Jasmine Lewin

When Jasmine Lewin first entered a newsroom, it was “take your daughter to work day.” She put on her father, Jacob’s, giant headphones, listened to his recordings and watched him create a radio story.

At 12, she graduated from guest to contributor. Her dad taught her how to help review his work before he sent it off. One story about refugees stuck with her.

“I didn’t know anything about this issue. I didn’t know that people were landing in our airport looking for shelter and asylum,” Lewin said. “And I was like, ‘I wonder how many other people are listening to this right now and they just learned about this all because my dad did this story about them?’”

Now, her dad is retired and living in Astoria and Lewin is the one producing news stories. She joined The Astorian in July and covers criminal justice.

Her early immersion in the journalism world gave her a strong appreciation for the craft, but she didn’t truly see it as her path until college. Lewin considered a variety of programs — including political science, environmental law and botany — and wanted to play to her university’s strengths. She ended up at the University of Oregon and decided to be a part of its robust journalism school.

While her dad — who has contributed to KMUN — inspired a love of words in a journalism sense, her mom, a librarian, inspired an appreciation for English and books. “That kind of was what brought me to writing as opposed to broadcast journalism,” Lewin said.

Her work was first published in Ethos Magazine, a student magazine focused on marginalized groups. When she graduated in 2022, she stayed in Eugene to freelance for the local radio station, KLCC. After freelancing for a year, she wanted to try something different and more stable.

“Honestly, I did not ever expect to be covering crime and courts,” she said. “You really have to monitor and keep checking in and keep a close eye on things and keep waiting and it can definitely be frustrating sometimes, but it’s really rewarding.”

Her favorite story she’s produced so far was on the First Baptist Church’s 100-year anniversary. The church’s story surprised her, and readers told her they had the same experience.

“They’re like, ‘I didn’t think I would be interested in a church, but this is some crazy history,’” she said. “Which is kind of what I think journalism is about sometimes — taking something that people don’t really look twice at and being like, ‘Actually, there’s something here, you just don’t know it.’”