Olivia Ruth Messer Email and Phone Number

Founding editor-in-chief of The Barbed Wire, a next-generation digital media property for all Texans who love Texas.

Have reported and written stories for Rolling Stone, Marie Claire, Slate, Study Hall—a newsletter, community, and website for media workers—and others. Among other projects, I also fact-checked and copy-edited Tina Brown's New York Times best-selling book "The Palace Papers: Inside the House of Windsor."

I was the lead COVID-19 reporter at The Daily Beast from the first week of January 2020 to February 2021, when I left to take a burnout break and then moved on to other opportunities. I spent the pandemic writing everything from conceptual scoops, exclusives, and investigative pieces to explainers and FAQs about the virus. Often, I helped promote those pieces on social media, podcasts, or television. I began at The Daily Beast as a Cheat Sheet reporter for the site’s award-winning newsletter (Digiday, Best Email Newsletter) and was promoted to the Express team in 2017, where I wrote between 1-3 breaking news stories and a few additional newsletter items per day, while maintaining longer term feature and investigative projects. I have covered mass shootings, the firing of former FBI Director James Comey, and sexual-assault allegations against President Trump. I’ve also written investigative stories about Texas politicians and uncovered a mass sexual assault scandal plaguing a small-town football team. My stories have resulted in changes that run the gamut from staffing on school boards to policy at the Texas statehouse. I’m extremely practiced at combing alerts, filing FOIAs, scanning local news stories, and creating Twitter lists. I’ve spent my entire career building source relationships and sifting through court records.

I reported and wrote breaking news, crime and occasionally courts stories for the Tribune-Herald. My pieces ranged from briefs to features and varied in content from long-reported trend pieces to traffic accidents, disasters, shootings and homicides. For my work covering the 2015 biker shooting, the Texas Associated Press Managing Editors Awards honored me with first place in deadline writing.I have experience on crime scenes, live-tweeting trials, submitting FOIA requests and taking photos when necessary.

I covered Texas' 83rd Legislative Session, writing 2-3 blog posts per week on press conferences, committee hearings and other events at the state Capitol. I wrote a web feature, attended editorial meetings and assisted in researching other projects.After the session ended in May, I freelance reported for the Observer through January 2014.

I fact-checked all hotel information in The Andrew Harper Collection for print and for the website. As needed, I edited online entries to reflect these changes and updated print content in The Andrew Harper Travel Directory. I participated in editorial meetings, tracked down contacts and managed all BI360 hotel profiles.

The Daily Publications Society oversees and manages the finances and advertising for two of McGill’s largest publications: The McGill Daily and its French counterpart, Le Delit. I updated and edited the constitutions of both papers to ensure their long-term survival. I was responsible for maintaining the offices and equipment; I made critical financial, legal, and advertising decisions for both papers; and I planned, coordinated, and presented part of McGill’s annual Journalism Week.

I interned for Acorn Publishing, contributing and editing content for their three annual magazines: Good Taste, Explore, and The Resident. I wrote, edited, and updated content for the Explore magazine website, and I contributed editorial content to The Resident magazine on various topics, including residential property value, job searching, and running a business in Cayman. Additionally, I communicated with advertising clients to retrieve artwork and facilitate designs for both the magazines and websites.

I copy edited and occasionally wrote for the monthly publication Courageous Creativity. I helped shape and strengthen personal narratives, and I occasionally contributed my own when the theme was appropriate.

I coordinated and planned pitches for The McGill Daily's commentary section. I also organized the letters, commentary, editorial, and joke sections of The Daily's website and publication. I participated on the editorial board, attended all meetings, edited articles, and coordinated columnists.

I produced and edited all non-photography visual content of the paper and website. Designed covers, illustrations, and info-graphics using Adobe CS5.