VANESSA FRANKO

They call me the Swiss Army Knife of the newsroom. 

My name is Vanessa Franko and I am currently the Entertainment and Features Editor at The Press-Enterprise in sunny Riverside, Calif.

My background in journalism has allowed me to hone my skills as a reporter, an editor, a data visualization enthusiast, a blogger, a columnist, a technology trainer, a social media guru, an analytics explainer, a photographer, a video editor, a web editor and an on-camera personality. By using the navigation above and to the right, you can browse some of my favorite stories, data visualizations, videos and photographs I’ve created throughout my career.

My experience includes writing for websites, daily newspapers, magazines and alt-weeklies, but what I’m the most excited about is the future of journalism. We have better tools and better ways to tell stories than ever before.

Among the things I enjoy the most are palm trees, shopping for records, photography, craft beer and my amazing husband.

When I was in kindergarten and the teacher asked me to draw what I wanted to be when I grew up, I drew myself as a purple-haired lead singer of a rock band. Apparently that was unique for the time and the stick-figure picture netted me an award.

A colleague snapped this photo of me when I was literally on the field for the 2012 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, blogging, shooting and editing photos, writing a story and running our social media.