Mark McKee
Verified
As seen in:
The Manual,
MSN,
MSN Canada,
Yahoo Entertainment,
Yahoo Life,
Forbes,
Yahoo Canada,
Aol,
Yahoo Finance Canada,
Substack,
Flipboard
and
Covers:
Men's style
Travel
Fitness
Movies
TV
Writer, nomad, men's improvement coach
Interview
What was your first job as a journalist?
repurposing 20,000 menswear articles into 2,000 good menswear articles. Not one carrying my name.
Have you ever used a typewriter?
It ages me to answer this honestly, but yes, I have.
How is social media changing news?
Everything is too fast. Not enough time to be accurate. Being first is more important than being true
Who's your favorite fictional journalist?
April O'Neil and Clark Kent
What does it mean to be a journalist?
Observe and report. Journalism is about shedding your own bias and opinions whenever possible and reporting the truth.
What's the funniest news-related #hashtag you've seen?
How do you prefer to be pitched on stories?
Email is best
What tools and software do you use to do your job?
Wordpress, Grammarly, and Google Docs
What's your favorite social network?
Instagram is my go-to doom scroll
Who do you wish followed you?
Every guy hoping to elevate his life to a better place
Why did you become a journalist?
I used to teach men how to use their image to express themselves one at a time. Being a journalist allows me to reach more men.
Did you work for your high school newspaper? If so, what did you do there?
No, I didn't start writing until I was 23
What story are you most proud of writing or working on?
Using a Venn Diagram, a method I designed to discover your signature style.
What advice can you offer to aspiring journalists?
Don't ever tell yourself no. The industry will reject you enough; don't do the job for them, make them tell you no.
When's the best time to pitch you?
When you have time to get passionate about your pitch, a journalist can always tell when they are one of 100 people BCC'd on a pitch.
What's the best pitch you ever got?
Celebrate the ones who taught you to explore the world. A Father's Day pitch for gear. Caught my attention.
What's the worst pitch you ever got?
A deodorant brand trying to step into fine fragrance but keeping the same packaging.
What's your favorite drink?
Give me an old fashioned any time any place
When you're not at a computer, where are you most likely to be?
I am either under a large pile of popcorn in a movie theater or ditching the digital world altogether with a good book, or exploring outdoors
Aside from your own, what's your favorite publication to read?
Men's Health is a favorite from my younger years. GQ and Esquire are also my white whales so I often read them.
What's the most common misperception about your beat?
It is about fashion. Fashion is what you wear, style is how you wear it. I write about style.
Would you like to take the Muck Rack Interview?
Create a Muck Rack profile.