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MEET THE NEWS TEAM: Reporter Nikki Cole

'As a kid I always loved to write stories, and that continued to grow as I got older'
2021-02-11 Nikki Cole 1
Nikki Cole is a reporter with BarrieToday.

In the coming weeks, we'd like to introduce the members of our editorial team. Today, we feature Nikki Cole.

Cole is a reporter for BarrieToday whose work includes covering a wide variety of stories in the city, but with a main focus in areas such as addiction, poverty, affordable housing, health care and the opioid crisis, to name just a few.

1. Where did you attend post-secondary school, and what did you study?

I attended Niagara College for journalism-print. After graduating, I attended Fanshawe College where I took a post-graduate program in corporate communications and public relations.

2. What drew you to journalism? 

As a kid, I always loved to write stories and that continued to grow as I got older. I took a journalism class in high school and we were responsible for creating the yearbook. That initially piqued my interest, so I started taking more notice of our local newspaper and the stories that they’d tell.

3. What have been some of the highlights of your journalism career so far?

When I was doing a college placement, I got to cover an event at a local school which had won a contest that brought one of the Toronto Blue Jays and Jackie Robinson’s daughter to the school. Getting to meet her and hear first-hand about her father was extremely inspiring.

One of the coolest things I got to do during the first few years of my career was getting geared up with a local fire department in northern British Columbia and participating in their training in a smoke house  as well as getting taken up on the aerial ladder and seeing the mountains from way up high.

A few years ago, I got to go up in an old war plane during an air show in Midland and see the area from the sky. The plane was the same model my great-uncle had been a gunner in for the RAF during the Second World War. He happened to be visiting from California that summer, so I was able to show him photos that I had taken that day. 

4. What brought you to the area?

I initially moved to Simcoe County in 2007 to work as a reporter for The Midland Mirror.

5. What are your favourite stories to write? 

I love writing feature stories about people and telling their unique stories. I have a real passion for arts and entertainment in my personal life, so have always enjoyed writing those types of stories as well.

6. What do you find is the most challenging part of writing a story? 

For me the most challenging part of a story is always the lead  the first sentence. For some reason, I have always struggled with creating something that doesn’t sound too cheesy or isn’t too lengthy. (Headlines are also not my favourite!) I often find I have a really difficult time stopping. I often feel like all the information I gathered is “gold” so typically end up going back over a story several times to pare it down significantly in order not to repeat myself.  

7. What is one of your journalism career goals and/or dream story?

That is a very difficult question to answer. Initially, my career goal was to make my way back east and find a job “at home," which I’ve accomplished. I suppose my dream story would be a feature story on one of my favourite musicians  although I would probably “nerd out” depending on who it was.