Gregg Wager
San Francisco Bay
As seen in:
Everand,
Sacramento News & Review,
CoverAction,
The Art of Business Podcast - The latest trends and information that affect your business
Covers:
music, law, philosophy, film
composer, critic, musicologist @LAPhil, @SacNewsReview
Interview
What was your first job as a journalist?
First paying job was a classical avant-garde music review at California Institute of the Arts, 1984
Have you ever used a typewriter?
Many times in my younger days
How is social media changing news?
Less money for hard news. More money for, well, you know.
Who's your favorite fictional journalist?
Howard Beale (Network)
What does it mean to be a journalist?
Contrition if you're good at it, elite dinner parties if you are a sleaze
What's the funniest news-related #hashtag you've seen?
Jonathan Gold wins Pulitzer in 2007
How do you prefer to be pitched on stories?
Underhanded as in softball, no curves.
What tools and software do you use to do your job?
Microsoft Word and PowerPoint
What's your favorite social network?
Facebook
Who do you wish followed you?
Chloe Grace Moretz, Aubrey Plaza, Zoey Deutch, and Zoe Kazan
Why did you become a journalist?
Better than trying to pursue music in academia (between gigs of course)
Did you work for your high school newspaper? If so, what did you do there?
No.
What story are you most proud of writing or working on?
The murder of Anna Mae Pictou-Aquash
What advice can you offer to aspiring journalists?
Do good things, avoid bad things
When's the best time to pitch you?
Anytime.
What's the best pitch you ever got?
The same as the worst
What's the worst pitch you ever got?
Aside from things in undeniable obscurity and mediocrity (or worse), convincing my hometown their symphony's conductor was the Music Man
What's your favorite drink?
Bourbon on ice.
When you're not at a computer, where are you most likely to be?
Starbucks
Aside from your own, what's your favorite publication to read?
Slipped Disc (Norman Labrecht)
What's the most common misperception about your beat?
That classical music is not also cheapened by show biz
Would you like to take the Muck Rack Interview?
Create a Muck Rack profile.