Bailey Schulz, Business Reporter, Las Vegas Review-Journal

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09/27/2020 Added

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[00:00:00.000]Here with Bailey Schultz.
[00:00:02.120]She is a reporter in Las Vegas.
[00:00:04.160]She is an alum of UNL,
[00:00:06.171]and she does some really interesting work.
[00:00:08.750]So Bailey, tell us a little bit about your job.
[00:00:11.350]How long have you been doing it, and what do you cover?
[00:00:14.370]Yeah, so I have been working
[00:00:15.470]at the Las Vegas Review Journal for about two years now,
[00:00:18.869]came shortly after I graduated college,
[00:00:21.980]but for the past year or so, I've been covering
[00:00:25.129]gaming and the tourism industry
[00:00:27.670]so that includes coverage of all the casinos out here
[00:00:30.880]in Las Vegas, keeping track of people who are visiting,
[00:00:35.530]how many are visiting, what tourism numbers are like,
[00:00:38.227]how the industry's doing,
[00:00:39.790]and it's already a pretty busy beat
[00:00:42.820]and it's just gotten even more busy since the pandemic hit,
[00:00:46.500]so it's been good.
[00:00:48.851]I suspect that's the most important beat
[00:00:50.739]at the paper actually, isn't it?
[00:00:52.960]I would say yeah.
[00:00:54.400]It's me and another colleague of mine
[00:00:56.750]actually split the beat
[00:00:58.130]because there's just so much that falls under that.
[00:01:01.140]Actually, we just added a third person,
[00:01:02.670]so there's now three people on this beat
[00:01:04.741]because there's just so much news here,
[00:01:06.720]especially now that the pandemic is ongoing,
[00:01:08.880]so it's definitely one of the topics
[00:01:12.580]that tends to get the most clicks online,
[00:01:16.140]and tends to attract the most subscribers,
[00:01:19.220]it seems, from the metrics
[00:01:20.270]that we keep track of, so it's something
[00:01:21.770]that not only the people of Las Vegas
[00:01:23.970]are interested in, but we get readers
[00:01:25.670]from all over the country.
[00:01:28.510]How did you get the job?
[00:01:30.390]Yeah, so after my junior year of college,
[00:01:33.660]I was able to get an internship there
[00:01:36.550]just on the business desk.
[00:01:38.270]That was my first time doing any sort of business reporting,
[00:01:41.560]and I wasn't sure what I was getting into,
[00:01:43.650]but I had a fun summer as an intern there.
[00:01:47.090]I covered stories on the wedding industry,
[00:01:52.930]how the boating industry was doing.
[00:01:55.070]They would just give me random topics to cover
[00:01:58.030]that didn't fall into other reporters' beats,
[00:02:00.520]but ended up really liking what I was able to do there,
[00:02:04.390]and was really happy when I was able to join back later on.
[00:02:10.640]What do you like most about the job that you've got now?
[00:02:14.220]Yeah, so when I was a freshman in college,
[00:02:17.530]I know the idea of business journals
[00:02:20.320]did not interest me at all.
[00:02:21.570]Unfortunately, I thought it would be more of a boring beat,
[00:02:26.350]but that that's definitely not the case.
[00:02:29.490]It's exciting to be covering news
[00:02:31.760]in a big town like Las Vegas.
[00:02:33.439]Things are always happening out here.
[00:02:37.480]One thing I like about my current job
[00:02:38.910]is I get to cover a mix of breaking news
[00:02:41.450]and more in-depth reporting with enterprise pieces.
[00:02:46.910]The fact that you're always learning, always evolving
[00:02:50.230]with the job makes it exciting and fun,
[00:02:52.660]and then lastly, I'd just say the fact
[00:02:55.020]that the work you do really does make a difference.
[00:02:58.410]Especially over past few months,
[00:03:00.270]we've been pumping out stories on employees
[00:03:03.210]who have been laid off just because
[00:03:04.631]when casinos were shut down, that affects
[00:03:07.170]so many workers here in Las Vegas,
[00:03:10.180]exposing some companies who have not
[00:03:12.180]been handling the pandemic very well,
[00:03:14.582]and who have actually had a good portion
[00:03:16.410]of their employees testing positive,
[00:03:18.280]shining light on things that the public
[00:03:20.900]should be aware of,
[00:03:21.830]and just doing work like that feels great,
[00:03:24.371]But business journalism is often seen
[00:03:27.420]as a niche area in the field,
[00:03:28.810]so why should students consider going into that?
[00:03:32.940]What I hear a lot is that business journalism
[00:03:35.690]is like many forms of journalism,
[00:03:37.560]just with more dollar signs,
[00:03:39.130]and I would definitely say that is true.
[00:03:42.920]Yeah, it definitely comes with its own set of skills
[00:03:45.810]where you would need to understand SEC filings,
[00:03:48.340]need to understand how to read certain financial reports,
[00:03:55.955]but I think there are a lot of great job opportunities
[00:03:58.040]out there in business journalism,
[00:03:59.930]and would definitely, yeah, advise other people
[00:04:03.570]to explore the field.
[00:04:07.110]So newspapers are having tough times now,
[00:04:09.000]so how do you see your career moving in future years?
[00:04:12.540]Yeah, so I actually have a lot of friends
[00:04:14.330]in the field who have gone on to do different things.
[00:04:17.020]A lot of people end up going to fields like PR,
[00:04:20.160]for instance, and what I do hear a lot back from them
[00:04:23.010]is that they ended up missing reporting in journalism,
[00:04:25.400]and at this point I can't see myself
[00:04:28.210]wanting to get out anytime soon.
[00:04:29.580]I want to continue with this as long as I can,
[00:04:32.070]even though it can be tough job.
[00:04:34.700]I know from personal experience
[00:04:36.130]finding jobs in the field can be tough,
[00:04:38.370]finding open internships can be tough.
[00:04:40.200]It's very competitive, but for those that have the drive
[00:04:44.430]and the will to do it, I would definitely recommend it.
[00:04:47.340]What does the future hold for you, though?
[00:04:50.870]We shall see.
[00:04:51.740]I'm liking my job in Las Vegas right now.
[00:04:55.157]I'm planning to continue with this for a while,
[00:04:57.100]and then next steps down the road,
[00:05:00.810]yeah, we will see, but I did intern at Bloomberg News,
[00:05:06.030]in big part thanks to you, which was great,
[00:05:07.820]so maybe eventually going back
[00:05:09.600]to some sort of a national outlet like that, but we'll see.
[00:05:14.800]Now, have you dealt with corporate PR
[00:05:16.600]and investor relations folks at all?
[00:05:18.460]And if so, what do you find most helpful
[00:05:20.940]or least helpful with them?
[00:05:23.950]That's a good question because they can be very helpful
[00:05:27.030]at times, and also a pain to deal with sometimes,
[00:05:29.830]and so, my best advice there is just try
[00:05:32.910]and make good relationships with those people.
[00:05:36.430]Be on their good side 'cause they can be very helpful
[00:05:39.130]if you have that strong relationship with them
[00:05:41.930]where they they can give you tips,
[00:05:43.450]they can help give you scoops on stories,
[00:05:45.230]they can tip you off about even other companies,
[00:05:47.930]I've had, and so, those relationships are great.
[00:05:51.440]At the same time, you have to realize
[00:05:53.110]that these people often have their own agenda
[00:05:55.840]when they're talking to you,
[00:05:57.250]and just take everything with a grain of salt.
[00:06:00.190]Finally, do you have any advice for students?
[00:06:03.220]I think the one piece of advice I wish I had
[00:06:06.160]when I was in college was to diversify my skillset more.
[00:06:09.730]So before, I think, my junior year
[00:06:12.820]I hadn't taken anything as far as any classes
[00:06:15.520]with business reporting or with that focus,
[00:06:18.510]so if you find a niche in journalism
[00:06:20.360]that you're interested in, I would say, yeah,
[00:06:22.930]take more of those business journalism classes,
[00:06:25.290]or business classes, or take more data classes.
[00:06:28.740]Take the things that aren't
[00:06:29.705]just the basic journalism classes,
[00:06:32.080]but something you can show in your resume saying,
[00:06:34.320]oh I have this skillset, as well.
[00:06:38.016]Thank you very much, Bailey Schulz,
[00:06:39.440]a star reporter for the Las Vegas Review Journal,
[00:06:42.760]and we'll talk to you soon.
[00:06:44.570]Thank you.

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Bailey Schulz, Business Reporter, Las Vegas Review-Journal

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