Fox producer from Fresno makes it big in New York City
By ELISA NAVARRO, Student Writer
It’s the night of the presidential election and Ashley Taylor (2005) is the producer at Fox News Edge in New York City. Taylor is running around, assigning scripts left and right to ensure her team provides the best possible content for all of the Fox affiliate stations across the country.
“Covering the election was crazy. It was insanity wrapped in a nightmare. When it came down to the actual election night, I ran the coverage for it, my department and I were running point on it, which is exhausting and stressful, but at the same time I remember thinking, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere but here tonight,” said Taylor, “I don’t want to be at home watching the news feeling helpless like I don’t know what’s going on, I need to be doing my job and I want to be running it!”
Diving into a producer’s position was not a simple task. Taylor started her career as the overnight assignment editor at local Fox affiliate KMPH, where she would start her workday at 2 a.m. It soon became clear to Taylor that she wanted to be a producer — she became producer for the midday newscast at KMPH and moved to being one of the producers on the morning show Great Day. Taylor worked there for 7 years before jumping to Fox.
“No one can fathom that anyone could go from KMPH [market 55] to Fox [network], but it happens all the time — you just have to want it and do good work…you have to get in and you have to start believing that it’s possible.”
In September 2013 Taylor was working for Fox in New York City as a writer for the morning talk show Fox & Friends and just 6 months later she was a producer for Fox Edge.
Fox Edge is a local hub of video and scripts that also produces content that any affiliate station can access.
“I love that for my job I get to know what’s going on around the world and around the country at all times and knowing what video is available for everything! That’s what I do, and I’m great at that because I like to multitask and I like to be on top of everything.”
Now, three years into her new job, she gets to pitch and shoot her own stories.
“Honestly, I see myself staying here in New York and with Fox Edge. I love it here and I love exactly what I do. I am saying exactly what I said three years into working at KMPH but it’s true I love my life, I love what I do, I want nothing more than to just keep doing it.”
Taylor was one of the first class of the Smittcamp Family Honors College at Fresno State. She says that she never would have been in Fresno without Smittcamp, and feels as though she owes Fresno State and Smittcamp her whole life, truly.
