There's nothing quite like being in a newsroom during a breaking story, or being out and about when an editor calls and it's time to drop everything and get coverage revved up. While at the Los Angeles Times, I got to be in the middle of countless breaking news events. Some were celebratory, too many were tragic, but they all reinforced the value of turning in tight copy within tight deadlines, ensuring caution trumps haste when it comes to social media posting and showed me just how many moving parts contribute to digital news operations.

I wrote copy, send out breaking social media updates, coordinated breaking news alerts with the national and homepage teams in Los Angeles, prevented any production logjams and, to be a bit bold, the D.C. bureau's breaking news record was thankfully spotless.