Christie Rotondo (foreground) reporting an alpaca story this summer for the Gazette Newspapers of Cape May County, NJ
All reporters at the New York Daily News yearn to get their stories on “The Wood,” which is newsroom jargon for the front page. Purchase journalism student Christie Rotondo pulled it off while still just an intern there. Rotondo, a junior at Purchase, shared a Nov. 11 byline on a front page story about anti-semitic vandalism in Midwood, Brooklyn. Rotondo had been assigned to write obits that day but was sent to the scene where three cars had been torched. She worked the story all day and didn’t realize she’d made the front page until she got an email from Purchase Journalism Professor Ross Daly congratulating her. “I definitely learned a lot from working the scene,” says Rotondo, “and seeing my story on the cover was the ultimate payoff.”
journoprof 
From obits to The Wood–no deadwood for Christie! Well done!