A class full of WestConn students logged into Webex last week to hear from Julia Perkins, associate editor/reporter of the Danbury News-Times, who talked about her career and how she got to where she is so quickly.

Perkins graduated from Quinnipiac University in 2016 with a degree in journalism. She always enjoyed writing, but discovered her calling when she joined the Quinnipiac Chronicle, the school’s paper. “Within the first few days of being on campus I joined the Chronicle, and I just immediately fell in love,” she said. 

Through her work with the school paper and via journalism courses, Perkins was able to work on her skills and make connections that would soon land her a job interview at the News-Times just three days after she graduated.

“I originally started covering the Bethel area, along with smaller towns around Danbury,” Perkins told the virtual classroom full of students. She switched to covering Danbury before Covid-19 plagued the country in early 2020. This was her opportunity. At a time where little was known about the virus, Perkins’s job included a major focus on informing the public about the latest findings and pertinent information about Covid and its impacts.

Just several months ago, Perkins began a new chapter in her journalism career, adding the responsibilities of associate editor at the Hearst-owned paper. 

In each step of her career, Perkins explained, she’s had to adapt and find her way, both as a reporter and now as associate editor, although other more experienced News-Times staff members helped guide her. “Starting a new beat is one of the biggest challenges for journalists,” she said. “I originally struggled with coming up with story ideas.”

To combat any kind of writer’s block in coming up with story ideas, she believes it’s best to start with a topic, and to establish contacts in the communities you’re assigned to cover. Her advice to students who might be assigned to a new beat was based on her own experiences. In addition to the mayor or chair of a town board or city council,  also establish contact and communication with school leaders, activists and community leaders, Perkins advised the undergrads in Professor John Roche’s News Writing class on April 22. 

Perkins’ schedule and story output can prove hectic. Each day she has to be able to submit one to two news stories, along with working a longer story written throughout the week ready for the weekend. “You’re always kind of juggling multiple things at once,” Perkins explained. “That’s something I struggled with in the beginning— balancing priorities.”

Perkins has covered a lot in her short time in her positions. She covered Black Lives Matter protests at WestConn and elsewhere in Danbury over the summer of 2020, along with a new mayor taking office after the previous one left for a state position. She has also covered high-profile crimes in the Danbury area including homicides. 

She told the class that she was interviewing a suspect’s mother when police came to the house to inform the woman that her son had been shot and killed as police tried to apprehend him.  

Perkins said she thinks that local journalism has certainly changed, and in some aspects been strengthened, during the Covid pandemic. “Journalism has evolved a lot during this past year, especially since we’re all working from home,” Perkins said, adding that it’s still unknown if the field may ever go back to the way it was before Covid. 

Perkins offered other tips to help students become stronger journalists, during their undergraduate years at WestConn and beyond. “Join the student paper or student media because I don’t think I’d be where I am without the experience in reporting and writing I got through the student newspaper at Quinnipiac,” Perkins stressed. 

She also said that it’s important for any reporter to focus on what makes each story important and meaningful. Perkins explained: “You have to find what’s interesting. If you aren’t interested in the story, your readers probably aren’t either.”