J&PR Wired
One Step Ahead
By Emerald Carroll
Writing into his Future
By Katelyn Somers
Ben Mullin, fall 2013 editor-in-chief for The Orion, clearly has become comfortable with life inside a newsroom.
Mullin started on The Orion in fall 2011 as an English major. He went on to hold news, features, opinion and managing editor positions, as well as deciding to pursue dual journalism and English literature majors.
In spring 2013, Mullin was one of five student journalists in California to be awarded an internship grant from the California Newspaper Publishers Association Foundation. This award resulted in Mullin spending part of summer 2013 as an intern at The Sacramento Bee. The internship provided Mullin an inside look at how the newsroom of a major daily newspaper functions and the privilege of working alongside seasoned reporters and other student interns.
"It was unlike other newspapers I've worked for." Mullin said. "I was interning with people my own age who were still in college, which is something that I hadn't had the opportunity to do before."
Mullin was prepared to work hard and prove that he deserved his spot at The Sacramento Bee.
"One of my goals for the summer was to have a story on the front page of the Sacramento Bee," Mullin said.
Early in his internship, Maury Macht, who was then The Bee's deputy city editor, to help cover a homicide in Davis, approached Mullin. Mullin was asked to travel there and learn more about the teen that had been arrested on suspicion of murdering a retired couple. Mullin developed his first front-page story with the help of Bee reporter Darrell Smith.
Mullin's desk in the newsroom was next to Bee investigative reporter Phillip Reese, which allowed Mullin to observe how Reese worked and developed stories using online databases. A notable example for Mullin was Reese's investigation of a Nevada mental health hospital that was sending its patients by bus to different California cities. Reese tracked the hospital's efforts through routing numbers on receipts. This motivated Mullin to sign up for a database reporting class.
Mullin is using his last year at Chico State to apply for graduate schools and positions at newspapers across the United States. Mullin has applied to The Seattle Times, The Boston Globe and The New York Times.
"I think every journalists' dream is to work at the New York Times," Mullin said.
