Roger Harnack write-up

On Monday February 22, Roger Harnack attended our class to talk about his life in journalism. Harnack didn't start in journalism, starting his life with an interest in aerospace. Some of his first stories related to the space shuttle program, specifically the launches and landings that he covered from Florida. These made it to the Associated Press, and from there, he joined the newspaper industry. He has worked in Ellensburg and Port Angeles at smaller papers, and he started a weekly paper in Port Angeles during his second stint there. He worked for the military newspaper Stars and Stripes for a year in Tokyo. He began as a publisher in Iowa, and later continued the role in Omak and Sunnyside, where he currently operates the smallest daily news paper in the area.

Harnack said his passion for photography helped him in the newspaper industry. He once had an odd job as a wedding photographer in Costa Rica, and also took photos of the country's landscape. Domestically, he will occasionally work on an outdoors story. He said he always has a camera with him when he's out and about. Harnack said he never thought about being a journalist.

"The job just fell into my lap," Harnack said.

After working in journalism, Harnack said he had no desire to go back into aerospace engineering. He has worked as a photographer for the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars and has also done work with NASCAR for community newspapers early in his career. He said this is a good way to get into these events without paying to go.

Harnack said the best way to get to the journalism job you want is to build a reputation as a reliable source in your market, the type of name recognition people look for. A lot of journalism jobs are short-term, and this implies it is easy to advance to where you want to be individually.