TommieMedia, the first student-run, multimedia news organization at the University of St. Thomas, launches today. The site incorporates video, audio, slide shows and advertising .
St. Thomas' Communication and Journalism Department created TommieMedia to provide students with real-world professional experience reporting stories and creating advertising. According to the department, TommieMedia will be one of the first, exclusively Web-based student news organizations in the nation.
Visitors to TommieMedia will find a variety of content. For instance, “News in :90,” a video newscast written, recorded and posted daily by noon, will give viewers state, national, world and sports headlines.
The site’s news and sports sections will feature text, podcasts and slide shows. TommieMedia journalists will produce 10 hours of weekly KUST radio content, as well as a weekly five-minute video news program that focuses on UST issues and events. State, national and world headlines will be updated regularly on the Web site through a partnership with the Associated Press. TommieMedia is the first online-only college member of the AP, an international news cooperative and wire service.
About 40 UST students work for TommieMedia, which also is the first student media organization on campus to pay all its staff members.
TommieMedia’s director is Shane Delaney, a senior from Pipestone. Other staff leaders include advertising and promotions director Kiera Jacobson, a senior from Sheboygan, Wis.; assignment editor Mary Kenkel, a junior from Elburn, Ill.; and production editor Shane Kitzman, a senior from Northfield.
TommieMedia advisers are Communication and Journalism Department faculty members Craig Bryan, Kris Bunton, Mark Neuzil, Michael O’Donnell, Tim Scully and Greg Vandegrift.
