Chris Landers
As seen in:
MSN,
MSN Singapore,
Yahoo Entertainment,
Bloomberg CityLab,
Yahoo Canada,
National Geographic,
How Stuff Works,
Flipboard,
MLB (Major League Baseball),
The Christian Science Monitor
and
Covers:
adventure, travel, science, news, history, outdoors, long-form features, motorcycles, nature, boats, sailing
Interview
What was your first job as a journalist?
Police reporter at the Manassas Journal Messenger (RIP).
Have you ever used a typewriter?
I spent several years on a wooden boat sailing around the Atlantic. I brought a portable Olivetti that my parents gave me, and used it a lot.
How is social media changing news?
It's making it worse.
Who's your favorite fictional journalist?
Spider Jerusalem.
What's the funniest news-related #hashtag you've seen?
There are no funny news-related hashtags.
How do you prefer to be pitched on stories?
Email. But please send your baseball-related pitches to the other Chris Landers.
What tools and software do you use to do your job?
Fisher space pens and rite-in-the-rain notebooks. And Microsoft Word, which I hate.
What's your favorite social network?
I look forward to the day when they are all destroyed in a popular uprising.
Who do you wish followed you?
The brass band from the movie Underground.
Why did you become a journalist?
I am an insane person.
Did you work for your high school newspaper? If so, what did you do there?
No. I don't think my high school had a newspaper.
What story are you most proud of writing or working on?
I wrote the first deep dive story about the online group Anonymous back in 2008. There's a 6,000 word piece about rats I'm fond of as well.
What's the best pitch you ever got?
I honestly can't think of one.
What's your favorite drink?
All of them.
When you're not at a computer, where are you most likely to be?
At a different computer.
Would you like to take the Muck Rack Interview?
Create a Muck Rack profile.