Have you ever used a typewriter?
Yes.
How is social media changing news?
It's not the news that changes, it's our ability to interpret it, and our ability to know what's relevant.
What does it mean to be a journalist?
To be thinking about things all the time.
How do you prefer to be pitched on stories?
Email.
What's your favorite social network?
Chatting over a good meal or while running on a mountain trail.
Why did you become a journalist?
To relive experiences by writing about them.
Did you work for your high school newspaper? If so, what did you do there?
I started a magazine in high school. At one point I was hauled in for putting a caricature of an apartheid president on the cover.
When's the best time to pitch you?
Any time's fine with email.
What's the best pitch you ever got?
To write about a lodge in Ethiopia.
What's the worst pitch you ever got?
To write about South Africa's top 10 golf courses.
When you're not at a computer, where are you most likely to be?
Hopefully travelling.
Aside from your own, what's your favorite publication to read?
The Economist's 1843
What's the most common misperception about your beat?
That travel writing is glamorous and that it's easy. Properly done, it's tough and the most difficult thing to do adequately.
