Full Belly Files: My 'Indy' Origin Story

Full Belly Files: My 'Indy' Origin Story recounts Matt Kettmann's entry into journalism through a Santa Barbara Independent internship. On a foggy Isla Vista morning in winter quarter 1999, his girlfriend found the internship and he, a senior in UCSB's professional writing minor program, accepted. Audrey Berman, the paper’s editorial director, was cautiously encouraging, and after her absence on a day, she left a note directing him to travel editor Leslie Westbrook. Westbrook assigned him to research the burgeoning online travel trend, specifically Priceline, a task performed on the newsroom’s dial-up computer before sending notes from his UCSB Umail account. The experience laid the groundwork for his future in reporting and highlighted the newsroom culture of a turning digital age, where early internet trends began shaping journalism careers and stories.