Sarasota paper hires new retail/tourism reporter

Laura Finaldi has been hired by the Sarasota Herald-Tribune as its new retail and tourism reporter.

Finaldi writes, “I grew up in southwestern Connecticut and spent most of the past eight years in Boston, where I got a journalism degree from Northeastern University.

“It’s officially my second week in Sarasota, and first at the Herald-Tribune. I said yes to this job without ever coming here, and my editors hired me without ever seeing my face live, even on a computer screen. For all they knew, this could all have been a very elaborate catfish where ‘Laura Finaldi’ was actually just a committed voice actress and a series of stock photos. Luckily for them — and I guess my loved ones — I’m a real person.

“Sarasota’s pretty cool so far. I’m blown away by the bright blue sky, the wide roads and the fact that there are no rocks on the beaches — at least the ones I’ve been to. I also honestly didn’t know that buildings came in this many colors until I saw the houses here in varying shades of blue, yellow, pink, purple and orange. I remember wanting a pink house when I was a kid, but it would have looked kind of weird in Connecticut. Now I can have one, so I guess you really can have it all.

“I’ve been in business journalism on and off since college, writing about everything from health care to manufacturing to energy policy. I’ve done my best to decipher the details of the Affordable Care Act, explain the boring but important details of renewable-energy legislation, and establish a base knowledge of manufacturing to the point where I got pretty good at talking shop with metal coil makers.”

Read more here.