A Day in the Life of LNP Journalist Jade Campos

The internet, unregulated social media, and the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) have knocked local journalism off its foundation. Since the mid-2000s, more than 2,500 newspapers have stopped publishing and employment at U.S. newspapers has declined more than 50 percent. Many remaining newspapers are now owned by public companies or hedge funds without regard to the communities they purportedly serve.

But not here, not in Lancaster. In Lancaster, we are incredibly fortunate to still have a locally-owned news organization with people like Jade Campos, a breaking news reporter at LNP | LancasterOnline.

In this story, Jade gives a peek into ‘A Day in the Life’ on her beat. This is the third in a series on how your local news gets made and how important it is for this community to support local news.

Meet Jade Campos

Staff Reporter | jcampos@lnpnews.com

I was 19 when I really fell in love with journalism.

I had just come back to my rural hometown in Caroline County, Virginia, feeling a little deflated after my first year at Penn State. With clips from the student newspaper and radio station, I still didn’t land an internship for the summer. It felt like the end of the world for a naive, perfectionist teenager in an industry that thrives off of lived experience.

Desperate, I pitched myself to anyone who would take me—that included a startup news outlet in my hometown run by a man who didn’t know anything about journalism. He just knew we needed a news source. Our paper had died a few years before.

Funnily, I probably had the most reporting experience on our tiny team.

I got to know my hometown in one summer better than I had in my entire life. I interviewed candidates for upcoming elections, rode the soon-to-be-discontinued public transit, talked to fair-goers at the state fair, and attended county government meetings.

An older man came up to me as I was packing up during one of those meetings just to say “thank you.” It had been a long time since the county had a trusted news source, he said, and he was glad I was there.

I’ve held that with me since then.

No, I’m not from Lancaster, which sometimes feels like admitting I’m some kind of fraud (people really care about being local here, and that’s admirable!). But I do really care about this community and want to make a positive impact through my work. I committed myself to journalism because I know how much change I can make by simply being present and thorough in my reporting.

Some days are exhausting. The current rhetoric around the media feels a little daunting to overcome. But every once in a while, I’ll get another tap on the shoulder to remind me why I do this job.

A Day in the Life

7:30 a.m.: Vote! I actually really love voting in person. I’ve spent most of my adult life voting by mail as an out-of-state college student, so I enjoy being able to walk to my polling place in the city on Election Day.

8 a.m.: I take a short walk around town before my day really starts. I’m a morning person and being active first thing in the morning has really helped preserve my mental health in a stressful industry. On a normal day, I’m usually at the gym before heading into the office.

9 a.m.: We have a Microsoft Teams chat going to keep everyone in the loop about everything happening on Election Day. It started bright and early at 7 a.m. when votes started being cast. I keep an eye on the Teams chat in case there’s anything pressing.

My focus for the day, though, is the city’s home rule charter. I’ve spent the last nearly two years of my life poring over the ins and outs of this incredibly complicated municipal process.

9:45 a.m.: A source texts me from a polling place where a state House candidate is involved in a confrontation with a few voters out by Franklin & Marshall College. I let the Teams chat know and my colleague Jaxon heads out to see what’s going on. It’s actually his polling place.

10 a.m.: I stop by the county government building on North Queen Street where the Board of Elections are holding regular press conferences throughout the day. There isn’t a lot of new information since their first update at 7 a.m. (my colleague Tom was there for that—he lost rock, paper, scissors), but I ask about the confrontation at the polling place. Commissioner Alice Yoder and Chief Elections Clerk Christa Miller agree to check it out.

10:30 a.m.: While I’m there, I come to the room where dozens of volunteers in neon shirts are pre-canvassing mail-in ballots. They’re busy preparing for 8 p.m., when they can officially begin tallying votes. I grab a few pictures and videos, which I send to our Teams chat while managing editor Stephanie Zeigler updates our digital story.

We have a few reporters and photographers fanning out across the county to talk to voters throughout the day, so content is constantly being uploaded online.

11:15 a.m.: Back at home before the hard work really starts. There’s a good chance I watched a little bit of Survivor. I’ve never been a big TV watcher, but it’s become my new obsession. If anyone cares, I have 15 seasons left to watch.

1:30 p.m.: Pumpkin bread making starts. I like to bring in a little baked good on every Election Day. 1) Because I like baking, and 2) It makes my coworkers happy. I work with a team of really smart, hardworking people and if I can bring a little cheerfulness to a stressful day, then pumpkin bread it is.

2:40 p.m.: I top the bread off with a cream cheese frosting before walking to our office at 101 North Queen Street.

3 p.m: Arrive for my night shift. Party starts now (kind of).

4 p.m.: Most of the night is sitting around and waiting for things to get interesting (votes coming in). I spend a lot of time scrolling X (formerly Twitter) to keep an eye on things happening around the state. I also take the time to prewrite my story on the home rule charter decision.

I tell a few sources I’ll want to give them a call once it’s clear what the results will be. That way, they can expect to get a late night call from me.

6:30 p.m.: Election night pizza arrives!

8 p.m.: Polls close, and more waiting and refreshing the county’s elections results page. Everyone’s keeping one eye fixed on the TV playing CNN’s election coverage.

8:37 p.m.: The first batch of mail-in ballots come in, with the pro-home rule voters leading in a significant margin, which I posted on X.

10 p.m.: A majority of the votes are in, and my editors want me to write the story that the home rule charter has passed. I start calling my sources earlier than I thought I would. I’ve been given a 10:30 p.m. deadline, so I’m frantically trying to get quick comments from sources.

10:45 p.m.: My story is posted for the night, and technically I’m done, but I stick around to keep refreshing the results page in case new numbers come in. I want to make sure I have the most accurate numbers before I leave for the night. Plus, the company is good.

12 a.m.: I head out for the night. While most races that my colleagues and I are covering are clear, the presidential race is still being calculated. So I stay up a little bit once I’m home to keep watching results come in before resigning myself to sleep. I have to start work at 9 a.m. the next day. I’ll need to write about what comes after the home rule charter is approved.

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Support Local News

When communities lose their local news media, they lose the work of reporters like Jade Campos. Communities without local news media are negatively impacted in quantifiable ways: municipal borrowing costs increase, civic engagement diminishes, fewer people run for public office, and polarization increases. 

Local news media maintains core community connections, it informs and educates, it gives voice to all, it promotes the local economy, and it keeps government and elected officials accountable at every level. Effective local media has the power to connect and unify rather than divide and polarize. It is a critical ingredient in creating and sustaining democracy itself. 

For this reason, please support LNP | LancasterOnline by subscribing or donating at supportlocal.news. We’re counting on you, because you count on us.

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