Each Monday, we’re giving readers a chance to get to know the media a little better.
With a little flair.
Our goal is to give readers some insight into the work and work style of area journalists, and get to know a little bit about the person behind the byline. Start your week off with an online networking opportunity through our Media Monday blog post.
This week: Jenni Hogan, KING TV & Jenni Hogan Media
Jenni Hogan was born in Adelaide, Australia. She came to Seattle in 1997 on a rowing scholarship at the University of Washington. She’s held various positions in the field of broadcast including sports director at KLEW and traffic reporter at KOIN, KOMO and KIRO television stations. Now, she can be seen on KING TV every Tuesday and Thursday on the 5 p.m. newscast on her “Connect with Jenni Hogan” segment. This three minute segment arms the busy modern viewer with a website, product or app that can help make their life more efficient. The online community is part of creating these segments as Hogan reaches out to them on social media platforms with the topic of the day, and then interacts with them live during the newscast.
She’s also founder of Jenni Hogan Media where she produces and hosts content for online platforms including, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Ustream. She also streams to and her website, JenniHogan.com, which launched as an online magazine-style blog in February 2013. It focuses on smart lifestyle news.
Q: What’s your favorite story you’ve done in the last week?
A: My favorite story I did last week was “Have power nails replaced power suits?”. It had so many elements I love, including keeping my community on the forefront of fashion, talking about technology and connecting online, interviewing a CEO and inspirational leader, and chatting with busy working powerful moms on how to make their life more efficient and sparkle. The day the story aired, Julep announced they had secured a large financing round to expand even more. I love stories like that, where a viewer can watch, learn something and then be inspired to act on their business ideas.
Q: If you weren’t working at your current job, what would you be doing?
A: I recently decided to leave a job to answer this exact question. Right now I am taking on projects I love in hopes that my community will love them too. Each project is helping me work out where my passion is and most importantly how I can best add value to this industry and impact my communities’ life by putting a spotlight on stories that can help them. I love how media is evolving by utilizing the internet mixed with television and I’m excited to be experimenting with mixing those two platforms.
Q: What’s the best thing about being in the Seattle media scene?
A: It’s such a wonderful family of journalists. I’ve been at several TV stations in this market now and every day I get an email from someone I used to work with telling me ideas or helping push me and my dreams even further. Our companies may look at it like we’re competition but the Seattle journalists all win when the viewers win and we are all one team on that.
Q: How has social media changed what you do?
A: It’s enabled me to have a conversation with the viewer rather than just telling the viewers what I think. Embracing this conversation is where you find the most amazing stories to share.
The PR Pro Takeaway: There is a reason why Jenni Hogan is one of the most followed journalists in the nation. She is downloaded on social media and her segments promise to be innovative and informative. Share your social media questions and comments with her on Twitter, Facebook, her website and read more about her on Wikipedia.