Andrew Stein, the Founder and Director of Knight News, Inc., moves on to start a career with Tribune Company and highlights his experience at UCF. The opinions expressed in this article do not reflect those of KnightNews.com, Knight News, Inc., its writers, subsidiaries or affiliates.
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‘No.’
That’s what the editors over at the Central Florida Future told me when I applied to be a writer for their entertainment section five years ago.
‘No.’
That’s what the ‘who’s who’ of the university told me when I said I wanted to start an online newspaper at UCF.
Fortunately, I don’t respond favorably to people telling me what I can’t do. Here we are, two years later, and I can grab the attention of nearly 60,000 students with the click of a ‘submit’ button. KnightNews.com, the ‘little campus blog’ I shouldn’t and couldn’t have started with my friend Max Friedman* in July of 2009, has become a household name.
Although I was mostly known as “the guy who makes people look stupid on camera,” everything was very serious behind the scenes. I’ve become fluent in First Amendment law, video editing, news field production and business and non-profit management — sort of makes me wonder why I ever paid for college courses.
I have a lot of favorite moments at UCF, but here are a few that meant the most to me:
1.) The El Corral Music Video
Yes, I wrote the song. No, I did not get paid to do it. Yes, I was given a lot of free El Corral afterward. No, the Porsche in the video does not belong to me — yet.
2.) Exposing corruption in SGA – “The Mike Kilbride Administration $8,000 Triple Crown,” as I like to call it, was an $8,000 retreat at a luxury resort near Disney, an $8,000 desk for the office, and another nearly $8,000 retreat just months later — all on students’ dime. We broke these major stories and they got picked up on every major network, including CNN. The message was simple: stop wasting students’ money and we will stop exposing you. He didn’t. We continued.
3.) The People – From dealing with student organizations to reporting on campus events, I’ve shaken more hands and kissed more babies (proverbially) than I can count on a porcupine with split ends. This has really been the most incredible experience of my life (::hitting play on Greenday CD::). I loved every moment, but certainly need to delete a few Facebook friends. I’m tired of getting poked by strangers and receiving endless Vampire invitations, although I am flattered.
I’ve created a few enemies along the way, which is my only regret. But you know, it’s difficult not to. You know how they say there are two sides to every story? That’s a load of crap. At UCF, there are 56,000 sides to every story and they won’t all line up with yours. I’ve learned to deal with it, and my skin has become thicker than Wendy’s Frosty — unfortunately I don’t taste as good when you dip French fries in me.
We’ve won major awards for outstanding reporting from the Society of Professional Journalists. We’ve defended students when their rights were being violated; we’ve battled the UCF administration when it was treating students unfairly; we’ve brought high definition and live video recordings to all major campus events; the list goes on. KnightNews.com has completely revolutionized news at UCF.
In my early days at UCF, I had been told ‘no’ so many times I was beginning to feel like the wrinkled dollar bill that no vending machine would accept. But it’s that wrinkled dollar that proves to be the most clutch in a time of need because it’s the one that was holding out in your wallet to be used for something better than a diet Coke. I was glad to be UCF’s wrinkled dollar bill; I feel like I accomplished something greater than I ever set out to do.
Now as I leave, I have passed the reigns onto Kevin Wolkenfeld, our Editor-in-Chief, who I know will continue to do an amazing job. Kevin — if I have any advice at all for you, it’s to write what you want to write. If you listen to everyone who tells you ‘no,’ you’ll end up like everyone. And from looking around, I can tell you that’s a scary thought.
I recently applied to work for Tribune Company, one of the largest and most respected news publishing corporations in the world. I met with them and showed them what I did with KnightNews.com and the impact it’s made, and they loved it. As for the job I applied for with them, they went on to tell me one thing:
‘Yes.’
Proud UCF Alum,
Andrew Stein
*After leaving KnightNews.com, Max Friedman has gone on to start a successful, South-Florida based, full-service marketing and design agency. Check it out at FriedmanCreative.com. Without Max, KnightNews.com would never have gotten off the ground. He was my only ‘yes man.’
