Experience

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  FOX19 WXIX

  • Cincinnati, Ohio, United States

  • Digital Content Producer

    • Aug 2023 - Present
    • Cincinnati, Ohio, United States

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  SEScoops

  • United States

  • Writer and Columnist

    • Aug 2021 - Present
    • United States

    Writing exclusive breaking news and features.

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  WCPO 9 News

  • Cincinnati, Ohio, United States

  • Senior Digital Content Producer

    • Sep 2021 - Mar 2022
    • Cincinnati, Ohio, United States

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  Self Employed

  • Freelance Writer

    • Sep 2020 - Sep 2021

    Newspapers and Online Media

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  RogerEbert.com

  • Freelance

  • Contributing Writer (Freelance)

    • Jun 2017 - Sep 2021
    • Freelance

    As a contributing writer at RogerEbert.com, I write profiles and features on actors and movies. I contribute regularly to major website features such as "Most Underrated Horror Films" or "Honoring 50 years of Bonnie and Clyde." I also contribute my top 10 movies of the year to the master list with the rest of the site's film critics. My most learned subjects include blue collar movies, Westerns, classic Hollywood and character actors.

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  WDTN-TV

  • Dayton, Ohio Area

  • Digital Enterprise Reporter

    • Feb 2019 - Sep 2020
    • Dayton, Ohio Area

    I am the digital enterprise and investigative reporter for WDTN.com. I’ve written investigative stories on dollar store crimes (which was cited in a July 2020 issue of The New Yorker) and failures in the county children services system. I’ve also written data and enterprise stories on police practices and the COVID-19 epidemic. My regular coverage responsibilities are state politics, federal and state courts, and coverage of major political events (I’ve covered four of President Trump’s appearances since I started at WDTN). I also take the lead on breaking news coverage online including the Memorial Day Tornado Outbreak and the mass-shooting in the Oregon District in Dayton in 2019. I filmed, produced and edited my own video packages for digital using Luma Fusion Pro and took still photos as part of my content responsibility. https://www.wdtn.com/author/bj-bethel/

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  Cox Media Group Ohio

  • United States
  • Advertising Services
  • 100 - 200 Employee

  • Digital Audience Specialist I

    • Mar 2018 - Feb 2019

    My role as a Digital Audience Specialist is to inform our readers and viewers of breaking news and our latest content by managing our four company websites, our three smartphone apps and multiple Facebook pages, Twitter accounts and Instagram pages. I often edit headlines and ledes, update page titles and summary information for stories as well as optimize our stories with weblinks to other breaking news and important investigative journalism. I regularly edit videos for use on the web from both our broadcasts and reporters in the field.

  • Digital Sports Specialist (DASI)/Digital Verticals Specialist

    • Oct 2015 - Mar 2018

    My first five weeks of working with sports in 2015, the department's page views grew 30 percent and it's visits 11 percent. In 2016, thanks to an all-digital focus, I helped guide sports to 40 percent increase in traffic from the previous year, this was a roughly 60 percent improvement over the rest of print and other print/digital sections during this time period. I worked weekly to analyze metrics, and deliver strategies to the digital manager, sports editor and director. I wrote content when needed, including aggregating breaking news that was of interest to our readers, or interviewing sources for stories when other reporters weren't available. As part of this role, I worked with the politics team for six weeks. I experimented with focusing on SEO to gather visits to our Ohio Politics vertical. Our overall visits in this six week period grew 23 percent, and SEO grew from our No. 2 resource for traffic with 20 percent of our visits, to No. 1 with 28 percent of our visits. I was also politics blogger for the 2016 Republican and Democratic National Conventions, wrote stories about state politics, and broke the story about how local babies and toddlers were becoming regular opioid overdose victims due to negligence on the part of their parents or guardians.I helped grow sports from a print or text-based brand to embracing video on Facebook, stories, interviews and on podcasts. I was the host of the Buckeye Pod Blast during 2017, which also focused on local sports. I also guest hosted on studio Facebook Lives such as the Mike Hartsock and Marc Pendleton Weekly high School Football show, which garnered 8,000-12,000 viewers a week on average. I co-hosted a weekly Facebook Live with Marcus Hartman, our digital sports columnist. I was the point person for Real Outdoors Today, CMGO's first website outside its traditional news imprint, which focused on outdoor hobbies like shooting and camping.

  • Digital Audience Specialist I

    • Nov 2013 - Sep 2015

    I was responsible for managing websites for the Dayton Daily News, WHIO TV and Radio, Springfield News-Sun and the Hamilton Journal-News. I posted stories to our company Facebook and Twitter accounts, and moderated post comments regularly. I was often scheduled on weekend shifts during the evening and by myself, when we were flooded with sports and breaking news content, and had to reach above my usual role, communicate with other departments, relay tips we received to the print, radio and TV teams and often communicate reporting needs for the digital department to reporters and managers. These duties often included asking for stories and videos exclusive for our digital audience.

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  FRONTLINE PBS

  • Dayton, Ohio Area

  • Researcher

    • Sep 2017 - Mar 2018
    • Dayton, Ohio Area

    I was a researcher for the Pro Publica/PBS documentary "Frontline: Left Behind America", an hour program about income inequality, off-shoring, trade organizations and treaties and how the combination drained Dayton, Ohio and dozens of cities like it of jobs and led to rising unemployment and drug addiction, including the area becoming ground zero of the American opioid crisis. In this role I secured interviews, researched stories and informed my bosses of subjects of possible interest, breaking news that concerned the documentary and found sources for information and interviews

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  Sydney Morning Herald

  • Freelance

  • Contributing Writer

    • Jun 2016 - Feb 2018
    • Freelance

    I wrote columns, investigative and enterprise stories for the Sydney Morning Herald and Melbourne's The Age World section. My work included Russia's interference in the 2016 election through online campaigns, the influence of Gamergate on groups working to use disinformation on social media, and the opioid crisis in Dayton, Ohio. I also wrote political analysis on major subjects in U.S. politics and along with World section editor Chris Zappone, was among the first to research, report and write about election disinformation efforts on Twitter, 4chan and Reddit.

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  Dayton Daily News

  • Dayton, Ohio Area

  • Staff Writer/Editorial Assistant

    • Jun 2008 - Nov 2013
    • Dayton, Ohio Area

    I wrote roundups nightly and collected sports stats for the newspaper's agate page. I covered high school sports including football games, soccer games and volleyball and wrote features on a weekly basis for the Varsity and Neighbors special editions. I was beat writer for the Dayton Dragons from 2010-2013 and I wrote a weekly column every Monday morning on Page 2 of the sports section from 2010-2013. I also wrote the College Connection column, focusing on local high school athletes who were competing at the college level, through three sport seasons in 2013.

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  The Evening leader

  • Acting Managing Editor/Assistant Managing Editor

    • Jan 2007 - Jun 2008

    Designed front page, state page and national pages. Editorial page editor and writer as well as columnist. Covered environment, politics and local government. Assigned stories to staff, managed department, hired reporters. Acted as liaison between paper and community with local citizen board. Planned longterm strategy on special projects and weekly content for paper and website.

  • Sports Editor

    • 2003 - 2008

    Edited, designed and budgeted sports section. Covered high school and college sports, including Ohio State football. Designed and budgeted special sections. Strategized and designed combined two-paper special sports section during football and basketball seasons. Scheduled assignments, hired stringers and writers.

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  The Wrestling Guys

  • Dayton, Ohio Area

  • Co-Host and Guest Host

    • 1999 - 2005
    • Dayton, Ohio Area

    -Had featured segment on weekly wrestling show, broadcasted on 50,000 watt station in Dayton area along with online podcast.-Co-Host and Guest-Host periodically, helped book guests.- Weekly Hotline Host with morning breaking news segment, giving updates to audience on latest news in morning, acknowledge hotline and radio show sponsors and plugged upcoming shows and guests.-Blogged on thewrestlingguys.com website and contributed other content.

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  TWNP: The Wrestling News Page

  • Brooklyn, New York

  • Co-Webmaster and Lead Writer

    • Jan 1998 - Jun 2004
    • Brooklyn, New York

    - Co-Webmaster for site, managed site design as well as site updates on html platforms.- Reporter, primary content planner and site strategist.- Marketed site through radio appearances.- TWNP was ranked in Top 100 sports websites in 1999 and 2000.

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  Chairshots Radio

  • Westerly, Rhode Island

  • Co-Host and Guest Host

    • 2000 - 2003
    • Westerly, Rhode Island

    -Booked guests for program.-Weekly segment discussing latest wrestling news, especially legal, business and cultural matters.-Wrote for website and published breaking news to site.

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  1wrestling.com and Pro Wrestling Torch

  • Columnist and Reporter

    • 2000 - 2003

    -Wrote columns and provided breaking news to 1wrestling.com and PWTorch.com. -Reviewed television shows and monitored radio shows for breaking news.-Broke original news through sources.- Wrote weekly column on wrestling business.