Nashville resident and recent Belmont graduate Joe Woolley has moved to New York City to accept a job with CBS News.
Wooley will be working on the CBS News foreign desk.
“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, to be able to start in a new and revitalized origination, that is ready to work hard and take on the news in a new and more in-depth way,” Woolley said. “I will be working behind Katie Couric.”
Woolley’s new job will keep him busy. The CBS News Foreign Desk monitors news overseas, and if significant breaking news occurs, the desk sends correspondents and producers to the area.
“If the Early Show or Evening News needs a foreign story then they come to us and we give them the news and a correspondent overseas to fill them in,” he said. “I will also be covering the United Nations in New York and producing stories that a correspondent would then come and read on air. Along with all of that I will also be writing stories for the CBS News Web site. My boss has also assured me that traveling abroad for stories comes quickly if you work hard. This job is my passion and still can’t believe I was lucky enough to land it. “
Woolley landed the job after participating in the Summer Fellowship Program sponsored by the International Radio and Television Society Foundation. The program teaches up-and-coming communicators the realities of the business world through an all-expense-paid fellowship, which includes practical experience and career-planning advice.
“I interned at the Daily Show with Jon Stewart for four weeks,” he said. “There I met the funniest, nicest group of people. I can’t believe they get paid to do what they do. It was so much fun to go to work every day. I met some amazing people that came as guests to the program, journalist icons like Anderson Cooper, Helen Thomas, and Tim Russert, and also a personal hero Lance Armstrong. The show went on hiatus for two weeks and at that point I moved over to the CBS Evening News. There I researched, wrote prompter for Bob Schieffer, and got to see an exciting change take place as CBS News transitions in to a new era.”
That new era will begin this fall when Couric takes over as the anchor for the CBS Evening News. Woolley said it was interesting to see the changes taking place in anticipation of her taking the helm.
“I got to go in on the last day the old set was there and they used me to stand in for the anchor as they took pictures to put into a computer to use as artificial backdrop for the news this summer,” he said. “They tore out the old set following that and have built a brand new studio and newsroom for Katie. Sitting at the desk where Dan Rather sat all those years was awesome.”
Woolley’s partner Jim will be staying in Nashville and the two will travel back and forth between Nashville and New York.
“I couldn’t and wouldn’t do this if he was not 100 percent behind me and supportive,” Woolley said. “NYC is not for him and he will be staying here in Nashville with the house and the dogs. We are confident that it is going to work.”