James Manso
Verified
As seen in:
Allure,
MSN,
Yahoo Entertainment,
Yahoo Life,
Yahoo Canada,
Yahoo News,
Yahoo News Australia,
Yahoo News UK,
Yahoo Singapore,
Aol,
BuzzFeed
and
Covers:
Fashion, Arts & Culture, Beauty (skincare).
Interview
What was your first job as a journalist?
I was an Edit intern at Star and OK! Magazines.
Have you ever used a typewriter?
Yes! My dad has one (don't ask why- I'm not sure).
How is social media changing news?
Access, mainly; also, changing headlines/article formats depending on platforms' algorithms.
Who's your favorite fictional journalist?
As in journalists who write fiction, or journalists in fictional storylines? For the former: Truman Capote; latter: Rory Gilmore.
What does it mean to be a journalist?
Depends who you ask! For me, it means keeping an eye out for the best stiletto I can find.
What's the funniest news-related #hashtag you've seen?
#FakeNews, which inspires a chuckle before I abruptly log off of twitter.
How do you prefer to be pitched on stories?
Whichever way works best!
What tools and software do you use to do your job?
InDesign, InCopy, Photoshop, Excel, Wordpress, Drupal, and Getty, among others (classic intern stuff).
What's your favorite social network?
Instagram!
Who do you wish followed you?
Joan Didion, if she wasn't too good for social media.
Why did you become a journalist?
Because I love fashion and the best way for me to express that adoration(/occasional disdain) is via language.
Did you work for your high school newspaper? If so, what did you do there?
Nope, but I was the Editor-in-Chief of my high school yearbook (which far surpassed our paper, obviously).
What story are you most proud of writing or working on?
Again- this one's still in the works! Loved working on my feature of La La Land's Callie Hernandez for WWD in the meantime, though.
What advice can you offer to aspiring journalists?
Don't give into that "writer" aesthetic.
When's the best time to pitch you?
Whenever/wherever. I'm always on email.
What's the best pitch you ever got?
Writing it currently, actually!
What's the worst pitch you ever got?
I believe I was pitched my high school principal's beauty routine back when I was, you guessed it, still in high school.
What's your favorite drink?
Stoli martinis, always. The Pierre does my favorites.
When you're not at a computer, where are you most likely to be?
I'm on my computer 24/7, so either sleeping or reading.
Aside from your own, what's your favorite publication to read?
Vogue (as well as its French and British iterations), WWD, Vanity Fair, New York Magazine, The New York Times, The New Yorker
What's the most common misperception about your beat?
YES, there is traditional reporting involved in writing about clothes!
Would you like to take the Muck Rack Interview?
Create a Muck Rack profile.