-Welcome

Welcome to the professional Web site of Ryan Olson, a journalist located in Chico, Calif. As a reporter for five years, I've written hundreds of stories covering politicians, schools, cities, deaths, the census, fires and more.

To your left, you will see links to different areas of my expertise, including photography, pagination as well as reporting.

Thanks for visiting. Please take a look around and let me know what you think. ryan -at- rtomedia.com.


-PRINT: Defining a downtown

What does a community do if it doesn't have a downtown? Paradise leaders have been working to carve a downtown out of a fading business district. Officials hope a revitalized downtown can spur development throughout the community and staunch the flow of dollars to the nearby city of Chico.

I explored the matter in an October 2005 story.


-On Assignment

Since Februrary 2005, I have been a staff writer for the Enterprise-Record in Chico, Calif. My duties include covering events in the town of Paradise and the foothills above Chico.

I have also been working on new initiatives for the newspaper's Web site -- ChicoER.com. These include news blogs covering Labor Day and Halloween to provide more immediate coverage of these formerly large party holidays for college students before a police crackdown.

To read the Enterprise-Record online, please click on the banner: For more updates, please visit my pro blog.

Chico Enterprise-Record banner


-PRINT: The award winners

During my professional career, my writing has been honored with a number of awards for spot news, sustained coverage, sports enterprise and news column. A listing of the award-winning stories can be found here.

In October 2004, the Michigan Press Association announced first place and third place awards for my work in spot news stories. More on my specific awards. General award info is on my pro blog.


-PHOTOS: The Gundlach fire

On the morning of April 26, 2004, the century-old Herman Gundlach building burned on the Houghton waterfront. I took the photos.

More


-PRINT: High-wire writing

Over the years, I've written stories that have been featured numerous times on the Michigan wire of The Associated Press. Stories with my byline have run in many Michigan and Wisconsin newspapers such as the Detroit News, The Flint Journal and the Menominee EagleHerald, among others. More


-DESIGN: Pica passion

I've paginated dozens of pages for the newspaper, including wire pages and section fronts.

Check out a sampling of section fronts, here.


-ABOUT: Web logs

I have a number of weblogs to provide quick and easily updatable information about my career, journalism and life in general. In August, I wrote a blog from UNITY, the nation's largest gathering of journalists of color.

For updates on my professional career and commentary on journalism, please visit my pro blog.

Site © 2004, Ryan Olson
Material from The Daily Mining Gazette © 2001-2004, Ogden News Publishing of Mich.