Francesca Lyman
Verified
(She/Her)
As seen in:
The New York Times,
Los Angeles Times,
NBC News,
SFGate,
Salon,
The Seattle Times,
Popular Mechanics,
Discover Magazine,
Seattle PI,
Sierra Magazine
and
Covers:
Consumer protection, environmental protection, nature and wildlife, health, the arts,music, theater, parks and urban issues, politics, business and industry
Doesn't Cover:
Sports, except those touching on parks and the outdoors
Interview
What was your first job as a journalist?
After high school and college, writing columns for a weekly newspaper and then beat reporting for a big regional daily, The Record, of N.J.
Have you ever used a typewriter?
Of course! Now I have famous artist paintings of old typewriters and used one as a graphic.
Who's your favorite fictional journalist?
Brenda Starr, of Chicago's Flash; Tintin of Herge's comic strip; Hildy Johnson (Rosalind Russell).
What does it mean to be a journalist?
To present truthful understanding of what's going on in the world, through interviews with thought leaders in the arts, sciences, politics.
What tools and software do you use to do your job?
Everything and anything available.
Why did you become a journalist?
To make a difference. Became an environmental journalist because I got angry when I saw air/water/land hazards around me as NJ reporter.
Did you work for your high school newspaper? If so, what did you do there?
Wrote feature stories and profiles interviewing local celebrities or emerging thinkers if they were open and available.
What story are you most proud of writing or working on?
A series of more than a dozen article exposing for-profit thrift stores masquerading as charities. https://www.invw.org/series/thrift
What advice can you offer to aspiring journalists?
Follow your instincts. Keep your eyes and ears open. Ideas are in plain sight but the answers are hidden.
What's the best pitch you ever got?
A weatherman/meteorologist, in the early days, with new data on the global warming debate.
What's the worst pitch you ever got?
The worst ones are PR companies trying to plant quotations filled with spin -- or even worse -- reversals of what was actually said.
When you're not at a computer, where are you most likely to be?
Out gathering news. Also working as a sketch artist using live subjects.
Aside from your own, what's your favorite publication to read?
The Atlantic, because of its excellence in covering the COVID-19 novel virus and the global pandemic.
What's the most common misperception about your beat?
That we think 'the sky is falling.'
Would you like to take the Muck Rack Interview?
Create a Muck Rack profile.