For the digital pages of D Magazine, we’ve been down two editors for almost two months. But no longer! Last week, Natalie Gempel introduced herself as the new online arts editor. Today, I’d like to introduce you to Shawn Shinneman, the new online managing editor for news. Part of his job is scheduling print content and figuring out how to stuff headlines and slugs with SEO-friendly keywords (journalism in 2018!), but where you’ll be seeing the most of him is here on FrontBurner, where he’ll be reporting and editing.
He’s been over at D CEO editing and reporting for the business title’s healthcare blog since the start of the year. Prior to that, he was a tech reporter at the Dallas Business Journal. He got his master’s from the University of Missouri and undergrad from Truman State University.
We haven’t done a Slack-versation introducing someone before, and we’re all about innovation here on FrontBurner, so that’s what we did. (Special shout out to both Catherine Downes and Caitlin Clark, the existing editors who are still doing terrific work. The team is strong.) Tips? Suggestions? Story ideas? Email him here.
Who are you and what have you done with Alex Macon?
I’m not at liberty to say what’s happened, but I’m just a guy trying to fill in those big ol’ shoes. (It’s weird that we’re doing this this way when we’re seated five feet from each other.)
It’s easier to copy and paste, and I, frankly, don’t feel like transcribing this! This is about time management. Tell the people where you were before.
That makes sense. I was in your previous spot—senior editor at D CEO and running D CEO Healthcare, in this very newsroom. Before that, I wrote about tech for the Dallas Business Journal. Tech is way more boring than people make it out to be. Before that, grad school. I can keep going…
That sums it up, and it sort of repeats what I’ve already said. So what excited you about jumping ship?
Just the ability to be creative and write about the city in a new way. I realize it’s easy to say this now, but I’ve been reading D Magazine since well before I lived here, and the voice and vibe of it always appealed to me. I’m pretty thrilled to be here.
So you realize it’s easy to say that about your employer. Got it. Allow me to throw you something more difficult: tell me about the city of Dallas, which you’ll be covering a lot more closely.
Ha, easy but true! Hm. I’ve covered it for about 2.5 years from the corporate business side, where people say “growth” every fifth word. I’m interested in covering the good but also the not-so-flattering, Dallas’ deep economic divide and the myriad issues that keep us from overcoming it.
Very on-brand. This way of thinking signals that you’re a good hire, which reflects positively upon me. What’s your favorite thing that you’ve written? Tell your new readers about it.
I profiled a Dallas exoneree named Richard Miles for Longreads last year. Richard is one of the most remarkable people I’ve ever met. He was put away in the mid-90s for a murder and attempted murder he didn’t commit on what amounted to an account of one witness, who later recanted and admitted he was coached into pointing at Richard in the courtroom. Richard got out of jail in 2009 and was fully exonerated in 2012. He took a big chunk of his $1.2 million apology check from the state and started a nonprofit called Miles of Freedom, which he runs out of the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center in South Dallas. He still struggles, like most exonerees, but the way he approaches his life is pretty incredible.
I also covered a very small-town mayor who was hit with a possession of crack charge prior to an election he eventually WON. That was in the Chicago suburbs. He was not a very good mayor.
It would’ve been amazing if he actually was a very good mayor, but I realize the odds are slim on that. Anyway. Anything else you want to share before you start typing away and living in City Hall?
Hm, not that I can think of. I’m pretty bummed the Cubs lost the division yesterday, but something tells me I won’t find much sympathy in this space. So, I’ll just say I’m looking forward to diving in.
How long until you’re on the Astros bandwagon?
Not gonna happen.
