Albany Democrat-Herald Reporter Talks At LBCC

Photo courtesy of Kyle Odegard

The News Reporting class taught by Rob Priewe was presented with a guest speaker on Feb.19—a crime reporter for the Albany Democrat-Herald.

Kyle Odegard has been a journalist for 13 years, two of which have been at the DH. A graduate of Portland State, he was hired by Priewe when he was the managing editor at the Gazette-Times. Odegard spoke passionately about the love for his job covering the cops.

Odegard told the class that he grew up writing Quentin Tarantinoesque stories and decided that he would pursue journalism after he felt his chance of making a living being an author was slim.

“In the first three months on the job I learned ten times more than I did in college.”

He starts his days looking over police logs from the prior day. He looks for events he deems worthy of follow up and then goes to the Albany Police Department to start asking questions. On the morning he spoke to LBCC students he told them there was a dead body on the logs which he would be following up on when he left.

“It’s intense, it’s fun, and you never know what your day will look like,” he said about his job.

One of the things he likes is that it is a combination of desk and field work. He estimates that he writes five to ten stories a week which keeps him busy interviewing sources, researching and attending city hall meetings.

His job has led him to do a variety of things. He has been paid to surf while writing a story on the subject. He has covered stories on square dancers and polka players. He saw the Dali Llama speak last year. He has met governors. He has sat in on murder trials.

“Working at a small town newspaper you have to be willing to cover anything.”

As a reporter focusing on crime, Odegard sees the side of society that many of the people reading his stories do not. He talked about working in eastern Oregon when there was a meth epidemic and he recalled six drug related deaths in a two-week span that he covered; four murders and a murder/suicide. He recalled another story in eastern Oregon where a man shot himself while driving his car.

Reporting on crime, especially involving death, takes sensitivity.

“I often talk to people on the worst day of their lives. They want to share about their loved one and their outrage on what happened.”

Odegard asked the class who among them were seeking a career in reporting. Half the class raised their hand. He offered some words of wisdom.

He warned that they will need thick skin and can’t let people push them around. A reporters job is to get people talking no matter how uncomfortable the situation. He suggested to them to take as many writing classes as possible. They will have to work when the news happens and must be able to write quickly and well.

“You have to be curious. You have a license to explore stuff and be nosey.”

Odegard has written stories that are award winning and he has also written stories that have exposed city officials. He told the class that it’s about doing all the little stories so that you can get the big story.

“The stuff I am really proud of sometimes people can’t see the work you do to come up with a compelling story.”

When a student asked him if his stories ever hit close to home, he answered frankly.

“You can’t help but emphasize. You do have emotional attachment but you have to hide it.”

Odegard was well received by the class and students commented on what they took away from his visit.

“I liked how he talked about having thick skin. I feel like that was a very important thing to talk about,” said Andrew Nielsen.

“I thought the amount of stories he has to do is just crazy, how you need to be able to cope with criticism, and how you need to talk to grieving people,” said Mathew Brock.