But after disputing with his father, Mays decided to stick it out at the journalism school. He chose the magazine interest area with hopes that it would require the least amount of journalistic responsibilities since only one semester at the Columbia Missourian, the university-owned community paper, was required. At this point, Mays’ goal was to get a journalism degree and go to law school. However, his attitude towards journalism would soon change. Mays wrote for the Missourian for a semester his junior year. It was required to graduate. It was also the first time he had ever written for a paper. His first assignment was for the health science and environment section of the paper. Being a sports fanatic,

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this topic was not the topic he was looking for. But as he walked down to the first meeting, he was immediately directed back upstairs to sports. Mays reflects on this moment now as one of the top ten most important things that have ever happened him. By senior year, the paper was his home. “I spent all my free time [at the Missourian] to the point where my professors would ask Greg Bowers [Sports Editor of the Missourian,] if I could please start coming to class again,” Mays said. “But I realized that was what I wanted to do. That was my interest.”

“I realized that was what I wanted to do. That was my interest.” (Mays said after he was introduced to the sports

beat at the Missourian.) Bowers played an influential role in Mays’ education and career path. He taught Mays how to approach stories differently and be aware of his surroundings in a new way. While covering football games, Bowers made sure the class got out of the press box to notice details around them. Those details were what transported readers from the sports page to the stands. “I would say that no one has affected the way I approach my day-to-day job more than Greg Bowers…I feel like the two semesters I had with him are probably the reason,” Mays said. “But that was invaluable. I don’t know if anyone has been more important to me becoming the writer that I am other than Greg.” Bowers encourages creativity in his class. He thinks that if the journalist is having fun writing and reporting on a topic, then the readers will have fun too. Bowers’ remembers working with Mays on an assignment called, “Ten Things You Don’t Know”. The objective of this assignment was to find ten things Bowers did not know about MU’s football opponents each week and to make sure they were funny. “Ten things you don’t know fit really well with the mentality [of my teaching], and I think it fit really well with Robert’s mentality as well,” Bowers said. “Robert came to me with some creativity, talent and intelligence; it was just a matter of putting it together.”

“Robert came to me with some creativity, talent and intelligence; it was just a matter of putting it together,”

Greg Bowers, Sports Editor of the Missourian, said. Mays’ most notable story from his time at MU is his profile of former MU football player, Jeremy Maclin, called “Road to the Pros”. This story received the 2010 Atwater Prize. Maclin was one of the more high profile athletes at MU in 2008, and he is now a wide receiver for the Kansas City Chiefs in the NFL. After winning the Atwater award, Mays felt some reassurance that he could become a sports writer and make money from it.

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“To be a person that always wanted to go to Mizzou, and that loved it by the end, it was very special to me to be acknowledged for the work that got awarded that year,” Mays said. Come graduation, however Mays was still planning on going to law school. He had applied to many newspaper internships to tide him over until the fall. Out of the ten to fifteen internships he applied for, Mays wanted to intern at the Boston Globe the most. Mays admires many writers who have worked at the Boston Globe such as Jackie Macmullan, Bob Ryan and Peter Gammons. Fortunately, the Boston Globe was the only one to call him back. After graduation, Mays headed to Boston. “It just had a pipeline of people that really went on to do something with their careers, and I wanted to be a part of that,” Mays said. Mays worked as a reporter at the Boston Globe. On his first day he covered the Boston Red Sox, and on the second day he covered an NBA finals game. During his internship, Mays was never doing office work or “busy work.” It was day-to-day reporting, and to his surprise he loved it. “They really throw you to the wolves at that place,” Mays said. “It was one of the more transformative experiences of my life.”

“[Interning for the Boston Globe] was one of the more transformative experiences of my life,” Mays said.

During the third day of his internship, Mays was covering another NBA finals game. Mays spotted Bill Simmons at the arena. Simmons was working for ESPN at the time and was part of the reason why Mays wanted to become a sports writer in the first place. As a confident twenty-two year-old, Mays introduced himself, chatted, exchanged emails and then they went their separate ways. Two months later, Mays received a call from his college roommate with exciting news. Earlier that day, Mays had written his one of his biggest story at the Boston Globe about ticket scalpers for the Red Sox during a lull in ticket sales, and Simmons tweeted a link to it. Mays sent a gracious thank you email to Simmons for acknowledging his work. He then received an offer that would change his career path completely. Simmons was starting a new website for ESPN and offered Mays a job to work for him in Los Angeles. Mays dropped the law school idea and accepted Simmons’ offer. He was in Los Angeles by March 2011. Simmons’ new website was called Grantland, and it consisted of a combination of sports and pop culture editorials and features. It acted as a smaller startup site, except it had ESPN money. When it launched in 2011, Grantland only had a staff of five, but by the end, it had grown to twenty. Mays worked for Grantland for almost five years. “It was an amazing place to work. It was just a place where people wrote about so many different sorts of things, but they were all things that we felt extremely passionate

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about,” Mays said. “We wanted to write about things that we loved rigorously and we hoped people would enjoy that.” After five years, Grantland folded due to a number of reasons. ESPN fired Simmons. Without its founder, no one seemed to know Grantland’s fate. When Grantland shut down, Mays and many of his colleagues were heartbroken. This was a low point in Mays’ career. “Not having Bill around and dealing with the end of Grantland was difficult; it was almost like losing a member of your family,” Mays said. “It was tough. I wasn’t as good at my job during that stretch as I would have liked to have been.” However, Grantland opened new doors for him and his current career. Simmons launched a new site similar to Grantland called The Ringer. Mays now works under Simmons there as a sports writer, only this time he is back in his hometown, Chicago. Mays is grateful for the opportunities that Simmons has provided him, and he believes he would not be where he is today without Simmons. “Bill is a very paternal figure in my life. When I chose not to go back to LA this spring when I started working for The Ringer, it was a difficult decision. Being around him was important to me; he’s always watched over my career and done everything he can to help me. He gave me a chance when no one else would, and it really has made all the difference,” Mays said. The Ringer launched in July 2016, with the help of four former Grantland editors. The Ringer consists of sports and pop culture stories. Mays said that they did not want their new site to be the same as Grantland, but they wanted it to “share some DNA.” Mays is a football staff writer who works from home. During football season, he normally writes about twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays. His typical Sunday consists of watching all of the football games, and then writing about them all night. Then, the story will run Monday morning. He also does two podcasts a week. Currently his podcasts are football previews, but as the season starts, he plans on doing a Monday wrap-up show and a Thursday show where he will invite a guest. The guests he plans on having on the show are going to be mainly other sports writers, team general managers and potentially some NFL players. Mays is grateful for the lifelong mentors that he gained during his time in the journalism school along with the constant competitive push from his peers to become a better writer. “I always tell people that I paid my tuition $40 at a time at the Heidelberg. We would go and get beers on Friday afternoons and talk about stories that we had read or stories that we were working on. Being around like-minded people who also were very good, at the time better than me, was a challenge. It was a challenge that pushed me every single day,” Mays said.

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Since college, Mays has set that mindset for all of his jobs. He looks up to his colleagues at The Ringer like fellow football writers Kevin Clark and Danny Kelly, and strives to continue learning and improving his writing. “I want us to be great, but I also want to be as great as [them] and when [they] do something good, I want to do something better the next day,” Mays said. “I think Mizzou was the first place where that was true for me.”

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Robert Mays, 2010 Missouri School of Journalism graduate, now writes for a new sports and pop culture website called The Ringer that is owned by American sports columnist

Bill Simmons. Before The Ringer, Mays wrote other spots media outlets such as Grantland, Sports Illustrated, and the Boston Globe. Mays has always had a passion for sports, however, the MU journalism program and faculty helped him find his passion

for writing about sports.

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News Release

This assignment required research on the Ronald McDonald House Charities. After my research, I wrote a news release about the opening of the Ronald McDonald Family Room at the MU children’s hospital. I wrote on behalf of the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Mid-Missouri. I wrote the press release as if it were to be sent out before the ribbon cutting ceremony. I think this assignment was great practice for writing news releases on a short deadline. I think I will be writing many of these in my future career.

 

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Media Contact: Jennifer Blanchard Smith Jennifer.smith@us.mcd.com

858-229-7873 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

RONALD McDONALD HOUSE CHARITIES OPENS A FAMILY ROOM IN MU CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL

Families now have a place of comfort within the hospital while their children receive treatment

for illnesses and injuries COLUMBIA, MO—Help is on the way for families with children battling illness or injury. A Ronald McDonald Family Room is opening in the children’s hospital within the MU health network on Sept. 28. Come celebrate at the ribbon cutting ceremony with the Columbia Chamber of Commerce on Sept. 26 at 10 a.m. A Ronald McDonald Family Room is a place within a hospital for families with children receiving treatment for a serious illness or injury. Families can use this room to rest and rejuvenate. These rooms have everything a family needs in order to comfortably stay close to their child, such as a shower, oven and cooking supplies. The Family Room also offers a place to sleep, whether it is a nap during the day or an overnight stay. The Ronald McDonald House Charities of Mid-Missouri has provided a home-away-from-home for families with children going through treatment or facing illness or injury in Columbia for over 30 years. The executive director of Ronald McDonald House Charities of Mid-Missouri, Terri Gray, said that the Family Room is giving parents a “piece of home only steps away from their children.” The Roberts family from Sedalia is looking forward to the Family Room’s grand opening. Their daughter, Katie, was born 12 weeks early and will be staying at the hospital for most likely two more months. The Family Room will provide a place for the Roberts to regroup while still be steps away from their baby. “Some days I just need a 30-minute break from the intensity of the NICU environment,” Katie’s mother Tracy Roberts said. “It will be so nice to come to this room just to take a breath in a place that feels a little like home.” This Family Room is placed in MU Children’s Hospital because it is the largest children’s hospital in the mid-Missouri area. The children’s hospital received the funds to build this room from an anonymous donor.

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“Many of our patients at Children’s Hospital come from all over the state, which means a lot of our parents are far away from the conveniences of home,” Keri Simon, executive director of MU Women’s and Children’s Hospital, said. “This new Family Room allows parents to be near their children in the hospital, but still experience a normal moment — like doing a load of laundry or cooking a meal — when nothing else in their life is feeling very normal.” The Family Room and also Ronald McDonald House are free of charge for families. The Ronald McDonald House Charities believes that financial issues are the last thing families, such as the Roberts, need to worry about. Ronald McDonald’s House Charities rely on the generosity of their supporters, including other organizations and businesses. To donate, visit www.rmhcmidmo.org. About Ronald McDonald’s House Charities Ronald McDonald House Charities of Mid-Missouri is a non-profit corporation that provides families of seriously ill or injured children a comfortable place to relax while their child is at the hospital. These areas provided by Ronald McDonald’s House Charities are possible due to the generous donations and volunteers throughout the community. To learn more, visit www.rmhcmidmo.org or call us at 573-443-7666.

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Email Subject: Parents of children receiving treatment now have a place of comfort Media Content: I think a photo or short, native video of the Roberts family would be a good media tool to make this press release more personal for the reader. The reader could see an actual Missouri family who will be affected by the new family room in the hospital. Tweet: MU Children’s Hospital is opening a Ronald McDonald Family Room on 9/24 for families to rejuvenate while still only steps away from their child

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Bio

For this assignment, I was given a prompt about Kevin Burkum, Senior Vice President of the American Egg Board. My job was to write a bio about him that briefly explained his current position, past experience and background. The bio is to be placed in a conference program. The goal was to select only the important information among the vast amount provided in order to create a compelling story about Burkum.

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KEVIN BURKUM

Kevin Burkum has proven to be one of the finest creators of integrated marketing plans for businesses and consumers—specifically in the egg and dairy department. Burkum is currently the senior vice president of the American Egg Board and has held multiple positions in marketing, advertising and public relations in his past. He has played a vital role in the increasing demand for eggs due to his management of the marketing related departments of the national egg promotion organization. The Incredible Edible Egg would not have been as successful without Burkum on the campaign. Burkum also launched an educational campaign called the “Good Egg Project” that shows consumers the process of getting eggs from the farm to the kitchen. Before his role on the American Egg Board, Burkum was the senior vice president of the American Dairy Association. He created and managed the “3-A-Day of Dairy” campaign for the national dairy promotion organization. This campaign’s consumer awareness reached 74 percent due to marketing and advertising managed by Burkum. Burkum also managed and created many lasting partnerships for the American Dairy Association with brands such as, Kraft Foods, General Mills and Nabisco Oreo. Burkum received his bachelor’s degree in journalism and marketing from Marquee University in Milwaukee in 1989. He then went on to pursue a variety of careers over the years in areas such as marketing, advertising and public relations. Burkum is also a philanthropic man. He travels the world with the American Egg Board in order to help other countries use the “Incredible Egg” to do extraordinary things, such as helping build a self-sustaining egg farm to feed a series of orphanages and local communities. During a trip to Swaziland, Africa, Burkum worked with the Heart of Africa’s Project Canaan in order to help build an egg farm to feed underprivileged communities.

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Memo

For this assignment, I had to think as if I was in the public relations department of a firm that design and manufactures fitness apparel. My job was to write a memo addressed to the CEO of the company from the public relations manager. The memo discusses the idea of new forms of communication within the company. The main suggestion is a closed Facebook group for the company that can be used to interact with employees and create a corporate community.

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TO: Brian Davidson, CEO FROM: Kristin Galloway, Public Relations Manager DATE: October 13, 2016 SUBJECT: Communication is Key With 5,000 people across headquarters and four manufacturing plants, communication is essential for our company. Our employee-only website has been useful for some time now, but it is only a one-way form of communication. It is time to step it up. We need a way to interact with our fellow employees as a corporate community. The best way to achieve this is to create a closed Facebook group. A closed Facebook group is a way to connect with a smaller group of people on Facebook without cluttering your personal profile and timeline. In order to join a Facebook group, one must ask to join and then be approved by an administrator of the group. The only people who see the content of the group are those who were approved to be in it. The majority of our employees are most likely already using Facebook as a social networking platform. For those who are not on Facebook, creating a profile is simple to do and we will be happy to assist you. Creating a Facebook group will create a convenient outlet for employees to interact with their fellow employees and with leadership. Facebook groups can be very useful on a corporate level. They:

• Promote Community: Facebook allows coworkers to communicate on a new level. They are able to post, like, share, etc. work related articles and other media. Then, later have an online discussion about the content with their employees. This encourages a sense of community and idea sharing.

• Announce Company News: A Facebook group will also be a great place to announce informal company news. Employees can post earned media they find about the company, and repost it in the group for everyone to see.

• Inspire Creativity: Through Facebook, employees can bounce ideas off each other whenever they want. Facebook is like an informal brainstorming outlet that is available 24/7.

As with anything online, we must be aware that everything can eventually be public. We will have to be clear when launching the Facebook group that if you would not say something in a public place, you should not post it on Facebook. However, I trust that our employees are responsible professionals that will use this network to its fullest. A Facebook group will solve our problem of one-way communication. With both the website and Facebook group functioning, our employees will have access to a multitude of information. They are able to ask questions in an online public forum style and have conversations. This easy access to communication will be beneficial for all employees in all levels of the company.

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SnapShot

This assignment was designed for the Missouri School of Journalism’s Instagram. Each student in the class had to find another student in the journalism program and write a short brief about what they are currently working on in their program. I featured a print and digital news student, Katie Kull. This assignment provided experience in social media, which is becoming more and more relevant as the digital era progresses.

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“Semester Fall 2016 @Mizzou: Diving Deep into Education. Katie Kull, senior Print and Digital News student, analyses data for a story about diversity among teachers in public

schools. Kull works at the Columbia Missourian on the education beat through Advanced Reporting, J4460. She is currently working on multiple stories for the

Missourian with an overarching theme of diversity in education, including a profile on the MU Dean of Education, Kathryn B. Chval, and a piece on Douglas High School in Columbia. Kull says Advanced Reporting is teaching her how to fully own a beat and cultivate sources. Unlike previous reporting courses, Advanced Reporting allows Kull

to explore her education beat in-depth over the course of the semester.”

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Pitch

This assignment began with a phone pitch to my teacher. I chose to pitch the Susan G. Komen Mid-Missouri Race for the Cure. During the phone call, I had to win over my teacher, who was acting a reporter, in order for him to choose to cover my story. I focused on specific parts of the race that set the 5k apart from the many other 5ks going on throughout the community. After the phone call, I followed up with an email that is featured in this section. This contains all of the information from the phone call along with more details, photos and contact information.

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Follow Up: Join the Fight for the Cure

Hello Mikkel, This is a follow up on our conversation today about the Susan G. Komen Mid-Missouri Race for the Cure this Sunday, Oct. 9. The race site opens at 6:30 am at Flatbranch Park. Registration for the race is open until the start of the race at 8 am. The race is a 5k run/walk that raises awareness for breast cancer and provides support for those affected by the disease. Seventy-five percent of the proceeds is put back into the Mid-Missouri community to help the women, men and families most at risk and most at need, and 25 percent of the proceeds goes to breast cancer research. Before the start of the race, we kick off the event with the Survivor Procession. This is a moment you do not want to miss. During this part of our event, all of the women and men who are survivors or currently battling breast cancer come together hand in hand and walk towards the stage. Seeing a sea of pink brings a sense of hope for those currently facing the disease. The Executive Director of Komen Missouri Helen Chesnut who is a 15-year breast cancer survivor and members of Marching Mizzou will lead the Survivor Procession. It is an extremely emotional part of the Race for the Cure. Mizzou’s cheerleaders, Truman the Tiger and hundreds of other participants stand along side the procession cheering the survivors on.

This picture is an example of the Survivor Procession in St. Louis featuring Helen Chesnut second from the right.

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October is National Breast Cancer Awareness month, so this race is very timely. Also, breast cancer is a disease that affects an alarming amount of people’s’ lives. Just in our Mid-Missouri region, there are 379 new incidents of breast cancer per day, 126 late stage diagnoses every 11 months, and 78 deaths from breast cancer per two weeks. On a national level, 1 in 8 women in the U.S will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime. To break that down even more, every 13 minutes one woman in the US will lose her life to breast cancer. However, there are more than 3 million breast cancer survivors in the US. Events such as the Race for the Cure on Sunday help us raise the number of survivors each year. This event brings the community together for a great cause. It should be covered to spread awareness of this disease and to support those who are survivors or currently facing breast cancer. Seeing the community dressed in pink may give hope to those who desperately need it. For more information about the Mid-Missouri Race for the Cure, feel free to email at ser526@mail.missouri.edu or call me at 636-544-6378. Or call our office at (573) 445-1905. I will call on Friday Oct. 7 if I have not heard back yet. Thank you, Sarah Reed

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Speech Intro

For this assignment, I wrote an introduction for Robert Mays. I had to pretend that Mays was coming to MU to speak. I wrote the introduction as if he was coming to MU during football season, preferably during a big game like homecoming, the SEC championship or a bowl game. He would be speaking to a Sports Journalism class or another class that thoroughly covers sports writing. He would be speaking about how to cover football in a different, more creative way.

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Good afternoon everyone and thank you for coming.

Our guest speaker today will show us how to write about football in a new and

exciting light. As we head into the final games of the season, it is essential that we keep

our readers on their toes.

Our speaker puts a new twist on football sports writing everyday. He graduated

here from the Missouri school of Journalism in 2010, and since then he has worked for

the Boston Globe, Grantland, and Sports Illustrated. He currently works under Bill

Simmons at The Ringer.

Please give a warm welcome to Robert Mays.

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Grammar Presentation

My grammar presentation topic was Misused and Confused Words and Phrases. It was a pretty broad topic and was difficult to cover everything. In our textbook, Working With Words, the chapter of Misused and Confused Words and Phrases gives a very long list of words and phrases that commonly give writers trouble. In my presentation, I went over a few that I found interesting and attention grabbing. However, at the end of the presentation I referred my peers to the chapter and advised them to become familiar with the list by reading it over a few times on their own. Also, it’s Elf themed.

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