Staff Q&As: Meet assistant sports editor Lyzz Jones
To help you get to know our newsroom staff a bit better, a series of question-and-answer posts with each journalist will run on Mondays. This morning, meet assistant sports editor and GameTimePA.com editor Lyzz Jones. You can also find her thoughts on raising a child with food allergies at SmartMagPA.com.
Name: Elizabeth (Lyzz) Jones
Lives in: North Codorus Township
Hometown: Shrewsbury
Position at the YDR: Assistant sports editor, GameTimePA.com editor
Years with the YDR: 13 years
Graduated from: Susquehannock (high school); Towson (undergrad); Millersville (grad)
With a degree in: Sports management with a coaching minor
Twitter: @LyzzJones
Email: ejones@ydr.com
Google+: Search for Elizabeth Jones
Whatever you’d like to tell us about yourself: Been married for 11 years. My hubby was a quarterback for Suskie, and I was a captain of the girls’ basketball team. Two kids, 11 and 5. I am a member of Raider Nation, and I don’t like any member of the AFC North. I host World Cup breakfast parties every four years. I love 80s music and old-school hip hop.
1. What made you want to become a journalist? Chance. One day I saw an ad in the paper for a sports clerk. I thought, “That sounds cool.” Once I was in the newsroom, I couldn’t get enough. I wanted to learn everything. I had some pretty great former (and current) co-workers to inspire me.
2. How do you see journalism changing? The coverage of high school sports has exploded since I graduated in 1995. Back then, it was pretty sweet to open the paper and find your name in the box score. Now, we are constantly feeding people information — be it scoring updates, stories, blogs and analysis, statistics, videos, etc. — almost on a 24-hour cycle. It’s really mind blowing all the channels (Twitter, Facebook, mobile apps, etc.) we use on a nightly basis.
3. What do you like most about your job? The least? The most: The sports staff. Top to bottom, I truly could not ask to work with better people. The least: The hours. Getting home around 2 a.m. every night wears on you.
4. It’s 9:30 a.m. on a day off. What are you doing? Trying to sleep, if the kids/cat allow it. Otherwise, making breakfast. Hanging with the kids.
5. What’s been your favorite project or story recently? Why? Our annual high school football tab. It takes so much work and planning — I started thinking about the upcoming 2012 edition in June — and it stresses me out and the production rules my life nonstop for six straight days but hearing how much the community looks forward to it is awesome. Even my husband and son pester me to bring copies home.
6. The drink that’s on your desk right now is: No question, coffee and water are always on my desk.
7. Your favorite journalism-related blog you read or Twitter feed you follow: For news updates, I follow @AP and @ESPN. For weather updates, I follow my boss, @YDRChrisOtto. But my favorite person on Twitter is @NotBillWalton. The parody account is hi-lar-ious. As is @HonestToddler.
8. What’s the last movie you saw in theaters? The last book you read? I just got out to see “Ted.” If you like raunchy teddy bears and Mark Wahlberg, this movie is for you. It was great. The only books I have time to read are cookbooks, books about food allergies or ones written for the kindergarten set.
9. What’s your favorite place in York County? Anywhere my kids are.
10. What’s one piece of newsroom jargon that had to be explained to you? Slug. My first night I had no idea what role a small, slimy creature played in a newsroom. [Editor’s note: A slug is the file name for a story in our system — for instance, a column by Mike Argento is typically “slugged” as MIK and the date: MIK0806.]
Last week, we ran a Q&A with photographer Paul Kuehnel. To read all of the staff Q&A interviews we’ve done so far, click on the “Staff Q&As” under “About us” at the top of the homepage.