“My deadline is always 30 minutes ago,” says Nealeigh.
By CARRIE PINKARD
USFSP Student Reporter
BRADENTON – As a breaking news reporter for the Bradenton Herald, Sara Nealeigh’s day can be packed with crime, car crashes and crazy weather.
On Jan. 16, it was packed with puppies.
She covered a fundraising breakfast for Southeastern Guard Dogs, a Manatee County-based organization that matches veterans with service dogs.
Nealeigh, 27, moved through the crowd with ease, taking notes on what she saw. She chatted with veterans, CEOs and retired generals with confidence.
The service dogs sat dutifully by their owners’ sides as the attendees made a beeline for the buffet.
After the event, Nealeigh rushed to her car to head back to the newsroom to write a story that would be up on the Herald website within hours.
She starts her day at 6 a.m., so by 10 her day is half over.
“My deadline is always 30 minutes ago,” Nealeigh said. There is no time to waste in this era of digital journalism, she said. The goal is to publish as quickly as possible while still maintaining accuracy.
As newsrooms shrink, reporters are called to wear more hats. Nealeigh shot the photos and video for her article. She also knows how to optimize her articles for search engines and promote them on social media.
Aside from these skills, Nealeigh said, the most important thing a journalist can have is connections.
Connections are what brought her to Bradenton from Ohio in December 2016.
She saw a posting for a reporting job at the Herald and reached out to a college friend who worked there. With the friend’s help, Nealeigh got a job interview and ultimately a position as breaking news reporter in the Sunshine State.
She packed her bags and left 24 years of Ohio living behind her.
“I don’t miss Ohio at all,” Nealeigh said. “They’re scraping 4 inches of snow off their cars as we speak.”
Despite her aversion to the weather there, Ohio is where Nealeigh got her start in journalism. As a sophomore in high school, she finessed her way onto the school newspaper staff, which at the time was filled exclusively with juniors and seniors. She then attended Ohio University to study broadcast journalism.
Eventually, she realized writing scripts for anchors wasn’t as satisfying as writing her own news copy. So after graduation, she took a reporting job at the Chillicothe Gazette, a small daily in southern Ohio.
It was at the Gazette that she broke the most memorable story of her career.
She covered the so-called Pike County massacre, the largest homicide investigation in Ohio history. Eight people in one family were found murdered in four homes in April 2016 – homicides that Nealeigh said rocked the sleepy town of Chillicothe and the state of Ohio.
Now, at her job at Herald, she is the first one in the office at 6 a.m.
It’s quiet as she scrolls through arrest records from the day before, wondering if today could be the day a huge crime story breaks. Every few minutes, a voice from a police scanner echoes through the newsroom, reporting a car accident or other incident around Manatee Country.
Nealeigh’s job is to listen and decipher what news would be the most impactful and meaningful to her community.
Coffee is brewing, but she’s already wide awake.
“Once I’m up in the morning I’m ready to go,” she said. “I’m eager to start my day.”