By Roxanne Brown
The ‘A’ team Celebrates an Award-Winning Year
Every year at the Florida Press Club Excellence in Journalism Awards, our team at Akers Media (aka the ‘A’ team) waits to see how we stack up against publications across the state. This year, we brought home 45 awards, an achievement that affirms the long hours and emotional investment we pour into our work.
For me, they also reinforce a career path that wasn’t exactly traditional but instead, meant to be. As a kid, I filled journals, collected quotes and loved reading. In high school, I helped classmates write papers and as an adult, I wrote resumes, newsletters and business plans.
Years later, after moving from Arizona to Florida, I worked in customer service at a bank for five years until a company-wide layoff allowed me to stay home with my three children, one a newborn, for nearly a year, a blessing in disguise.
After shifting gears, I started an editorial assistant job with a local newspaper and was allowed to write a couple stories per week under the guidance of a tough, old-school, excellent reporter my editor called a teddy bear down deep inside . . . tell that to my secret tears in the bathroom.
This year, Akers Media earned 45 awards from the Florida Press Club including the prestigious Lucy Morgan Award for In-Depth Reporting.
Months later, he quit and I asked for the job. My editor was on board, yet jokingly said he hoped nothing major would happen anytime soon. Well, within weeks while at an elementary school with my photographer covering a light-hearted story, we were called to a suspected homicide scene next door because the newly hired police reporter had not yet started.
I was nervous but wrote the story and even a follow-up giving the victim’s family a voice. And more than 21 years of writing stories in various genres about countless people later, here I am. Still a journalist and still loving every minute of it.
With that, our ‘A’ team is honored and grateful for every award, but even more so for the opportunity to continue making an impact on our community by telling stories of the people who make it so special.
Give us a shout!
Give us a shout!
Give us a shout!
Originally from Nogales, Arizona, Roxanne worked in the customer service industry while practicing freelance writing for years. She came on board with Akers Media in July 2020 as a full-time staff writer for Lake & Sumter Style Magazine and was promoted to Managing Editor in October 2023—her dream job come true. Prior to that and after just having moved to Florida in 1999, Roxanne had re-directed her prior career path to focus more on journalism and went on to become a reporter for The Daily Commercial/South Lake Press newspapers for 16 years. Additionally, Roxanne—now an award-winning journalist recognized by the Florida Press Club and the Florida chapter of The Society of Professional Journalism—continues working toward her secondary goal of becoming a published author of children’s books.
