Bio

Justin Ellis is an award-winning journalist as comfortable cranking out columns, stories, or online videos as he is devouring a plate of freshly cooked bacon.

Photo by Matthew Robbins

Justin has written for such publications as the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram and the Kennebec Journal, reported for Portland-based TV station WMTW and worked for organizations including Investigative Reporters and Editors.

Most recently Justin was a columnist/blogger, staff writer and multimedia producer for the Portland Press Herald, Maine’s largest daily newspaper. In more than seven years at the paper he covered politics, business, local government, education, technology and culture. In that time only once did he manage to invoke the wrath of the state’s tourism industry by suggesting the state slogan be changed to “Maine – The way life should be, but sometimes isn’t — but that’s OK too.”

During his time at the Press Herald he covered stories including the inauguration of President Barack Obama, Maine’s vote on gay marriage, cultural assimilation among young people from immigrant families and the growth of online business of outdoors retailer L.L. Bean.

As a member of the paper’s online staff Justin wrote NXT: The Next Generation, one of the more popular blogs on PressHerald.com and co-created the NXT Podcast, the site’s first podcast.

In-between answering online comments about his grammar, taste and love for eye patches, Justin wrote about Portland’s music scene, profiled local bloggers, reviewed DVDs with local celebrity Videoport Jones and interviewed the creator of The Slanket – the original blanket with sleeves.

Originally from the Midwest, Justin was born on the snow-swept plains of Minneapolis, where he developed a taste for foods on sticks and the color purple (the color, not the novel). Also, luckily, a taste for journalism.

Studying at the School of Journalism at the University of Missouri, Columbia, Justin explored journalism from multiple angles, including on-air announcing for a local NPR affiliate, working as a cartoonist for the student newspaper and finally as a reporter (and later copy editor) at the Columbia Missourian. His time at Mizzou was formative as he learned he did not have “a Midwestern accent” and would go on to develop an unhealthy (and previously undiscovered) hatred for the State of Kansas and the university that bears its name.

In his free time Justin enjoys scouring thrift stores and garage sales to beef-up his record collection, trying to nurture an interest in architecture, trying new recipes and watching home-improvement shows even though he does not own a home.

Awards and Fellowships

Knight Digital Media Center Fellow; Multimedia Reporting Workshop, 2008
Annual Conference Fellow; American Association of Sunday and Feature Editors, 2008
Casey Journalism Center Fellow; Reporting on Diverse Communities Workshop, 2006
Bob Drake Young Writer of the Year; Maine Press Association, 2004
Annual Conference Minority Fellow; Investigative Reporters and Editors, 2003