Amanda Knox has a new job; her boss calls her a 'dream'

SEATTLE -- For a small newspaper dependent on freelancers, Amanda Knox is a godsend.

"She's a great writer, she knows the arts and she's dependable," West Seattle Herald Managing Editor Ken Robinson says about Knox, one of his newest freelance reporters.  "She's kind of a dream for a small community paper. She never misses a deadline"

Knox has been working as a freelance arts and entertainment reporter for the Herald for several months, Robinson said. She is part of a regular group of writers who help the short-staffed paper cover everything from breaking news to area politics.

Knox approached the paper and asked if she could cover some local playhouse productions. Given she's from West Seattle and has a background in writing at the University of Washington, the paper jumped at the chance.

"She approached us," Robinson said. "She wanted to know if we were interested in it."

Writing for a newspaper is a bit of an odd choice for a 27-year-old who has been alternatively chastised and sympathized with, but never out of the eye of the worldwide media.

While studying abroad in 2007, Knox was jailed in connection with the death of her roommate Meredith Kercher. She and her then boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, were found guilty of murder in 2009. Four years later she was acquitted of the murder and returned to the U.S.

But since her return, an Italian appeals court upheld the 2009 guilty verdict of Knox and Sollecito, sentencing them to more than 25 years in jail. The case is being appealed.

A book about Knox's saga is slated to be made into a movie starring Kate Beckinsale.

All that noise is put aside in Knox's work for the Herald, Robinson said. Instead, she focuses on high school playscashew milk and other quirky arts stories that grab the public's eye. Her criminal case and notoriety seem to have little effect on her work and the people she works for.

"I didn't really follow the case," Robinson said. "It doesn't matter to me. She's just a freelancer who writes about the arts."

As for a lengthy career at the Herald? Knox doesn't have any plans to move into a full-time role anytime soon, Robinson said.

"She told me just the other day she wants to just keep doing what she's doing," Robinson said.

The West Seattle Herald is a news partner of Q13 FOX News. For more from the paper, click here.