Jake Jost has been working for WBIR-TV for three years. He began as a show producer for the noon newscast and a segment producer for the political franchise. He is currently the executive producer of online media. He oversees WBIR's online efforts, converts content for WBIR.com and analyzes data for the on-air and online efforts. He won the 2007 Golden Press Card Competition Award of Excellence from the East Tennessee chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists for coverage of spending in the Knox County Mayor's Office.  

A Q&A with "Google Jake"

What were your prior experiences before WBIR?

Show producing and reporting experience in Columbia, Missouri while in school; investigative experience while interning for the investigative unit of NBC Nightly News in DC.

Why do people in the newsroom call you "Google Jake"?

Hard to say exactly. There's a computer reference in there, and I end up fielding a lot of puzzling technology problems.

What is your favorite part about working on WBIR.com?

My favorite days are the ones when I get a fun database from which I can generate stories for a reporter and develop worthwhile online resources to go along with it. I love it when we can get the public excited about data.

What have you worked on that you are most proud of?

I did research for a Kay Watson story about a year back, in which we looked at garage use records for many of the big players down at City County. It was a surprisingly complex process for me to parse through the data (records incomplete in some spots, arranged oddly, etc.) I pushed through those obstacles, and we were able to identify several folks who were working days more akin to 10 to 3 than 9 to 5 while drawing a respectable salary from the taxpayers. The story didn't get immense traction in the community, but I was really pleased we were able to make it work.

Has wbir.com become a more popular medium for news coverage in the past few years?

Absolutely, it has. The web has gone from being something you do after the show to a constant, living product. We still haven't sorted out all our workflow issues, but it's safe to say that old media newsrooms are no longer viewing the Web as a side product.