Capitol Communicator has been interviewing people who are or have been in the media about their careers and the media. Below is our Q&A with John Sherman, well known locally as a TV reporter, once a question on Jeopardy and now CEO of Storyfarm in Baltimore. John offers Capitol Communicator readers a blunt assessment of his former profession: “I love news. It was my dream. I wouldn’t undo any of it. But I couldn’t go back.”

Hi John, what are you doing now?

I’m the CEO of Storyfarm, a video agency in Baltimore. I started it more than 12 years ago with my WBAL photog and best friend, Beau Kershaw. Today we have 15 full-time employees and a roster of amazing clients like Uber, Under Armour, American Standard and Electrolux to name a few. We make both live action and animated tv and web video content for brands. It’s a totally different life than news. People are happy to see us when we show up with cameras now. I wake up each morning captain of my own ship, setting the course, no assignment managers or producers telling me where to go and what to do. When I was in news it was inconceivable I would ever get out. Now, I feel exactly the opposite. However, Beau and I do have a standing offer to do a one day “guest new crew” stint at WBAL, although we’d consider other station offers. We also just started a double dog leash company, BESTIES. We’re busy!

How did you get your start?

When I was a sophomore at Georgetown Day School in DC, a news producer named Maria Checcia from WUSA came and spoke to my journalism class. I followed up with her about an internship and the first time I saw the inside of the then new WUSA newsroom I was hooked. High school interns were not a thing and I had to get the rules bent. But from that summer internship at WUSA on I knew I wanted to be a news reporter. Jan Fox was a GA reporter at the time and she really took me under her wing and became a mentor for many years. I learned a ton from the photogs like Billy McKnight, Mike Fox and Mike Trammell. I interned for Tom Bettag at Nightline the next summer, and with Roberta Baskin at CBS News 48 Hours the summer after that. When I graduated from the University of Wisconsin in 1997 I went back to WUSA as a PA ripping scripts for the morning shows. My first reporter job was at WVIR-TV in Charlottesville with Dave Cupp.

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