I own my beat

Beginning in 2013, I delved deeply into local, state and national Education matters for The Florida Times-Union and Jacksonville.com, where I reported on the $1.7 billion Duval County Public Schools. My stories resonated with readers. With resolve, I dug into public documents and databases to help readers understand what it means when education becomes a big business. I often would lend expertise on Education topics to WJCT, Jacksonville's National Public Radio affiliate.
This report from the American Press Institute about audience metrics shows readers were engaged far more with the Education stories ​I researched and wrote than with any other categories of news stories being presented by the newspaper.
At the heart of the API report:
     "You do a nice job of diversifying how you cover education; there’s a pretty even split among many of the relevance factors in terms of number of stories. The data show that your audience engages with your education content most for four reasons:"
     1. When you help them have conversations about education
     2. When you cover things they should know happened
     3. When you serve as a watchdog
     4. When you connect them to their community or help them celebrate people and/or accomplishments.
    “Education is a top performer for you and a topic your audience is passionate about. 
​
     “Your coverage of K-12 schools is the No. 1 Engagement driver, which is an unusual finding and makes you different from other partners we work with. We generally see this is a topic that tends to be more of an average performer. In your case it’s performing 40 percent better than the average story you publish, so you are doing a lot right with this category.”

It earned the No. 3 spot in the Passion Index, just behind Crime and Government coverage. This is not a topic that always earns one of the Top 3 spots in the Passion index in other markets we work with.”
The API Engagement Index measures what people are reading the most among your current content. This is calculated by ranking content on many key metrics, including average views, average time spent reading, and average social media shares per story.
The API Passion Index blends the responses from different survey questions to provide a robust sense of what readers are most passionate or concerned about in their lives. This index is based on many different questions, including open-ended questions API coded. These are the things people would want you to cover.

1. When you help them have conversations about education

2. When you cover things they should know happened

3. When you serve as a watchdog

4. When you connect them to their community to help them celebrate people and/or accomplishments

 ... And I am part of a great team