New reporter completes CNA staff

After nearly two years, the CNA will once again have a full newsroom with the addition of reporter Nick Pauly of Ankeny.

The 2020 Ankeny Centennial alum graduated from the University of Iowa in the winter with a double major in cinema and journalism and mass communication.

Though he’s spent most of his life in big cities, he spent a portion of his childhood in Winterset and is excited to enjoy small town life.

“I’ve already seen everyone really collaborates together,” Pauly said. “Nothing gets done without so many different people working together and that extends to small town life. Look at the farms that extend across the state — that can’t be done without people working together and I think that’s beautiful.”

It’s the beauty of collaboration that drew Pauly to his field of study. “I like movies. There’s something really special about a movie that hooks you,” he said. “Film is such a complicated amalgamation of people’s talents from directors and producers to actors. There are so many different ways to contribute. It results in a product that isn’t just one person’s thing, it’s a fully collaborative piece.”

One of his favorite courses at Iowa was alternative forms, a class where students are encouraged to change their perspective.

“There’s always a different angle things can be looked at to change what’s being presented,” Pauly explained. “It changes the context of what’s being viewed.”

This passion for stepping outside the box extends to his talent for writing. “When it comes to things I like, I like to write about them,” he said. “It comes really naturally to me. There’s something really nice about telling stories about other people. People don’t always get the chance to have their stories be told in ways that are public facing. I want to be able to do that and bring more awareness about what people are silently going through. It’s very important to me, something I would want to do.”

Outside of movies and writing, Pauly is a fan of a wide variety of music. Though he doesn’t like to pigeonhole his tastes, mellow rock is one of his favorites. Artists like David Bowie, Coldplay and Gorillaz are sure to show up on his playlists.

Despite his youth, he’s no stranger to burning CDs. “My car doesn’t have an aux cable, so what I would do is collect all the songs I like and put them onto playlists, and I would burn them to a recordable CD,” he said. “Now instead of normal CDs, I have a bunch of personal collections.”

His favorite movie, “Whiplash,” combines his love of both cinema and music as the storyline follows an ambitious young jazz drummer, in pursuit of rising to the top of his elite music conservatory.

“At the core of it is this very psychotic, unhealthy drive to want to do something better than anyone else,” Pauly explained. “If you’re passionate about anything, you can see yourself a little bit on the screen and it’s terrifying.”

A percussionist and member of the show choir in high school, Pauly’s love for music started from a young age. His younger sister Allie is an opera singer as she studies music education at Iowa State University. His parents still live in Ankeny with his dog, Chester.

While not an avid sports fan, he enjoys the Hawkeyes and the Minnesota Vikings.

“I’m looking forward to Nick adding to our content and expanding us in the things we might not even know,” CNA Managing Editor John Van Nostrand said. “It’s great to have some more youth in this industry.”

Pauly joins Erin Henze as a news reporter while Senior Editor Cheyenne Roche transitions to fill the sports role more permanently. She will be assisted by Van Nostrand and retired sportswriter Larry Peterson when necessary. Mandy McDowell rounds out the news room as the CNA News Clerk.