Alumnus Takes on Multimedia World at TODAY Show

By Meghan CaprezGetting yelled at by celebrities, staging gift-wrapping contests and taste-testing ice cream is part of a regular day’s work for Kent State University alumnus Kyle Miller.

Miller graduated from Kent State magna cum-laude in 2009. A broadcast news major in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Miller learned from experience that he did not want to become a small-town news reporter. He hoped for something bigger.

After turning down numerous job offers from small-town news stations, he received the offer he was hoping for. It was an offer from NBC’s TODAY Show.

“I really prayed and believed the opportunity would open up, and it did,” Miller said. “They called me. I didn’t even apply for the job at all. I held out for what I wanted.”

Miller credits the job opportunity to the connections he made at the show while he was a student at Kent State.

In the summer of 2008, Miller interned at NBC with the TODAY Show. There, he was able to meet and observe some of his news idols, namely Today co-anchor Meredith Vieira.

“It definitely motivated me,” Miller said. “I saw what I wanted to do, and I realized how much work I had to put in to get me to that point where I could even be considered for entry-level jobs there.”

Miller did not pass up his opportunity to network with professionals at the show. He remained in contact with several of his supervisors when he returned to school in the fall.

“I stayed in contact with some of the anchors and reporters,” Miller said. “Jeff Rossen, Jenna Wolfe and Meredith would email me and check up on me, so I wanted to make sure I wasn’t completely sucking when they would ask me to send them stuff I was working on.”

Today, Miller works as a video producer and reporter for the show and its website. He refers to his job as a hybrid because he is never doing one thing at a time.

Miller’s responsibilities include editing the four-hour-long show, producing videos for the website based on the show and creating original content.

Ever since his time at Kent State, Miller wanted to be in a position where he could produce his own stories. Miller says that creating his own stories is his favorite part of his job.

“It’s a pretty organic news environment, and you can pitch the stories you want to do,” Miller said. “I feel really blessed to be in a role like this so early in my career.”

He uses the skills he developed as a student and active participant in TV2, Kent State’s student-operated campus television station. Part of Miller’s responsibility as a TODAY Show reporter is pitching story ideas to the show’s producers on a regular basis.

“I use the same skills that Karl Idsvoog taught me when I pitch stories at TODAY,” Miller said. “We’re in a big conference room with all of our producers and editors of the site. I have to make a case for my story.”

Miller has produced numerous stories for the TODAY Show website. One of the topics he works on is finance, where he is able to take viewers’ questions and interview professionals to have them answered.

Even though he has been working at NBC for two years now, he is still thankful for the opportunity he has been given.

“I was doing a story on ice cream, and I was getting paid to taste and try ice cream all day,” Miller said. “I have those moments when I can’t believe that this is what I get to do this early in my career.”