With the inaugural class of Ailes Junior Reporters recently completing their two years at Fox News, the program is preparing to welcome five new aspiring reporters to its ranks.
The Alpha class (pictured) have all accepted jobs in the television industry since completing the program. Garrett Tenney and Michelle Macaluso are Fox News correspondents based in Chicago and Washington, respectively, and Patrick Manning is an associate producer for FNC’s New York bureau. Mary Quinn O’Conner is a digital reporter for the Fox owned station in Charlotte and Pete Griffin is a reporter at the ABC affiliate in Phoenix.
“I created this program with the hope of developing young and promising talent. I am greatly encouraged by the successful results of the previous two years and look forward to cultivating our next group of junior reporters,” Fox News chairman and CEO Roger Ailes said in a statement.
Multichannel News talks to Sharri Berg, Fox News’ senior vice president of news operations and services, about the incoming class of Junior Reporters:
“Fox News hires plenty of technical workers and producers out of college,” said Sharri Berg, senior vice president of news operation and services at Fox News, who has worked closely with Ailes in developing and implementing the program. “Roger recognized there wasn’t any real network pathway for aspiring on-air journalists. You see the talents’ applications and you interview them, but there is no substitute for on-air experience.”
[…] Berg said the Bravo class, which started their curriculum earlier this month, was culled from an initial base of 500, who responded to ads and/or the website juniorreporters.foxnews.com, and then sent resumes and DVDs of their on-air performances. Narrowed to 20, that group came to Fox News headquarters in New York, where they were involved in a series of meetings, discussed various parts of the business, conducted interviews and engaged in breaking news drills.
One of the members of the new class, Matt Finn, recently talked to TVSpy about joining the program.