Paul Zeise

Crafted engaging columns on local issues for a major regional publication. I write columns on the topics that are current and are of interest to readers in Western Pennsylvania with regards to the sports teams in the region. I also write bigger picture columns on national issues and columns on sticky subjects like race in sports. I do a four times a week podcast and also develop content for special events like the NFL draft. I write often about the three professional teams in town as well as Pitt athletics but will tackle many other issues that go beyond the region. I maintain a weekly mailbag with readers and also do live chats during the Steelers games. I am heavily involved in our move to digital and video content and my daily podcast has become very popular.

Hosted live radio shows, engaging listeners with dynamic conversations and interviews on relevant news topics, including politics, entertainment, sports, relationships, and local issues, during daily broadcasts from 10-2.

• Engaged listeners through lively discussions and interviews on a wide range of topics, fostering community connection and dialogue.
• Curated playlists and selected music to enhance the radio experience.
• Conducted live broadcasts, maintaining high energy and strong audience connection throughout each show.

• Engaged listeners through lively discussions and interviews with sports figures. Did a daily sports talk show focused mainly on Pittsburgh's teams. Created content daily, maintained relationships with sponsors and advertisers and participated in station-sponsored community events. I was often called on to participate in community engagement activities and had a variety show that was often described as fun and entertaining.

During my time as a reporter a the Post-Gazette, I worked as a beat reporter, a general assignment reporter, an enterprise writer and even for about one year wrote obituaries. My first three years - 1998-2001, I served as a general assignment reporter, the West Virginia University beat reporter and also wrote a lot of local content for our zone editions. I developed stories, pitched enterprise pieces, covered WVU sports through some changing times and broke stories on the beat. My work with the zone editions was grass roots journalism as I often had to manufacture or find compelling stories of local interest. In 2001, I continued to work as a general assignment reporter but moved into a role as the backup Pitt reporter. I was on the beat and helped create stories on Pitt football and basketball, I filled in for practice coverage and wrote secondary stories and notebooks on games. Then in 2002 I became the full-time Pitt football beat reporter and remained the backup Pitt basketball writer. I broke stories, provided blanket coverage of Pitt's athletic department and won several awards for my coverage. I kept the role of Pitt reporter until September 2012 when I moved off the beat because my son became a recruitable athlete. I became a general assignment writer, wrote enterprise pieces, covered Duquesne and Robert Morris basketball and helped on Steelers, Pirates and Penguins coverage as well. In 2015, I became the full-time Pitt basketball writer and was also involved in coverage of the professional teams as needed. One year, 2009, we had both Pirates writers leave in the first three weeks of the season and I had to serve as one of our two Pirates writers for that season. I covered games, updated the blog daily, did fan interactions and wrote notebooks and analysis pieces as well. Throughout the years I wrote many enterprise stories, investigative pieces, broke stories, did notebooks, fan mailbags, written daily blogs on the beats I covered and wrote feature stories as well.

Developed engaging articles on basketball trends and player profiles. I worked for the NBA in their publishing ventures department. We were responsible for writing content for both websites (NBA.com and WNBA.com) all official NBA publications (Hoop magazine, Inside Stuff magazine, in arena programs, etc.) and editing books. I wrote features, news stories and more in depth enterprise pieces on both the NBA and WNBA. I helped edit a number of books. I also was in charge of writing the weekly corporate newsletter and working with the legal and public relations staffs on the content for it each week. I wrote almost daily for the websites, monthly for the magazines and also assisted the marketing staff in identifying opportunities during the WNBA and NBA Finals. On occasion I wrote news releases for the league.

This was my first real newspaper job. I was primarily a writer and assistant sports editor for a hyper-local three-man sports department. We focused on local high schools and youth events as well as community events but I also covered the 76ers. I wrote stories, I assisted in editing articles from our legion of stringers for clarity and accuracy. I took photos, wrote cutlines, wrote headlines and even wrote a weekly column. There was no part of putting together the sports page that I did not have a hand in daily.

• Covered local sports events as a stringer to provide timely updates and analysis. Did mostly game coverage and some weekly features. I was doing my Masters in Journalism at Temple at the time and was looking to get good clips and experience.
• Covered live sporting events for Philadelphia's leading news outlet.
• Conducted interviews with athletes and coaches for feature articles.
• Collaborated with editors to refine and enhance article content.