cate charron

Multimedia Journalist

What you're looking for is right here

As a young journalist, I possess experience and skills impressive for my age. I've written breaking news, dailys and enterprise for award-winning publications. Photography, web design, social media engagement and audio storytelling are all also in my repertoire. My ability to maneuver public records requests and know when I'm getting the run-around has won me national awards as a collegiate journalist. I've gained the trust of sexual assault survivors, police officers, mourning families, fearful service workers and public officials. I can make sense of university bylaws, zoning code and development plans and how they'll affect community members. Ultimately, I strive to tell stories about how institutions and their decisions affect the everyday people in my community.

Currently, I am working for Inside INdiana Business as a statewide business reporter.

About Me

I may have graduated from Indiana University last December, but I have no shortage of professional experience entering the field. Having been in my current role since May 2023, I've grown to be an important member of our team as well as the youngest — an attribute I believe is an asset.

I was one of the top collegiate journalists in the country while in college, being named Indiana's collegiate journalist of the year by two organizations and receiving national recognition for my reporting on a sexual misconduct case and public records battle with IU. Through internships, publications learned they can depend on me to fill critical gaps with some reporters even forgetting I was an intern and not a full-time staffer.

While I love my job, I do have a life outside journalism. I'm a huge soccer fan and coach little ones in my free time. You will see me at every home IU women's basketball game and a few Indiana Fever games too. I have a nice collection of records and over 30 houseplants too.

Top Hits

County's 'largest mental health facility' is the jail. Everyone agrees there's a better way to provide treatment.

The Herald-Times — Aug. 1, 2022

Dissonance in due process: An investigation into IU's handling of a sexual misconduct case

Indiana Daily Student — Jan. 27, 2022

'My baby girl': Woman fatally shot by ex-employee after picking up extra Dollar Tree shift

The Indianapolis Star — May 10, 2023

Indy advocates, studies say reducing homelessness starts with increasing affordable housing

Inside INdiana Business — Nov. 8, 2023

Indiana House votes to cut mandatory discussion topics, teachers call it union busting

The Indianapolis Star — April 18, 2023

Kinsey Institute faculty, students express confusion, concern over institute’s future

Indianapolis Business Journal / Inside INdiana Business — Nov. 13, 2023

Business owners along US 31 will be forced to move with construction. They say it’s unfair.

Indianapolis Business Journal / Inside INdiana Business — Sept. 1, 2023

Multimedia

My professor in my first class at Indiana University told my cohort that we continuously have to adapt in the industry and add new skills beyond being a good writer to our resume. I was a little terrified after that lecture (and to be honest now still), so I signed up for web design classes and started taking photos. So thank you, Bonnie, I have a nice multimedia resume now.

Engagement

The stories we write and work hours on deserve eyes to read them and to reach the audiences we intend them for. As a leader at my student newspaper and now in my professional career, I've pitched ideas and made tweaks to our operations to make our stories have more legs.

  • Spent time on the IndyStar's trending desk where each morning the team bounced ideas off each other and vetted trending topics and search analytics for quick turn-around stories
  • Restructured the Indiana Daily Student's digital publishing schedule based on collected data and readership trends to just before peak hours in spring 2022
  • Led a 2022 election staff where we focused on community engagement — using multimedia collaborations, surveys, social media, how to vote quiz and built the publication's election results dashboard akin to the speed and design of national outlets — to better engage a lethargic student voter base and fill the local news desert gap
  • Founded a bi-annual IDS newspaper edition capitalizing on how our paper was free and focusing on resources, content and facts that community members who are often overlooked and often without cell service or the money to pay for reputable news would need to know during the winter months
  • Established a new IDS precedent (bringing back an old newspaper trend) to publish the week's weather in the paper since unhoused people often have limited knowledge of dipping temperatures or dangerous storms and are part of our reader base

Web Design

My digital experience is more than the projects I've worked on. It means something as small as fixing a bug when embedding code in the content management system or as big picture as realizing the multimedia potential a story has outside written word.

An important story I worked on in college encapsulates all of that. Font choice, quote highlights and a large animation were the product of intense attention to detail and reader engagement.

gif of scrolling through graduate worker strike website

Photography

One of my best friends and my boyfriend were photojournalists in college, so I know darn well the value good photos have in storytelling and the void the lack of which has. When on assignment by myself, I always try to put together a photo story and give more dimension to a story.

Radio

Each weekday, I record afternoon radio for WIBC, Network Indiana, NPR affiliates and the Inside INdiana Business Radio on Demand podcast.

Some stories, I give extra life to and allow our audience to hear the voices of the people represented. In this special episode, business owners told me about how a road project using eminent domain is spelling months to years of financial hardship.

► BONUS: Business owners along U.S. 31 forced to move concerned for future

Inside INdiana Business — Sept. 6, 2023