She served as editor in chief of UC San Diego's student newspaper, the Guardian, before spending two years as a news blogger and staff writer at LA Weekly. In Los Angeles, she covered local and California politics, crime, education, immigration, urban development and entertainment. In Tel Aviv, she has been freelancing for various outlets and is involved in the founding of a new international journalism institute. In 2012, Simone and her colleague Chris Vogel received the Southern California Journalism Award for Best Multimedia Package for their LA Weekly story, “LAPD Detective Says Combs & Knight Ordered Killings," and Simone received second place for Online Journalist of the Year.