Erin Raviola used her skills from Ohio University and WOUB to start her own business

After a career in journalism and moving to New York City as a producer for a major network, Erin Laviola ’11 used her media knowledge and talents to launch her own business.

“I’m a freelance writer and video producer,” said Raviola. “I use the journalism, writing, and video skills I learned at Ohio University and her WOUB to create stories for clients.”

Raviola grew up near Columbus and came to Ohio University in 2007. She knew of her excellent reputation for EW her journalism her school, had her guides on student tours during her campus visits, and pitched her the opportunity to actually be on the air. I was. Journalism experience in Athens.

“The moment I visited Ohio University, I knew I wanted to go. The campus was absolutely gorgeous,” said Raviola. ) was my student tour guide, talking and teaching us about every opportunity to work in broadcasting on campus, not just watching WOUB set up and sitting in a classroom learning about journalism, but actually I was very excited to be able to practice journalism in

Within the first few weeks of her freshman year, Raviola started volunteering at WOUB. She worked on the production side of WOWB’s nightly 30-minute newscast, NewsWatch, in the studio operating her cameras. After working in production, Raviola was in charge of audio, graphics, and was once in charge of her technical direction for the show. At the same time, La Viola began working in the WOUB newsroom, where she wrote articles, anchored and reported on radio and television news, weather, and sports, including a feature story on WOWB’s high school football program Gridiron Glory. Her most favorite role, however, was as a Newswatch producer.

“I wanted to learn everything, which is why I did so much at WOWB. Everything helped my career after it turned into producing local and national news.” I knew the production team, I knew their job.”

Thanks in part to her work at WOUB, Raviola was offered a prestigious TODAY Show internship during her senior year and enjoyed her time in the Big Apple.

“It was a great experience and gave me an idea of ​​what it’s like to live and work in the television industry in New York City.”

After graduating, Raviola’s first job was as a part-time morning and afternoon show producer at NBC 4 in Columbus. Less than a year later, she was offered a full-time job at 10 TV in Columbus, and she accepted the role.

“I worked from Wednesday to Sunday and was a producer on weekend mornings,” Raviola said. “I was in charge of a two-hour weekend morning show, and in addition to writing and producing the day’s news, I had to book live interview guests to fill the two hours. .”

After that, Raviola had a big break. In 2014, she was offered a producer position on her new CBS streaming channel. Raviola knew that joining such a start-up would be risky, but she couldn’t pass up the chance to return to New York and work for a major network.

“When I first moved there, the CBS streaming channel hadn’t launched yet, so this was a big deal,” Raviola said. “But it worked, and I was very proud to be part of the team that launched the CBS Streaming News Channel. CBS News was the first company to create a streaming news service.”

Raviola mainly produced interview segments and really enjoyed the time and experience. But after about three years she was ready to return to her home.

“I just decided New York City and the network news lifestyle wasn’t what I wanted long-term. I’ve seen them work,” Raviola said. “So I started looking for public relations and communications jobs in Ohio.”

After a short stint working for an online local news startup operation in Columbus, Raviola began looking for new and different ways to utilize her writing and video production skills.

“Eventually, I started doing freelance work,” said Raviola. “A fellow Bobcat put me in touch with a company that writes online blog posts. I did it and my work grew from there.”

Raviola finally launched Erin A member of Laviola Creative Services, she currently works primarily with healthcare organizations to write blog posts, journal articles, white papers and video scripts on various health and medical technology topics. She still has her foot in the world of journalism as well. La Viola is another client she’s won through her Bobcat connections, she produces a weekly Q&A episode on The NewsWorthy podcast.

“I am very happy that I can still write video scripts and work in journalism,” Raviola said.

Although Raviola’s career has moved away from TV news, she says the professional experience she gained at WOWB gave her the confidence to start her own business.

“WOUB is not a student program or a student newspaper. “I feel comfortable interviewing people. I really feel that it has become the foundation for