Bobcat, Post connections propel OHIO alumna to breaking news post at NBC News

Pamela Engel, BSJ ’12, started her career at The Columbus Dispatch and Associated Press before moving on to Business Insider. In only eight years, she’s risen to become the lead breaking news editor at NBC News Digital.

The working relationships that Pamela Engel, BSJ ’12, formed almost a decade ago with her fellow reporters at Ohio University’s The Post have helped propel her career from one job to the next, and they recently helped her earn a leading role covering and coordinating breaking news at NBC News.

When she took the job as lead breaking news editor at NBC News Digital in March, Engel’s focus immediately shifted to what was quickly becoming perhaps the biggest, and most consequential, story of the century. The mounting loss of life, government response and widespread closures that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused have pushed Engel and her team to perform under pressure. The skills she honed at Ohio University’s Scripps College of Communication, its E.W. Scripps School of Journalism and at The Post, OHIO’s student-run newspaper, and later at leading national publications have helped her respond to the challenge.

“It can be really stressful reading all these horrible stories about what’s going on and worrying about yourself and your family,” Engel said when asked about her new job. “But I think overall, I realize that during this huge moment in history I really want to be a part of getting information out to people on the pandemic. I find that invigorating, and it brings purpose to my work.”

A self-described newshound, Engel started her Ohio University experience hoping to one day write for magazines. Her first-year roommate was a copy editor at The Post, and Engel joined the paper in her sophomore year. The immediacy of news writing hooked her right from the start.

“After the first story I wrote as part of the campus staff, I realized that was actually really fun,” Engel said. “It was something that you could put together in a few days and see it in the paper the next day. I just liked the immediacy of it.”

Pamela Engel, BSJ ’12, honed her writing and editing skills at Ohio University’s Scripps College of Communication, its E.W. Scripps School of Journalism and The Post.

While training with The Post, Engel was honing her skills in the classroom, noting in particular the ways she continues to use the lessons learned in the Scripps College’s Communication Law course where information on libel law has helped her in determining where journalism’s legal lines are drawn. In addition, Engel credits Aimee Edmondson, a professor of journalism and her former adviser, with helping her find a path that best suited her skills and interests.

“She definitely guided me and gave me advice on what sort of programs and internships that I should be focusing on,” Engel said of Edmondson.

Engel’s career began with stints at The Columbus Dispatch, where she parlayed an internship into a Statehouse News Bureau Fellowship, and with the Associated Press, serving as a reporter in its Indianapolis bureau. In 2013, Ashley Lutz, BSJ ’10, a former editor-in-chief at The Post who was working at Business Insider, contacted Engel about a job opportunity there as a news reporter. Engel applied, landed the job and moved to New York City.

Starting off as a reporter at Business Insider, which would later become Insider, Engel quickly rose through the ranks, being promoted to senior reporter, politics editor, deputy editor and news director over the course of six years. In May 2019, she was named executive editor of Insider, charged with overseeing the global news teams in New York, London, Los Angeles and Sydney, Australia.

In February, Engel was approached about another job opportunity – again, by a fellow Bobcat.

“The people I worked with at The Post always think of me, and I try to think of them, too,” Engel explained.

Several years ago when she was working with Business Insider, Engel was contacted by Allan Smith, BSJ ’15. Smith was applying for an internship with Business Insider and reached out to Engel who he had worked with at The Post. Engel put in a good word for her fellow Bobcat and Postie. Smith was offered the internship and, after graduation, ended up joining the staff at Business Insider as a politics reporter, reporting to Engel who was the politics editor.

Smith went on to join NBC News as a politics reporter. When NBC News was looking for someone to run its breaking news team, Smith immediately thought of Engel.

“I wasn’t actively looking to leave Business Insider, but I had been there for about seven years and had started thinking about what my next steps might be,” Engel said. “NBC was looking for someone who had both the editorial experience and the management experience. … This was an opportunity to run a breaking news team at a bigger organization and a legacy journalism brand.”

Within two weeks of interviewing with NBC News, Engel began a new career, running the breaking news teams based in New York and Los Angeles for the digital operation of NBC News and learning the ins and outs of the broadcast business – all from the epicenter of the nation’s COVID-19 outbreak, New York City. As the city shut down, Engel’s work was just getting started.

At Insider, Engel managed five teams. At NBC News, she said, her focus and mission is much more narrow, allowing her to get back to her roots of breaking news.

“All the teams across the NBC digital operation have been working closely together to cover the COVID19 story, so it doesn’t feel like there’s too much of a load on just one team,” she said. “It’s definitely a busy time, but there’s a lot of institutional support and people working together to cover each part of the story.”

Before the COVID-19 outbreak shut down the city, Engel enjoyed meeting her friends for happy hour after work. Confined to her upper east side apartment, Engel’s new normal includes reality TV and lots of baking – a skill she’s never had time to develop until now. And, in a nod to Midwestern neighborliness, she’s also connected with her neighbors, reaching out to check in on one another.

“I’ve seen how the community, even in a huge city, is such an important part of what keeps people together,” she said. “There’s a lot of negative stuff you do read, but also a lot of encouraging stories.”