LCI Blog: MediaMonday – Clay Moffitt, reporter at The Business Journal

 
What’s your top story for today?
Today, the big story I’m working on is a reaction from local business owners regarding the minimum wage increase.
Tell us about your dream assignment.
My dream assignment would also involve my dream trip to the Himalayas. I would love the opportunity to document my visit, photograph the wildlife, speak with the indigenous people and see Mount Everest in person. As great as photographs and video are, I believe that you can only really appreciate its grandeur when you see it with your own two eyes.
I’m also a huge sports fan. So just below visiting the Himalayas, I’d rank covering a Cinderella run to the NCAA Final Four, like George Mason in 2006 or VCU in 2011.
Describe the wackiest story you’ve written.
I don’t know if the story itself was wacky, but one of the wackiest reactions I’ve had to a story was when I wrote about a local retired professional athlete who was attempting to appear on a popular television show. Despite calling countless numbers and emailing a number of individuals, the retired athlete never responded. We printed it anyway. Not days, but weeks after it printed, our office received an urgent voicemail from this retired athlete to call him back. When I called him, he told me the story was grossly inaccurate and not even five percent of it was true. When I asked him which parts needed to be corrected, he told me the entire article was inaccurate. We had enough of a first-hand report and Facebook photos to know that this was not the case. We pressed him on the issue, but he never would tell us what really happened. To this day, we don’t know the real story.
What is your PR pet peeve?
My biggest pet peeve is when individuals ask if they can see the article before it prints. I wondered if that used to happen back in the “good ole’” days of journalism, so I asked one of our most veteran contributors and he told me they would have never considered that. My biggest pet peeve for a trend I’ve seen in the PR industry is when a release is written without a quote. Every story we write needs a quote and there are a disturbing number of releases written without quotes or the basic who, what, where, why, when and how.
Top trend in the industry you’re currently covering or are interested in.
Obviously specific trends come and go, but the one theme that seems to be constant in nearly every trend we follow has an element of employment. Here in the Central Valley, we have some of the least affluent communities in the country and consequently some of the highest levels of unemployment. Even the smallest of job losses cut deeper here in the Valley and, conversely, even the smallest of job gains are that much more welcome here.
Tell us a little about yourself.
I graduated from Utah State University with a bachelor’s in journalism and another bachelor’s in finance. During my career, I’ve been a sports writer, business writer and worked in public relations for Fresno State athletics for two years. As I mentioned before, I’m a huge sports fan and I love my Utah State Aggies. As far as professional sports go, I’m a fan of the New York Giants and the New York Knicks.
Growing up in Logan, Utah and being a five-minute drive away from the mountains I’m a big fan of the outdoors. Since moving to California five years ago, I’ve come to really appreciate the beauty of the coast also. I love pizza and, at some point in the future, I plan to document my favorite pizza parlors I’ve visited in California.
 
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