the repurposed journalist

When she was a rookie reporter, Seattle’s Lindsay Cohen dreamed of a day when one of her stories would air on NBC’s Today Show.  Though every young journalist has similar dreams, no matter how good you are, the odds of that happening are long, the chances – slim. But every journalist seems to start out with a lot of hope. There are so many stories to tell.

Cohen got her undergrad degree in Communications Studies in 2001 from Northwestern and her Master of Science in Journalism from Columbia University in New York in 2002. She went on to land her first job in television news at Albany New York’s WNYT as an anchor-reporter in 2002, moving in 2005 to a similar job at WPEC in West Palm Beach, Florida.  In July of 2009, she started a 7-year stint at Seattle’s KOMO 4 TV  (ABC News) where she won a number of Emmy Awards for reporting excellence. But three months ago, Cohen left the KOMO 4 newsroom to become a Senior Real Estate Writer and On-Camera Host for Zillow, the Seattle-based tech real estate site. Cohen says, “I made the right next step.”

While the move was bittersweet, she says she’s still storytelling. “I still get to work with photographers and editors,” adding, “I still do interviews. And I get to tell people’s stories in a meaningful way.” In a normal week at Zillow, Lindsay Cohen will talk with people living in a tiny home or a re-purposed Airstream; she’ll write a ‘House of the Week’ feature or  look for ways to make your home improvement money go farther or a story about the Most Shared Zillow Listing in 2017. One day she’ll be working on a feature about a home design inspired by Hobbits; the next, she’ll be writing about a celebrity home owned by movie star Jared Leno.  And then there’s the story she produced about a castle for sale just outside New York City entitled, I Spent Two Days in a Castle Just Outside NYC. “I’m amazed at the variety,” she says, “and how I can still tell stories that make a difference.”

While Cohen says she was sad to leave friends and co-workers at KOMO 4, she’s glad she left TV news when she did. She says she wanted to spend more time with her family. “And I looked at how my friends were getting their news – on their phones.” Cohen adds, “There’s a way to tap into how news consumption is changing.”

 

Lindsay Cohen says she was considering other on-line companies like Amazon and Facebook but then a friend told her about Zillow.  What drew her in, she says, is noticing how Zillow was investing in new types of storytelling. Cohen says, “Zillow is growing the content team as they develop for written and social media.” And as she found out more about Zillow she thought, “There are a lot of happy people here.” In March, Cohen left TV news to join Zillow, where her stories run on Zillow’s site, their partner sites, on social media — and even on televisions. Zillow has an app on Apple TV.

As for making the transition out of the newsroom, she says, “You never know until you try it. Sometimes you have to make that leap. It’s ok to recognize that the world is changing. I feel lucky that I found a place that lets me explore that.”Cohen is convinced she made the right decision. In fact, for many stories she’s reaching a bigger audience than the one she reached with KOMO 4. She says one recent piece on the Zillow website drew millions of hits.

And then there’s the view from Zillow’s offices near Seattle’s Pike Place Market.

Every morning she looks out onto beautiful Elliott Bay, far from the blare of newsroom scanners. Lindsay Cohen sips her morning coffee and thinks, “This isn’t bad at all.” Cohen adds, “Sometimes the best decisions in life are the ones staring you right in the face.”

 

On Saturday June 3rd, Lindsay Cohen, a newly repurposed journalist, was among her former KOMO 4 peers at the 54^th Annual Northwest Regional Emmy Awards Banquet. A story Cohen did was nominated for yet another Emmy. She’s lost track how many nominations she has.

And remember that kid who always wanted to see her stories on the Today Show? Well a few weeks ago, Lindsay Cohen says one of her posts for Zillow was picked up by none other than NBC Today’s website.

Lindsay Cohen can be reached on Twitter at @lindsaycohen and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ByLindsayCohen/