Award-Winning Reporter Jaimie Schmitz Joins KCN Staff

​After spending time at Fox 42 in Omaha, award-winning television reporter and videographer Jaimie Schmitz began her new role with a Northeast Nebraska marketing and media company.

Schmitz, an Albion native and recent graduate of the University of Nebraska-Omaha, started this week at Pitzer Digital LLC and will serve as the lead videographer and anchor with the Local County News team of Antelope County News, Boone County News, Knox County News and Holt County News.

"I am excited to take what I learned in college and use it here Northeast Nebraska. I always call myself a 'news nerd' and in this case it is a good thing," Schmitz said.

Schmitz is a 2011 Boone Central graduate and the daughter of Pat and Janet Schmitz of Albion. She graduated from UNO with a Bachelor of Arts degree in communication and concentration in broadcast news. 

"We are as excited about Jaimie leading our video division as she is about joining our staff," said Carrie Pitzer, owner of Pitzer Digital. "It's an exciting time for our company, and Jaimie is a great addition. She brings a lot of experience and talent to our team."

Schmitz has worked at Fox 42 KPTM and served as news director at MavRadio.fm and was responsible for promotions and social media for the station. While her emphasis was in news anchoring and reporting, Schmitz also worked behind the scenes for Omaha hockey and soccer play-by-play. 

She also anchored UNO’s college television news program, The Omaha News. She co-hosted a live Iowa Caucus event in January and interviewed several presidential candidates, including Hillary Clinton and Ben Carson. 
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Last month, Schmitz was awarded one of college journalism's top awards, winning the coveted first-place Eric Sevareid Award at the Midwest Journalism Conference in Minneapolis. Her investigative research on the TransCanada Pipeline and its impact on rural Nebraskans earned a top spot among college students from Nebraska, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, South Dakota, North Dakota and Minnesota.

“She’s played an integral part in MavRadio’s programming and community engagement. Her reporting is among the best of the best in college radio and television,” said Jodeane Brownlee, MavRadio faculty adviser.