Maddy Sperling
Verified
(She/Her)
- Political Correspondent, WOWK-TV (Charleston, WV)
Charleston, East Coast United States, Washington, D.C.
As seen in:
WOWK-TV (Charleston, WV),
Medium,
MSN,
CBS News,
Substack,
Yahoo,
The Real Deal,
WKBN-TV (Youngstown, OH),
IP Watchdog,
WATE-TV (Knoxville, TN),
WBOY-TV (Clarksburg, WV)
and
Covers:
Tech, AI, Politics, Local Politics, Financial Scams, Real Estate
Doesn't Cover:
My personal love for everything pop culture bars me from covering it professionally. It's a conflict of interest.
DC✈️WV
political correspondent @ WOWK-13 News
hmu msperling@wowktv.com
Interview
What was your first job as a journalist?
C-SPAN
Who's your favorite fictional journalist?
Every rom-com protagonist from the 00s.
What's the funniest news-related #hashtag you've seen?
Not a hashtag, but the way the JD Vance couch thing played out during the election was hilarious.
How do you prefer to be pitched on stories?
Stop boasting on behalf of your boss/client. No one wants to interview a blowhard CEO.
What tools and software do you use to do your job?
Not generative AI that's for d*mn sure.
What's your favorite social network?
RIP Jack Dorsey's Twitter
Who do you wish followed you?
Jake Sherman, Mary Louise Kelly, or Alexandra Petri
Why did you become a journalist?
I didn't want to go to law school.
Did you work for your high school newspaper? If so, what did you do there?
Yes! I covered women's sports.
What story are you most proud of writing or working on?
My "Ranch Wars" feature
What advice can you offer to aspiring journalists?
Stop using ChatGPT. Find your own voice.
When's the best time to pitch you?
Evening/early morning. I love reading pitches while I drink my morning coffee, but somehow I always get them when I'm at the gym. Go figure!
What's the best pitch you ever got?
A scoop about corporate anti-competitive collusion from someone high up in one of the companies.
What's the worst pitch you ever got?
"Our hotel just got new 'innovative' bedding."
What's your favorite drink?
Espresso Martini
When you're not at a computer, where are you most likely to be?
Tennis court or Dacha Beer Garden
Aside from your own, what's your favorite publication to read?
The Daily Beast
Would you like to take the Muck Rack Interview?
Create a Muck Rack profile.