Erica Sánchez: A Journalist with a Passion to Help Others
With krono.me, Erica is developing a personalized weather forecast service that draws on a curated set of activities in New York City to help users make the best of their days in the city.
Erica was born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina. That’s where she started her journalism career as a crime reporter. She also gained experience in social media, SEO and digital marketing by working for a digital agency in Argentina, WebAr. After having worked for several publications, Revista Viva (Grupo Clarín) and Revista Rumbos (Grupo La Nación) included, she decided to move to Patagonia and work as a freelancer. From the southern parts of the Andes mountains, she worked for Buzzfeed Español as a contributor and translator for a year and a half.
Her motivation
In 2011, her life changed during the volcanic eruption of Puyehue Cordon Caulle Chile Volcano. She felt that there was not enough information provided for the people who were most affected in the region and she started to get involved. Erica began reporting from the ground and founded TiempoPatagonico.com, a platform that is specialized in meteorology and science. With TiempoPatagonico.com, users learn more about the weather conditions in the region. Focusing on that platform, she combines innovative approaches like data journalism with the most traditional form of her profession — serving the people by informing them and bringing them together.
Her project for the Tow-Knight 2017 Entrepreneurial Journalism Fellowship at CUNY
About a year ago, she moved to New York, became a member of Google’s Women Techmakers Program and was selected and graduated as a member of the Made in New York Media Center, Creative Founders Lab. That’s where she came up with her latest project, Krono.me. The idea is simple: A weather planner for New York travelers based on a personalized weather forecast and a place where they can find a friend during the overwhelming experience of visiting the big city with too much information and only so many days.
Her road ahead
The Tow-Knight Entrepreneurial Journalism Program will help her find new methods and ways to tell stories, using data, automation but also adding a human component to storytelling. It is both challenging and inspiring to do empathic journalism using technology as a tool to tell better stories and help those who are in need of that information.
