“My mom always said I was a good writer,” said Layla Jones, KLN ‘14.

At first, Jones was not sure whether she wanted to pursue journalism or biology. She made the decision to pursue the latter her freshman year at Temple University after she took her first college-level math course and decided that biology was not for her. Instead, Jones majored in journalism on the magazine track that the program offered at the time, and added a minor in political science after taking a political science general education course.

Currently, Jones is a reporter at Billy Penn, an online newsroom owned by radio station WHYY. Since starting at Billy Penn in August 2019 she has covered everything from furniture stores to protests, and particularly likes to focus on cultures and subcultures within Black communities. 

“Right now there’s a big conversation around what journalism is, what it’s supposed to be with regard to community connection,” Jones said. “I feel like my identity as a Black woman lends itself to just a little bit of thoughtfulness to that on my part.”

However, Billy Penn is far from Jones’ first media role. As a college student, she had a part-time job as a web producer at philly.com, now The Philadelphia Inquirer, that turned into a full-time position as an arts and entertainment producer. In her two years there, Jones was able to go beyond her job description and gained experience covering the Black Lives Matter movement when it began in 2014.

At the Inquirer, Jones worked with her classmate Sofiya Ballin, KLN ’14. Though Jones and Ballin were on similar academic tracks, they didn’t get to know each other well until they studied abroad in London together, where they studied music journalism. Ballin values her friendship with Jones and said she has always been a source of familiarity, love and motivation. She noted that Layla often says, “Black women friendships save lives.”

In 2016, Jones became a City Hall reporter for The Philadelphia Tribune. Here, she was mentored by the Deputy Managing Editor at the time Sheila Simmons. Jones impressed Simmons with her ambition to cover City Hall, which can be quite difficult, at such a young age. 

“I knew as soon as I met Layla that she was someone I wanted to hire, that she was someone I wanted to work with, and someone I wanted to mentor,” Simmons said.

Jones’ experience covering City Hall led her to leave journalism for two years to do public relations work for Councilmember Cindy Bass. Though she made many community connections in that role, she ultimately made her way back to journalism when she began working at Billy Penn.

Both Ballin and Simmons could not overstate Jones’ humility in her work. “I appreciate that I don’t think she is aware of how good she is,” Simmons said.

Now, Jones is stepping out of her comfort zone at Billy Penn in multiple ways. Not only is she learning more about radio and recording, but she is also learning how her identities can help advance her storytelling. Originally from a suburb, Jones said that living in Philadelphia “helped me immensely with expanding my understanding of so many sociocultural issues, trends, dynamics, and I think that that type of diverse understanding is so important for journalists.”

“She loves her community, she loves her people, she loves what she does,” Ballin said.