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Mortwedt ready to move into reporting world

Jessica Mortwedt is graduating in May and looking for a reporting job. (Photo by Mike Dorsher)

Pedaling through her Altoona neighborhood and tossing Leader-Telegram newspapers onto lawns of subscribers, 13-year-old Jess Mortwedt had no interest in what was actually written in them.

A dedicated carrier, Mortwedt once even skipped cross-country practice to deliver about 50 of the evening Eau Claire newspapers.

But when she forgot that she had to deliver a paper to her coach's house that very same night, she was caught.

After Mortwedt got over the embarrassment of having to explain to her coach why she couldn't attend practice but do a paper route, she didn't try that again.

But this dedication and hard work learned through the paper route would come in handy six years later when she did pick up an interest in news and along with that, a reporter’s notebook.

During the next three years of her college career, Mortwedt would spend four semesters serving as copy editor, news editor, chief copy editor and finally, managing editor for The Spectator, UW-Eau Claire’s twice a week, 100 percent-student produced newspaper.

Torn between a broadcast or print journalism major, Mortwedt accepted her first job at The Spectator. She was nervous as she learned the ropes of producing a paper and working on deadline, but what she was taught helped the major decision she had to make.

"People at The Spectator took their jobs a lot more seriously then the people at TV 10," Mortwedt said.

"That helped my decision a lot," she said. "I was nervous, but excited."

And, in spring of 2001, she worked as an intern reporter for the newspaper she used to deliver, the Leader-Telegram.

“The most valuable thing I’ve learned is how to become a better writer,” Mortwedt said in between deadlines at The Spectator.

During her tenure at the Leader-Telegram, Mortwedt sometimes thought of when she was on the other end of the newspaper business.

“I always felt like when I delivered the paper, whoever wrote it was from far away, kind of,” Mortwedt said. “I certainly never thought I would know and become one of those people.”

The story of Les “Paulie” Hynek, a 3-year-old boy who survived after wandering outside and spending hours in the cold winter is the most memorable story Mortwedt worked on at the Leader-Telegram.

“There are situations in journalism where you should use human instinct, not journalism instinct,” she said. Talking to the boy’s father, who was very upset and very concerned his son would die only about eight or so hours after the incident, it was a time when he didn’t want to talk to a reporter at all, Mortwedt said.

“I basically just let him talk and waited to ask the question I needed to know, which was the boy’s condition,” she said.

The paper route isn’t the only connection Mortwedt has to newspapers and journalism. Her father, after working at a television station Madison, now does public relations for Chippewa Valley Technical College in Eau Claire. Also, her grandfather once owned a radio station in Menomonie.

Mortwedt is interested in what role newspaper corporations have played on the quality of journalism, which will be discussed in the capstone seminar, the final class of her journalism career.

“I’m excited to graduate and move somewhere new,” Mortwedt said. “I’m hoping for a job that will allow me to move out of west-central Wisconsin.”