Joye Brown, 66
Columnist/associate Editor, Newsday, Long Island, NY First journalism job: My first job after college was at a radio news network. What are some of the most important lessons you have learned working in the news industry?
That first job taught me to listen. My first experience with a scrum of reporters, as a cub newspaper writer in North Carolina, led me to dig where the scrum would not. The best interviews still are those when the subject lets me see the world through their eyes. Thoughtful, authoritative reporting can always make a difference. Manners matter. It is essential to go where you are not welcome, actively solicit criticism and keep talking to people who may not want to talk to you. What are your predictions for the future of news publishing?
Some of the most interesting and compelling reportage is taking place in real-time – on Tiktok and Snapchat, Instagram, podcasts, Webinars, news blasts and newsletters, text talks, video, memes, graphics, Alexa, apps and virtual reality. The list will continue to grow as the media landscape shifts, shifts and shifts again. It’s exciting. It’s an opportunity to grab, grow, interact and hold audiences in other ways yet to be imagined. It’s challenging (since too many of us operate from a “newspaper” mindset), but I do not believe it to be impossible.