Neil Johnson
Verified
As seen in:
WCLO-AM (Janesville, WI),
The Telegraph,
Yahoo News,
Associated Press,
ESPN,
SFGate,
U.S. News and World Report,
The Minnesota Star Tribune,
The Seattle Times,
Yahoo Sports,
Yahoo
and
Covers:
Local business and economic news, everything from retail to industry to housing to agriculture.
Reporter/Producer at Big Radio and WCLO Radio. Hard nosed/heart on my sleeve. I dig the truth & rock and roll on vinyl.
Interview
What was your first job as a journalist?
Sports. High school football.
Have you ever used a typewriter?
As a kid. Never as an adult, never for jounalism.
How is social media changing news?
It creates more story leads to independently verify.
Who's your favorite fictional journalist?
Peter Parker
What does it mean to be a journalist?
To tell the truth, even if that flies in the face of what the local citadels of power would like to see printed as news.
What's the funniest news-related #hashtag you've seen?
How do you prefer to be pitched on stories?
After my afternoon deadline, via a SHORT email.
What tools and software do you use to do your job?
Social media, Census and federal government databases, local government databases, tax records, state databases, private trade group databases, public university databases.
What's your favorite social network?
Facebook
Who do you wish followed you?
Mike Royko, but that isn't a possibility.
Why did you become a journalist?
Because writing Beat poetry doesn't pay.
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?
Investigative report that exposed improper governance of a multimillion-dollar nonprofit agency. The reporting resulted in major changes in C-suite leadership of the organization and an intervention by the nonprofit's national charter.
What advice can you offer to aspiring journalists?
Expect to learn every day. Expect most authority figures to be less than thrilled with your attempts to learn.
When's the best time to pitch you?
Emails that come after my afternoon deadline.
What's the best pitch you ever got?
Business owner told me his dad survived the sinking of the Titanic.
What's the worst pitch you ever got?
Too many bad pitches to even choose one. Once, a man called me to demand a news story on how hard it is for elderly people to pick up sticks after a windstorm. That was not the greatest pitch.
What's your favorite drink?
Coffee. Also soda.
When you're not at a computer, where are you most likely to be?
Out of the office seeing things, meeting people, learning things, touching and feeling the tangible side of the day's news.
Aside from your own, what's your favorite publication to read?
Chicago Sun-Times
What's the most common misperception about your beat?
That I wait for information to come to us via a corporate press release, then file it verbatim without any independent reporting.
Would you like to take the Muck Rack Interview?
Create a Muck Rack profile.