Bill Tomison on Muck Rack

Bill Tomison

Verified
Providence
As seen in: WPRI-TV (Providence, RI), Yahoo, KRON-TV (San Francisco, CA), KXAN-TV (Austin, TX), WKRG-TV (Mobile, AL), WAVY-TV (Portsmouth, VA), WRIC-TV (Richmond, VA), WWLP-TV (Chicopee, MA), NewsBreak, WKBN-TV (Youngstown, OH), WRBL-TV (Columbus, GA) and
Covers:  Providence, Rhode Island, Massachusetts
#BlackLivesMatter. 20(+!) years producing newscasts/web writing @WPRI12, Providence, RI. Member @NLGJA. He/him/his 🏳️‍🌈 newsie.social/@billtomisonlive
Back to Bill Tomison’s profile

Interview

Have you ever used a typewriter?

Plenty! I learned to touch-type on an old Smith-Corona portable electric typewriter as early as third grade.

How is social media changing news?

News evolves through the media of conveyance. Anyone can publish or broadcast anything now; only if the content is amazing will it spread.

How do you prefer to be pitched on stories?

Email. Include why my market needs to know your story: do a quick search on Providence and give me a personalized angle.

What tools and software do you use to do your job?

Google, Twitter, Facebook, Avid iNews.

What advice can you offer to aspiring journalists?

Relax. Don't be afraid to ask dumb questions, but you can acknowledge you haven't caught up on the homework yet.

When's the best time to pitch you?

9:00 in the morning, before the newsroom goes in for the morning story meeting.

What's the worst pitch you ever got?

A telephone call at the end of my shift that was totally vague/head-in-the-clouds, with too much style and no clear substance.
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