Off Deadline
Off Deadline
Podcast Description
Off Deadline goes beyond the headlines to reveal what really happens when the cameras stop rolling and the deadlines pass. Host Melissa DiGianfilippo, Founder and CEO of Proof Publicity, creates a rare safe space where top journalists drop their professional guard to share the moments that changed everything—the ethical crossroads that kept them awake, the sources that most surprised them, the stories that broke them, and the victories no one will ever write about.From the hilarious disasters to the heart-stopping close calls, veteran journalists share the wild, unforgettable moments that never made it into their reporting. These are the behind-the-scenes confessions, the career-defining chaos, and the human moments that remind us why journalism is equal parts calling and complete madness. This isn't about breaking news—it's about the people who lived through the craziest moments while chasing the story, and the experiences they'll never forget.If you've ever wondered what it really takes to be a storyteller in our chaotic world, Off Deadline delivers the raw, unfiltered truth behind journalism's most compelling voices.Watch on YouTube and listen wherever you get your podcasts!
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast delves into the emotional and chaotic side of journalism, focusing on the personal experiences of journalists with episodes covering topics such as the hardest days of on-air reporting, the emotional weight of tragic news, and the responsibility of being a trusted news voice.
Off Deadline goes beyond the headlines to reveal what really happens when the cameras stop rolling and the deadlines pass. Host Melissa DiGianfilippo, Founder and CEO of Proof Publicity, creates a rare safe space where top journalists drop their professional guard to share the moments that changed everything—the ethical crossroads that kept them awake, the sources that most surprised them, the stories that broke them, and the victories no one will ever write about.
From the hilarious disasters to the heart-stopping close calls, veteran journalists share the wild, unforgettable moments that never made it into their reporting. These are the behind-the-scenes confessions, the career-defining chaos, and the human moments that remind us why journalism is equal parts calling and complete madness. This isn’t about breaking news—it’s about the people who lived through the craziest moments while chasing the story, and the experiences they’ll never forget.
If you’ve ever wondered what it really takes to be a storyteller in our chaotic world, Off Deadline delivers the raw, unfiltered truth behind journalism’s most compelling voices.
Watch on YouTube and listen wherever you get your podcasts!
A printout of an email from April 2014 with a few case numbers jotted in the margin, stuck in a drawer and forgotten. That was the first step in a ten year journey through roughly 150 banker's boxes of attorney general case files to write the definitive book on the Don Bolles assassination. Jeremy Duda did it with a full time job, and had two kids along the way.
Jeremy is a reporter at Axios Phoenix, the first hire when the morning newsletter launched in June 2022. Most of his 23 year career has been spent covering politics and government in his home state of Arizona, at the Arizona Capitol Times and Yellow Sheet Report and then the Arizona Mirror, which he helped launch. He started out covering high school sports in Hobbs, New Mexico, and reported in Provo, Utah before coming home. He is the author of two books: If This Be Treason (2016) and Murder in the Fourth Estate: The Assassination of Investigative Journalist Don Bolles (2026).
On this episode of Off Deadline, Melissa DiGianfilippo, founder of Proof Publicity, sits down with Jeremy to get into:
- The Friday staff meeting where Don Bolles popped into his head
- Writing the book he wanted to read, and why a treason book came out first
- The attorney general's personal sign-off and 150 boxes of case files photographed one page at a time
- Picking journalism as a college freshman right before the bottom fell out of the industry
- Why he tells every journalism student to cover high school sports in a small town
- Hiring freezes and layoffs that killed every interview, and the plan to deliver pizzas back in Arizona
- The worst feeling in the business: a morning newsletter that is out and not coming back
- Politicians are just people, and the average voter would be stunned by some of them
- The New Mexico developer who offered him a beer at 11:30 in the morning
- Almost cashing in his chips for a PR job in 2018, and the lunch that started the Arizona Mirror
- The Receipt: the April 2014 email that started the Bolles book
- His superpower: institutional knowledge that former House speakers still call him for
- The Shakespeare placeholder headline his editors left in
- Calling the chief of staff when a spokesperson won't call back
- Advice to his first-year self: learn public records early
Follow Jeremy Duda on X: @jeremyduda
Read Axios Phoenix: https://www.axios.com/local/phoenix
Follow the host, Melissa DiGianfilippo: @melissadflip
📺 Watch this episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@proof-publicity
🔗 Check out Proof Publicity → https://proofpublicity.com
Produced by Turnkey Media: https://www.turnkeymediaaz.com
📺 Watch this episode on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@proof-publicity
🔗 Check out Proof Publicity → https://proofpublicity.com
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