What was your first job as a journalist?
I had written and published freelance, but my first full-time job was as managing editor of a monthly liturgical publication.
Have you ever used a typewriter?
A portable Olivetti.
How is social media changing news?
Mostly for the worse: shortening attention spans and activating the amygdala rather than the cerebral cortex.
Who's your favorite fictional journalist?
P. J. O'Neal in Call Northside 777--except that he's not fictional!
What does it mean to be a journalist?
Good journalists today are rear-guard defenders and practitioners of a vocation that is being disrupted, but that we cannot do without.
How do you prefer to be pitched on stories?
By email. But please, no trucking pitches or anything not related to either barges or agriculture--unless it's for a freelance opportunity.
What tools and software do you use to do your job?
Bing, Google, Google Scholar, Evernote, Dropbox, Journalist's Resource, Microsoft Word, gmail, etc.
What's your favorite social network?
Linkedin.
Who do you wish followed you?
Anyone with interesting (paying!) writing jobs to offer.
Why did you become a journalist?
I had always written and enjoyed it, and made it my profession to supplement (and eventually replace) adjunct teaching.
Did you work for your high school newspaper? If so, what did you do there?
No, but I did take print shop and learned to lay out hot type.
What story are you most proud of writing or working on?
I wrote an editorial on gifted education for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that helped persuade lawmakers not to kill gifted education funding.
What advice can you offer to aspiring journalists?
Do not make journalism your primary income stream.
When's the best time to pitch you?
Anytime during the week by email is OK -- david@wjinc.net
What's the best pitch you ever got?
A guy left a phone message describing himself as the "vibe guy" who could diagnose engine problems by listening to its vibrations.
What's your favorite drink?
Coffee in all its forms, except decaf.
When you're not at a computer, where are you most likely to be?
Taking long neighborhood walks, exploring new places to eat, traveling, visiting family.
Aside from your own, what's your favorite publication to read?
The Atlantic
What's the most common misperception about your beat?
That it doesn't exist! Non-mariners are also surprised that there is enough "barge news" to sustain a weekly, but there is.
