OF INTEREST
GET TO KNOW YOUR LOCAL JOURNALISTS
By Amy Senk | Contributor
FALL 2024 ISSUE
Photo courtesy of Nick Morrison on Unsplash
You’ve read their bylines on the front page of the paper. Seen their faces on television. Scrolled through their articles on your phone. From breaking news to gallery openings, these local journalists ensure we’re in the loop. For years, they’ve told meaningful stories about our communities — here’s your chance to learn theirs.
PAUL HODGINS
Publisher and co-founder of Culture OC
Photo courtesy of Paul Hodgins
Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, Culture OC began with a layoff and evolved into an award-winning news project, a platform to celebrate local culture at a time when it was seemingly abandoned by everyone else.
“I remember that day in 2018,” says Paul Hodgins, who wrote about theater, dance and classical music as an arts critic for the Orange County Register for 25 years. “I was in the parking lot heading home, and I got a call from the head of communications at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts. He says, ‘Well, I heard the news, and I’m sorry, but what are you going to do now? You really should try to fight this.’”
Paul connected with longtime colleague Heide Janssen, and they developed the idea for Culture OC, a nonprofit news website that would focus solely on arts and culture in Orange County. Voice of OC invited them to create an arts section, and they stayed there nearly five years, gradually adding content and writers and a photographer — winning some pretty prestigious awards and honors along the way, Paul adds. Culture OC launched on Sept. 10, 2023, and continues to grow.
Born in Canada, Paul studied piano and was a professional accompanist before completing his doctorate in musical composition and theory at the University of Southern California. He was later a professor of dance at UC Irvine.
Yet, these disciplines aren’t the only ones that pique his interest. Paul’s, and Culture OC’s, notion of “Orange County culture” is broad and inclusive. He’s proud of their coverage of the Vietnamese Film Festival, and of a story on quinceañera dressmakers in Santa Ana. He also knows their readers want to know the best cocktail bars in the county and where to go for fireworks on the Fourth of July.
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“Culture is important to Orange County,” he says. “It’s part of its identity and should be covered as such.”
MICHELLE PULFREY
Executive producer of Fox 11’s “Good Day LA”
Photo courtesy of Michelle Pulfrey
Michelle Pulfrey’s career launched with a Chapman University senior project that impressed not only her professor, but also the man with the power to hire.
“The assignment was to copy a TV show, and we chose ‘Good Day LA,’” Michelle says. “We were the Chapman version.”
The real “Good Day LA” cast and crew saw and loved the project and invited the seniors to come on the show. After a live segment they went on a tour, where she met the assistant news director.
“I told him I’d really like to work here,” Michelle says. “He said, ‘Great.’ I graduated on a Saturday and started at Fox on a Monday.”
Michelle’s television career began in June 1998 as production assistant, a job that involved a lot of grunt work and getting coffee. Within three months, she became a field producer. Then the job started to get fun.
“I got to chat with Barack Obama due to breaking news, since we were standing around waiting,” she says. “Lionel Richie played piano for me at his house. We set up at Carrie Fisher’s house and ended up hanging out, getting ready for a live shot. I’ve had a lifetime worth of memorable experiences in many states and countries.”
Last December, Michelle celebrated her 25th anniversary with the show and was promoted to executive producer.
“Now it’s my job to oversee the whole show,” she says. “Where the reporters are headed to in the morning, stories we’re covering, what guests we’re booking. My day starts at 2:30 a.m. with our first meeting of the morning, and I’m never out of there before noon.”
That’s when Michelle drives home to Costa Mesa.
“My job is a full-scale production, from in-studio teams to field teams to technical glitches and beyond,” she says. “As I’m driving away, I’m leaving it in the rear view. Orange County is a very peaceful place to me.”
SARAH MOSQUEDA
Food, art and culture reporter for Times OC
Photo courtesy of Sarah Mosqueda
Sarah Mosqueda worked in restaurants for more than 15 years, even after she graduated Cal State Fullerton with a bachelor’s degree in communications in 2008 — during the middle of a recession. Eventually she married a co-worker from the Michelin-starred Taco María in Costa Mesa, and they opened their own restaurant focused on Filipino cuisine inspired by her husband’s grandmother.
“Everything that happened to me prior to ending up at Times OC was fortunate and instrumental in getting me to this position,” she says. “I felt it was very meant to be.”
An aspiring journalist, she was freelancing even as she and her husband opened their critically acclaimed restaurant. When it closed, she was working a customer service job when she applied to Times OC. “They were looking to hire for a food and art beat, and that is my thing,” she says.
She was hired to cover food, art and culture. Not reviews, but news — think restaurant openings and closures, as well as features like different kinds of pizza in Orange County, art shows and theater performances.
An Orange County native who now lives in Santa Ana, Sarah and her husband aspire to write a cookbook one day. Even their television habits, like watching “The Bear,” a behind-the-scenes look at the restaurant business, center around food.
Yet, some of her favorite bylines (and some of the most popular) have nothing to do with food. A recent piece on the Tomorrowland-inspired suite at a Howard Johnson in Anaheim prompted readers to reach out and tell their own stories about the hotel and Disneyland.
“People really connected to it,” she says. “I always say, when we’re gone, all that is left behind is our words and pictures and our music. These are stories of hope, these are important. People need them.”
DESTINY TORRES
County government reporter for the Orange County Register
Photo courtesy of Destiny Torres
A one-time sociology major, Destiny Torres discovered a passion for journalism while at CSU Dominguez Hills, which she followed up with a master’s degree from USC.
“I wanted to do something that was community- and mission-driven, but also something where I could be creative,” she says. “I took one journalism class, and I thought, yes. This is it.”
A self-proclaimed California girl, Torres grew up in the San Gabriel Valley and joined the OC Register in 2023 after freelancing and working for the Los Angeles Business Journal.
“I learned a lot about my writing and working in a newsroom,” she says. “But it still wasn’t scratching that itch in my brain.”
Destiny thought the OC Register job was a longshot, but she is thriving covering Santa Ana, the Board of Supervisors and county issues like public health, the OC Fair and the airport. She is especially proud of her homeless coverage. She recently did a ride along with the CalOptima Health Street Medicine team and learned about what is being done to provide basic health care needs.
“It was a challenge writing-wise, and it felt really fulfilling after it was done,” she says. “I felt that I stayed true to these people’s experiences, and I got to tell our readers and educate them a little bit on this other obstacle that homeless people have.”
Destiny disagrees with the idea that journalists, especially ones writing about marginalized communities, are giving a voice to the voiceless.
“They have voices themselves,” she says. “I just need to be able to put their words on paper so that other people can experience those conversations.”
CHELSEA RAINERI
Podcast host/producer and style and home editor at Orange Coast magazine
Photo courtesy of Chelsea Raineri
Chelsea Raineri’s journalism career focusing on style and home decor seems like such a perfect fit, something she was born to do. “But I actually didn’t even major in journalism at Chapman,” she says.
Her first job, marketing for Tillys in Irvine, wasn’t for her. Instead, she started freelancing for Locale magazine. “I fell in love with it,” she says. “I knew it was what I wanted to do.”
After a year of working as Locale’s Orange County editor, Chelsea moved to Orange Coast magazine, where she’s been for more than six years.
“I was so excited to focus on style and home,” she says. “I get to share stories of locals who can be anything from interior designers to fashion stylists or someone who owns a boutique or a home decor store.”
In addition to planning five stories every month, Chelsea also coordinates several cover stories a year with her team and freelance writers. She works with sources and photographers, then reports, writes and edits each piece. She also hosts and produces “The Zest” podcast for Orange Coast magazine.
“What I love about the podcast is a lot of times, there wasn’t a direct path to how the guests reached their goals,” she says. “For example, Raissa Gerona, the chief brand officer of Revolve, she is the reason why we have influencer marketing, but she didn’t have any formal training in marketing — she just had an innate ability to know it would work.”
Chelsea’s advice to aspiring journalists is to make connections and reach out to the writers you admire. “Everyone says that,” she says. “But it really works.”