Karie Spaetzel Loeser's Resume

Here are some examples of social media and digital projects I have completed.

Interactive Timelines

• A local high school student was critically injured in a February car crash, and despite a prognosis that he would never walk or talk agin, by October, he was doing both. The Chronicle-Telegram had a photo and story package highlighting his recovery for the Sunday edition, and I created an online timeline documenting the key events in his recovery.
• A Lorain County Court of Common Pleas judge — who has been the subject of many inquiries over the past few years — was indicted on federal charges in connection with his ownership of an office building. I used a timeline the reporter created for print as the basis for an interactive timeline that allowed readers to click back through previous Chronicle-Telegram stories on the subject.

Storify

• On Feb. 6, 2014 — National Signing Day for college sports — school was canceled around Lorain County and athletes were not able to sign during ceremonies as planned. I used Storify as a way to cover the athletes’ signing at home or other locations.
• In November 2012, I attended a social media summit at Ohio State University. On the second day of the seminar, I compiled a Storify of some of the real-time reporting tips we learned. I then presented many of the conference’s topics to my coworkers at The Charleston Daily Mail. Some of the techniques I taught have been successful, as evidenced by this Storify I made detailing one of our Twitter success stories.
• In June 2012, I attended a Cleveland Indians game as a guest in the Indians Social Suite. The suite includes five avid social media users — and their guests — who are encouraged to tweet, share photos, etc., during the game. After the game, I compiled a Storify of everyone’s tweets from the suite.

My complete Storify portfolio can be found here.

Crowdsourcing

In an effort to boost community engagement, I use Twitter and Facebook to ask  readers to submit their own photos of timely events. The photos appear in galleries on the Chronicle-Telegram’s website, and on a special snapshot page in our Sunday print edition:

• Halloween costumes
• What are you thankful for?
• No Shave November
• Holiday light displays
• Winter 2013-14

Video

In honor of West Virginia’s 150th birthday, the Charleston Daily Mail staff compiled a list of 150 facts  about West Virginia. To make the list visually engaging online, I created a slideshow video for each fact, which I embedded on the website to accompany the list.

The 150th birthday celebration included fireworks shot off from the Capitol roof. The grand finale was set to “Country Roads,” West Virginia’s unofficial song. I took video of the finale and the crowd singing along to “Country Roads,” which was then incorporated into video from different staff members on our website.

Blogging

In April, a star of MTV’s “Buckwild” died. A few weeks later, country music singer Jason Aldean came to town. I used a blog post and accompanying Storify to detail Aldean’s tribute to the reality TV star.

Digital Awards

The Charleston Daily Mail received a DFMie — named for Digital First Media — for breaking news coverage of a gas pipeline explosion in Sissonville, W.Va.  I helped curate the reporting and photography from our staff members. I encouraged the use of a hashtag, which was picked up by other media outlets and the public; I kept our photo galleries updated throughout the day; and I took over our newspaper Twitter account, tweeting our photos and maps and retweeting our reporters’ coverage. I also compiled our submission for this contest. The submission, along with a video of my editor, managing editor and myself talking about the coverage, can be found here.