What was your first job as a journalist?
Covering high school football games for The Bradenton Herald
How is social media changing news?
Condensing it, speeding it up, fictionalizing it.
Who's your favorite fictional journalist?
Skip Wiley from Carl Hiaasen's novels.
What's your favorite social network?
The one by Aaron Sorkin.
Why did you become a journalist?
Natural writer, and in life it never hurts to fall back on what you're good at.
Did you work for your high school newspaper? If so, what did you do there?
No, but I wrote for the college paper covering women's soccer. It was the only gig open, so I made the most of it writing personal profiles
What advice can you offer to aspiring journalists?
Turn off the TV. Plant seeds in the form of pitches and applications (with cover letters). Deliver for your clients. Wash, rinse, repeats
What's the best pitch you ever got?
Fastball, belt-high, right down the middle
What's the worst pitch you ever got?
Sinker, low and outside.
What's the most common misperception about your beat?
That all journalists have an agenda they cannot help but infuse into their work
