Friday, October 20, 2006
The Life
One of the best things about going to journalism school in New York City is the variety and notoriety of the guest speakers you get, especially in a place like NYU. Last night, in my profile class, we had a woman, come in and speak to us about all the stories she's written for Vanity Fair. Some memorable ones that we were required to read beforehand included the one on Huntington Hartford, heir to the A&P fortune, and Saul & Gayfryd Steinberg, which is another interesting story of money lost. Apparently she's working on another rather controversial story right now, but it hasn't been published so we weren't privy to the details.
Now, this woman was quite a character. I've described some of the characters in the past that we've had in our classes. She was all over the place about her writing process (how brilliant) as well as her reporting experiences (I hope I never end up in some of those situations). It was a really great learning experience, and really shows how large the journalism network is. Apparently my professor, who writes for New York Magazine, Marie Claire, and a bunch of other magazines, is also a good friend of Judith Miller, who this other journalist knew some dirty jokes about, so she shared them, apologizing to Meryl along the way because they are friends.
It's interesting to see the establishment of journalism today. Despite the variety of publications, people mingle. They hear of each other through friends or editors, network like crazy, and eventually it's like this entire sub-community. Granted, it is quite a large one so even though both my professors this semester write for New York Magazine, I don't think they've ever met, and perhaps have only heard of each other on the fringe. But what a wide net. In one of my classes we've gotten an engineering magazine editor, Will Dana of Rolling Stone, and next week we have an editor from Outside magazine. In the other class, Vanity Fair, New York Magazine editors and writers, Wall Street Journal, and Hollywood publicists. Needless to say, professor 1 is a man, and professor 2 is a woman.
Everyone has heard of everyone else, and they have all heard of some of our more famous faculty. Nearly everyone knows Rob Boynton's book The New New Journalism, and Stephen Johnson's new book is the talk of the town. I've had more than one professor that's written groundbreaking stories for Rolling Stone, and every single one of them has written at least one book. What an interesting place.
Will I lose this network, though, when I get to LA? I know one person with contacts there in the biz, and that's the guy at SI, cuz he started in the LA market. Other than that, it is a very New York-centric industry. A heartening fact that most of this semester's guests have shared is the value of starting out in a small regional market before working your way to New York. Makes me feel better knowing that I have a chance, because sometimes it feels like I'm the only one leaving after graduation (well, I probably am). Could I possibly be better off? I doubt it. But at least I will be on par. Maybe I'll find a Sac-centric community of journalists to mingle with (Kevin has already met people from the Sac Bee & U.S. News and World Report).
Until then, I guess, I'll keep chipping away at the job openings for So Cal publications. If you know of anyone needing a writer, reporter, editorial assistant, or more, let me know. My "professional" website is http://angelinegracehuang.netfirms.com, so send them there.
Yes, I learned to shamefully plug myself over the summer working in PR, and no, I will never lose the habit.
Now, this woman was quite a character. I've described some of the characters in the past that we've had in our classes. She was all over the place about her writing process (how brilliant) as well as her reporting experiences (I hope I never end up in some of those situations). It was a really great learning experience, and really shows how large the journalism network is. Apparently my professor, who writes for New York Magazine, Marie Claire, and a bunch of other magazines, is also a good friend of Judith Miller, who this other journalist knew some dirty jokes about, so she shared them, apologizing to Meryl along the way because they are friends.
It's interesting to see the establishment of journalism today. Despite the variety of publications, people mingle. They hear of each other through friends or editors, network like crazy, and eventually it's like this entire sub-community. Granted, it is quite a large one so even though both my professors this semester write for New York Magazine, I don't think they've ever met, and perhaps have only heard of each other on the fringe. But what a wide net. In one of my classes we've gotten an engineering magazine editor, Will Dana of Rolling Stone, and next week we have an editor from Outside magazine. In the other class, Vanity Fair, New York Magazine editors and writers, Wall Street Journal, and Hollywood publicists. Needless to say, professor 1 is a man, and professor 2 is a woman.
Everyone has heard of everyone else, and they have all heard of some of our more famous faculty. Nearly everyone knows Rob Boynton's book The New New Journalism, and Stephen Johnson's new book is the talk of the town. I've had more than one professor that's written groundbreaking stories for Rolling Stone, and every single one of them has written at least one book. What an interesting place.
Will I lose this network, though, when I get to LA? I know one person with contacts there in the biz, and that's the guy at SI, cuz he started in the LA market. Other than that, it is a very New York-centric industry. A heartening fact that most of this semester's guests have shared is the value of starting out in a small regional market before working your way to New York. Makes me feel better knowing that I have a chance, because sometimes it feels like I'm the only one leaving after graduation (well, I probably am). Could I possibly be better off? I doubt it. But at least I will be on par. Maybe I'll find a Sac-centric community of journalists to mingle with (Kevin has already met people from the Sac Bee & U.S. News and World Report).
Until then, I guess, I'll keep chipping away at the job openings for So Cal publications. If you know of anyone needing a writer, reporter, editorial assistant, or more, let me know. My "professional" website is http://angelinegracehuang.netfirms.com, so send them there.
Yes, I learned to shamefully plug myself over the summer working in PR, and no, I will never lose the habit.
# posted by ange : 10:55 AM
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