By Janice Malone
GREENVILLE, MS — Former Tennessee Tribune intern and recent TSU graduate Tyrie Whiteside has landed his first job as a full-time newspaper reporter! Whiteside graduated college this past December (2016) but it didn’t take long for him to exit the unemployed status. In less than 90 days the young writer was quickly hired as a general assignment reporter for the Delta Democrat Times, a daily newspaper in Greenville, Mississippi. “The first month after college graduation, I can’t recall how many job applications I sent out. It was a lot of them. Emails had become more important to me than text messages,” recalls Tyrie from his desk at his new job. “As I was scrolling through my emails, I saw this message from a newspaper based here in Mississippi. The publisher explained that he saw my resume on this job website, and that he would like to conduct a facetime/skype interview with me. He further explained that one of his reporters was leaving for Georgia and that he was looking at qualified applicants to fill the position. He made the offer and I responded quickly by accepting the job. I now have my own apartment and this is my first week at work.”
During his job search Tyrie applied for jobs all over the country. He readily admits Mississippi wasn’t a place he had considered, but he knew this newspaper job was an excellent opportunity to get his foot into the door of becoming a full-time journalist.
Tyrie was an intern at the Tennessee Tribune during his final semester at TSU last fall. One of his classmates suggested that he call the Tribune to see if there any internships available. “I spoke to Mrs. Perry (Tribune publisher/owner), who was very nice about me joining her team as an intern. She assigned me to work with Janice Malone, the paper’s entertainment editor. Before I knew it, I was an entertainment news reporter hitting the Nashville scene for the Tennessee Tribune,” shares Tyrie, who was raised in nearby Jackson, TN.
The Tribune entertainment department kept Tyrie extremely busy during his internship. In addition to sharpening his writing skills, he also acquired plenty of experience as a photographer on several assignments. During his Tribune internship Tyrie soon found himself covering events such as the last R. Kelly concert, new restaurant and art gallery openings, film premieres, to name a few. Tyrie says: “One of my favorite assignments was covering the grand opening of a new high end store (The FRYE COMPANY) in The Gulch area. This is a memorable assignment because I got the chance to meet the editor of ELLE Magazine at this event. That’s what I love about journalism, you never know who you will end up talking to & building a business relationship with. Never underestimate the power of networking. I just want to thank Mrs. Perry, her staff and the Tennessee Tribune for giving me the opportunity as an intern. I will never forget her generosity in helping me launch my career into journalism.”
