Jaci Smith, APG Media of Southern Minnesota LLC: The role of native advertising

Jaci Smith began her career as a copy editor at the Racine (Wis.) Journal-Times before moving over to the reporter ranks where she covered higher education, business and public safety, and spent a year and a half as an investigative reporter in New Jersey — her definition of a dream job. She was appointed night city editor at the La Crosse (Wis.) Tribune in her first management job, and has been an editor/coach for more than 20 years at papers ranging in size from 5,000 to 80,000 circulation.

Smith has won awards from Minnesota, Wisconsin and New Jersey newspaper associations, and from the Minnesota, Wisconsin and the prestigious New York City Deadline Club branches of the Society of Professional Journalists.

She is currently the project manager for APG Media of Southern Minnesota’s institutional fellowship at the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute.