By Joseph T. O’Connor EBS Managing Editor
BIG SKY – In Jacob Osborne’s fall 2014 class at Yale University called “Advanced Nonfiction: At Home in America,” famed writer Gay Talese visited to discuss elements of covering Americana for nearly 70 years.
“He said that journalism is the industry with the fewest liars in it,” says Osborne, a 21-year-old rising senior. “It really stuck with me. I’m interested in telling stories, and telling stories that are true.”
Osborne, who hails from Thetford, Vt., aims to write these true stories this summer as editorial assistant, participating in the Outlaw Partners’ editorial internship in Big Sky. He’s begun with a piece on page 18, exploring the legacy of Bugaboo Café’s owners Paul and Kim Cameron as they hand over the keys to their business.
Through mid-August, Osborne will assist on every level of Outlaw’s editorial process, from editing copy to photography and from researching, reporting and writing stories, to posting on the company’s social media sites.
Osborne first heard about the Outlaw Partners through Outside Magazine, which in 2013 named the company among the “Best Places to Work” in the U.S. He then pitched a story to Outlaw’s editors about an excursion on which he was embarking.
In spring 2014, Osborne toured the Galapagos archipelago by boat then submitted a dual-profile on Montana writers Rick Bass and Doug Peacock, who were aboard the vessel. Mountain Outlaw magazine published the story in its summer 2014 edition.
“I felt lucky to be able to publish a story on a platform like Mountain Outlaw without having met any [Outlaws], and grateful for the opportunity to be observant during that trip and reflect deeply after it,” he said.
Through the internship, Osborne says he’s looking to hone his reporting skills and to get to know the area both politically and culturally. “I’d like to come out of the summer more oriented about where and how I want to live in the future,” he said. “I definitely have that easterner’s romantic tug to the West and this summer seemed as good as any to indulge that.”
Osborne’s love for the outdoors falls in lockstep with his goals for a summer in Montana, both inside the newsroom and beyond the Associated Press Stylebook. The self-proclaimed “pick-up basketball junkie” enjoys hiking and hopes to explore the trails in southwest Montana as much as possible, and to learn a new brand of American culture.
“I feel most calm and centered in the outdoors,” he said.
Osborne’s interdisciplinary American Studies major at Yale speaks to his interest in the fabric that weaves into a greater story about the country.
“I’m studying what I call ‘the American story.’ I’m interested in storytelling; what stories Americans tell and why we tell them. I think that narrative is probably the most common and significant way that humans make sense of the world.”
Welcome to the team, Jacob.
