Mt. Angel Publishing
Mt. Angel Publishing is a news and custom publishing company located in Mt. Angel, Ore. The company specializes in travel guides, brochures, maps and other community-based publications. I interned at MAP for two summers (2007, 2008). I spent most of my time writing for their flagship news publication, Our Town, a biweekly news and lifestyle tabloid with a circulation of about 22,500 in two markets.
Highlights of my work
My first assignments at MAP were graphics and layout-oriented. I designed and built advertisements for clients and paginated some of MAP's smaller custom publications. Later, I moved on to general assignment reporting, covering education, city hall, public works, and writing profiles and reviews.
My second summer at MAP changed radically after a 20-year-old Irish national, who was living with family in Oregon, was shot and killed by a police officer under initially unclear circumstances. I was assigned to the story, and followed it for more than a month. Reporting on such a tragic and sensitive topic in a small community became the most challenging and rewarding portion of my work for Our Town.
The case quickly received national and international attention. News crews descended on the town, and I found myself the reporter representing the most obscure organization. I challenged myself to go beyond the sensationalized facts and speculation about the shooting and write the deeper story. I knew that after the inevitable departure of the news vans and Associated Press reporters, the community would still need answers. I tried my best to provide them, writing stories with as much detail and context as I could include.
I spent a lot of time at the site of the shooting talking to people who came by to drop flowers or other remembrances. One of those people turned out to be the man's sister, and after a brief conversation, she invited me to her house. I was the last reporter to interview the family before they started directing questions to a lawyer. The resulting story is the most comprehensive portrait of the young man's time in the United States to appear in the press.
My second summer at MAP changed radically after a 20-year-old Irish national, who was living with family in Oregon, was shot and killed by a police officer under initially unclear circumstances. I was assigned to the story, and followed it for more than a month. Reporting on such a tragic and sensitive topic in a small community became the most challenging and rewarding portion of my work for Our Town.
The case quickly received national and international attention. News crews descended on the town, and I found myself the reporter representing the most obscure organization. I challenged myself to go beyond the sensationalized facts and speculation about the shooting and write the deeper story. I knew that after the inevitable departure of the news vans and Associated Press reporters, the community would still need answers. I tried my best to provide them, writing stories with as much detail and context as I could include.
I spent a lot of time at the site of the shooting talking to people who came by to drop flowers or other remembrances. One of those people turned out to be the man's sister, and after a brief conversation, she invited me to her house. I was the last reporter to interview the family before they started directing questions to a lawyer. The resulting story is the most comprehensive portrait of the young man's time in the United States to appear in the press.
Selected Clips
| AJ Hanlon Remembered |
A profile of Irishman AJ Hanlon's time in the United States, from interviews with his friends and family after he was shot and killed by a police officer responding to a robbery.
| Officer-Involved Shooting Procedure |
After police officer Tony Gonzalez shot and killed Hanlon, the police department went into "no comment" mode until the investigation into the shooting was completed. Many in the community responded with rumors and speculation about the use of deadly force. I wrote this piece to insert some facts and perspective into the debate, interviewing police officials and reviewing documents to learn about the training Gonzalez received for situations like this and the rules governing the use of deadly force.