What was your first job as a journalist?
Covered all beats at a small Alabama weekly.
Have you ever used a typewriter?
Yes, but not for work. I'm of the keyboard generation.
How is social media changing news?
It's giving journalists quicker access to sources, but costs them in time spent dealing with comments/messages/the feeds.
Who's your favorite fictional journalist?
Clark Kent
What does it mean to be a journalist?
To be a journalist means trying as best as one can to explain the complicated world in simple terms.
What's the funniest news-related #hashtag you've seen?
I don't pay that much attention to hashtags, really.
How do you prefer to be pitched on stories?
I don't prefer to be pitched.
What tools and software do you use to do your job?
Mac laptop, iPhone and Google Drive.
What's your favorite social network?
Twitter.
Who do you wish followed you?
Stephanie McCrummen
Why did you become a journalist?
I wanted a job that could make a difference.
Did you work for your high school newspaper? If so, what did you do there?
I was photojournalist for my high school paper, The Patriot Press.
What story are you most proud of writing or working on?
I wrote about my paper's former publisher and chairman abusing female reporters in the 1970s. It cost me my job, but he resigned.
What advice can you offer to aspiring journalists?
Start now. Work for your school paper, then your college paper. Start out at a weekly for your first job, if only for six months.
When's the best time to pitch you?
Never.
What's the best pitch you ever got?
Hard to say.
What's the worst pitch you ever got?
Even harder to say.
What's your favorite drink?
Wine, in a box. I'm a journalist, remember?
When you're not at a computer, where are you most likely to be?
Spending time with my family, or restoring my vintage sailboat.
Aside from your own, what's your favorite publication to read?
The New York Times
What's the most common misperception about your beat?
That you can't break big stories covering local governments.
