Amazon considering Bessemer for massive project

The first week of my internship went great, and I helped break an exclusive story about Amazon possibly coming to Bessemer, Alabama. Here's how I did it:

First, I attended a Planning Commission meeting in Bessemer. The attorney representing the developer of "Project Bluebird" presenting the plans for the development. The audience didn't get to see a copy — they were only passed out to the commission.

After the meeting ended, I stuck around. I spoke with someone who then gave me a copy of the document. It was written in codenames, and even though we suspected it was Amazon, there wasn't any naming on the document that said Amazon.

I didn't want to have driven all the way to Bessemer for nothing, so I kept talking to people, asking for more information. One person pointed out one piece of the code: 855K meant that the development would be 855,000 sq. ft. See the image of the document below.

A google search revealed that 855,000 sq. ft. seems to be a magic number for Amazon developments. I presented this information to my editor. This information alone couldn't have confirmed it, but paired with other things my editor had discovered, we worked together to confirm the story.

After we broke the news, other Birmingham media outlets also identified Amazon as the mystery developer. It felt exciting that my reporting helped uncover the mystery.

The excitement continued at the end of the week when corporate sent out one of the weekly recap emails. My name was recognized as one of the reporters who helped break this story as corporate applauded our work. I was also happy to see how many clicks the article had received — it's currently the website's top story.

I keep getting so many "congratulations!" and "well done!" messages from my coworkers. I have a good feeling about my career as a journalist!