Chelcey Adami joins RGJ.com as breaking news, visuals editor


Chelcey Adami joins RGJ.com as breaking news, visuals editor

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Chelcey Adami has joined the Reno Gazette Journal as the news organization’s breaking news and visuals editor. 

Adami comes from Salinas, Calif., where she served as the editor of The Californian — a sister publication of the RGJ in the USA TODAY Network.

Prior to her role there, Adami has worked as a photographer and reporter in Texas, Oklahoma and along the U.S.-Mexico border as a public safety reporter for the Imperial Valley Press in California. 

Adami hails from Texas where she got her photojournalism degree from the University of Texas at Austin. She’s an award-winning photojournalist and editor. 

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Chelcey Adami (Photo: RGJ)

In her role in Reno, Adami will help structure the RGJ’s breaking news coverage as well as its visual coverage of Northern Nevada.

“We are beyond excited to welcome Chelcey to Reno, especially in an era of great uncertainty for our community, nation and industry,” said Brian Duggan, executive editor of the Reno Gazette Journal. “Having talented and experienced newsroom leaders like her will help make our news organization stronger for many stories to come.” 

What follows is a brief interview with Adami: 

Why did you decide to become a journalist?

I love helping people share their stories and improve their lives. It’s the best feeling when our work helps create positive change for individual or community. Plus, I never want to be bored, and in a way, I think journalists often get the chance to experience other people’s jobs. For example, I’ve photographed surgeries, jumped 30 feet into a moving river, rode in ambulances and patrol cars, rappelled off a tower, been on movie sets, visited the home a of foreign leader, flown in Fat Albert, gone sandboarding on dunes of Mexico and swam in underwater caves with scientists, all on assignment. What other job offers that much variety?

Out of all the stories you’ve worked on, what’s the most memorable and why?

This is a really hard question and honestly, the ones that first spring to mind are the most difficult, the ones that involved loss and death. We often cover very sad things, such as when I witnessed the death of a baby born with a congenital heart defect or when a local veteran I knew took his own life. However, the story that really broke me down was the death of a 14-year-old boy who had been reported missing. As journalists, missing children cases come up somewhat often, and in every other case I’d covered, the child had come home safe. I had interviewed his parents and shared his photos for weeks in hopes of finding him. When the teen’s body was found, it was profoundly sad for me and the first and only time that I completely broke down in the newsroom. I had wanted so badly for his parents to have him back and calling his father to talk was one of the hardest calls I’ve had to make.

Any first impressions of Reno?

OK, my husband and I really want to know about all the hula hoops. We saw four people separately hula hooping in our first week. We wondered if this was the hula hooping capital of  the world and no one told us. Also, people are very friendly! Reminds me of my home state of Texas. Since we moved in the era of coronavirus, I’m afraid I haven’t yet got a good feel for the community though.

You’re a journalist in a time of great uncertainty, not just for our industry, but for the nation as a whole. What keeps you working in this profession?

Reckless abandon.

What do you hope to accomplish here in Reno as our breaking news and visuals editor? 

I’d like to provide strong support and guidance to an already incredibly hardworking staff at the RGJ. Our photographers roam all over this city and beyond to capture striking images of Reno that, at times, are shared far beyond this city and state. I want to make sure those images are well showcased to ensure that our readers, as well as the nationwide audience, get the full picture of what the community is facing and all about. Breaking news comes in various forms but, first and foremost, we want to make sure that we are providing the community with information that helps keep them safe. More so, I’d like to facilitate more solutions-based reporting that takes a singular breaking news incident as a starting point to reveal bigger issues facing the community as well as ways those issues can be addressed.

Is a hotdog a sandwich?

How dare you. Hot dogs get their own category. No one says hot dog sandwich.  

Brian Duggan is the executive editor of the Reno Gazette Journal. He believe hot dogs are sandwiches. Do you care about democracy? Then support local journalism by subscribing to the Reno Gazette Journal

Read or Share this story: https://www.rgj.com/story/news/2020/03/27/chelcey-adami-joins-rgj-com-breaking-news-visuals-editor/2930930001/


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