Ellen Weiss

About Ellen Weiss

I am a newsroom leader, executive producer, investigations editor, story editor, mentor, trainer and an agent of transformation. In my 40 years in journalism, I’ve worked at the highest levels of non-profit and for-profit media companies leading and helping lead change in legacy newsrooms. I’ve created and developed award-winning broadcast shows and podcasts, built multifunctional teams, and overseen the production of numerous stories and series that have changed laws, improved lives and earned journalism’s most prestigious honors. And all of my work is informed by my passion for journalism and its role in our democracy. Specifically, I understand every facet of news (or editorial) production – story/series structure, reporting, field producing, editing, writing, sound design, fact-checking, partnerships - and the non-editorial parts like budgeting, marketing, sales and distribution. I have managed talent at all experience levels of audio and video storytelling and successfully worked on deadlines short and long.And now I\'ve co-founded a production company, Rock Creek Sound This is a family affair, co-founded with my son Ari Saperstein - yup, we are a mother-son production team. Our mission is to make audio storytelling a more accessible space for emerging storytellers. Our productions include Trauma Town, a companion series to the HBO documentary Great Photo, Lovely Life; Organized Money, a podcast about how the business world really works, and how corporate consolidation and monopolies dominate every sector of our economy. Our most recent podcast, Breakdown, was part of a collaboration between Maine Public, PBS Frontline and The Portland Press Herald that recently recevied a Peabody nomination.Beyond the journalism- I haul a lot of dirt and remove a lot of debris as a trail maintainer for the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club- I try to keep people from climbing onto Abraham Lincolns lap as a volunteer with the National Park Service stationed at the Lincoln Memorial- I’m a mentor with College Bound – working with DC public school students to enter college, earn a degree, and achieve their personal and professional goals- I run (on trails I maintain), hike, play tennis, take a lot of walks and travel as much as I can.

Experience

1. Managing Editor Series Editor

   An Arm And A Leg

   Mar 2023 — Present

   I\'m excited to be joining the team at An Arm and A Leg podcast. I\'ll be wearing two hats, Managing Editor on an investigative project and serving as the series editor. This-is a great show that tries to get at why health care is so damn expensive and how, every so often, we can actually fight back. You\'ll laugh, you might cry or want to hide, but you are always going to be entertained and scrambling to take notes.

Skills

• News Writing
• Program Management
• Blogging
• Editing
• Editorial
• New Media
• Training
• Broadcast
• Breaking News
• Fundraising
• Investigative Reporting
• Storytelling
• Copy Editing
• Broadcast Journalism
• Strategy
• Newspapers
• Journalism
• Social Media
• Budgets
• Government