Students meet reporters, podcasters, editors and producers from outlets such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Spotify and Vox.
by Sydney Seymour, class of ’25
From dodging bikes on 13th Avenue to navigating subway lines in New York City, 15 students and four faculty from the UO School of Journalism and Communication (SOJC) flew to the Big Apple fall term to learn from media professionals working in the most prominent outlets in the world.
Professor of Practice Damian Radcliffe, helped us prepare for the trip by teaching us what keeps media professionals up at night, such as the importance of diversifying story formats for audience engagement or being transparent about newsroom AI policies in the face of mounting distrust.
Before we left, we researched each place and person we were to visit, pored over newsletters about the media industry and thought about the questions we’d want to ask these media professionals, what they might talk to us about and what they might want to ask us.
Joined by Assistant Professor Brian Bull, Associate Professor Brent Walth, and Director of Journalism Seth Lewis, we were off to New York City in December to meet with media professionals from 16 organizations across the city. Here’s a glimpse of the outlets we toured, the professionals we met and the advice we received on this whirlwind trip.
Day 1: Tips for investigative journalists, creating the perfect podcast and why life is like a video game
Stop 1: New York University
Who: Professor Hilke Schellmann
What we learned: With equal parts nerves and excitement, we eased into our trip with a visit to Professor Hilke Schellmann at New York University, where we picked up some helpful resources and tools for investigative journalism.
Schellmann showed us how to use the collaborative news site MuckRock to explore public records requests that news organizations had filed. She taught us how to set up Google alerts to be notified when something is published about a topic or person we’re interested in. She also shared how to tap into the Wayback Machine to review deleted content on websites.
Stop 2: Vox Media
Who: Andrew Losowsky, head of community product
What we learned: Andrew Losowsky urged us to “try things, do things, make things, share things.” And he reminded us to ask: “Why are people reading any particular website or using a particular app? What problem does it solve? How can it solve a problem better?”
Stop 3: The Wall Street Journal
Who: Jack Pitcher, reporter; Ryan Knutson, podcast host
What we learned: During a meeting with UO alumni Jack Pitcher ’19 and Ryan Knutson ’09 — who was also SOJC’s 2021 Eric Allen Outstanding Young Alum — we learned about The Wall Street Journal’s brand of “no surprises journalism,” which essentially means that when a story is published, there should be no surprises for those quoted regarding what they said or what others said about them.
Knutson, who co-hosts “The Journal” podcast, taught us that every minute of a podcast episode should serve a purpose. Podcasters should aim to tell an easy-to-follow, logical story, which requires deleting distracting and unnecessary details and using signposts — verbal cues that let readers know where in the story they are and what’s coming next.
Stop 4: Bloomberg
Who: Joel Weber, head of the Bloomberg Explains team; Max Abelson, reporter
What we learned: SOJC alum Joel Weber ’03 encouraged us to think of life as a video game. “You are in skills-acquisition mode,” he said. He advised us to hone our abilities in areas that interest us and come naturally to us.
During a newsroom tour, we spotted Mike Bloomberg himself and later talked to reporter Max Abelson about his career journey. Considering the anxiety and trepidation that many new grads feel upon entering the “real world,” Abelson said that getting over that “fear cloud” can help a career take off. He suggested creating a “personal canon” of who you want to write like and whom you want to write for to build confidence and establish a direction.
Day 2: Finding your dream job, dogged reporting and fusing journalism and storytelling
Stop 1: CBS News
Who: Jon Carras, producer
What we learned: SOJC 2012 Eric Allen Outstanding Young Alum Jon Carras ’02 explained how he landed his dream job as a broadcast producer for CBS Sunday Morning, which intrigued student Gabriella Sgro ’26.
“Hearing him chat about his journey to his dream job was truly inspiring, and was a good reminder that good things take time,” Sgro said. “I felt like I could achieve my dream job — and dream life — with just a little bit of time. It’s one of those things where you feel like you don’t have enough experience. It’s easy to forget that we have all the time in the world to get that experience and work our way up.”
Stop 2: ProPublica
Who: Katie Campbell, investigative journalist; Joshua Kaplan, reporter
What we learned: Alum and former SOJC adjunct professor Katie Campbell ’08 talked about her journey as an investigative video journalist. She brought in Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Joshua Kaplan to share his advice too.
“The more ways you can attack your central question, the more likely you will find something,” Kaplan said. In other words, try to go down as many reporting avenues as possible.
Stop 3: Blue Chalk Media
Who: Greg Moyer, founder and chief executive officer; Pam Huling, chief revenue officer
What we learned: Right under the Brooklyn Bridge, we met with Greg Moyer and Pam Huling, who discussed the key to fusing journalism and storytelling with advertising. Moyer said, "It's all about finding characters who in microcosm represent examples of a greater issue."
Day 3: Solutions journalism, talking to your copy, the beauty of bullet points and the value of the ‘cold email’
Stop 1: The City University of New York (CUNY)
Who: Professor Jeremy Caplan; Mikhael Simmonds, former executive director of the Center for Community Media
What we learned: At the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY, we sat in on Professor Jeremy Caplan’s Entrepreneurship Journalism course, where students presented end-of-term projects. Then we toured the school and participated in an Ask Me Anything session with Mikhael Simmonds, the former director of regions for the Solutions Journalism Network. He said solutions journalism is not a silver bullet. It needs to do more than just serve the community; it should serve from the community to produce useful guides, tools and resources.
Stop 2: WNYC
Who: George Bodarky, former community partnerships and training editor
What we learned: Exposing the group to the professional audio world, George Bodarky showed us around a few recording studios and later highlighted the common struggle young audio journalists have: the shift from print to audio writing. He advised us to “talk your copy” and say it out loud using voice memos. “How would you say it to a friend? What’s the first thing you would say? Say it that way.”
Stop 3: Chartbeat
Who: Kateline Hullar, marketing manager
What we learned: Kateline Hullar explained how she uses real-time data to understand reader behaviors that drive engagement and revenue. She explained that outlets can increase scrolling by experimenting with different formats like video, bullet points or summaries at the top of the article that lead readers to what’s ahead.
Stop 4: Penske Media
Who: Emily Harris, deputy art director for Footwear News and Beauty Inc.
What we learned: Penske Media is where I geeked out on all things magazine and acquired a plethora of advice from SOJC alum Emily Harris ’19. For example, she advised that when looking for a job or internship, “cold email” everyone. “Look up and email people you admire and ask for informational interviews.” She also said that face-to-face interactions are vital to networking.
Day 4: Be relevant (and concise) and put in the work!
Stop 1: Spotify
Who: Rose Rimler, senior producer at Science Vs
What we learned: UO alum Rose Rimler ’14 shared the secrets to a successful podcast: Cover relevant, in-depth topics the audience can’t get anywhere else and try to impress and amuse each other on the show (producers, hosts, writers, editors).
And while some podcasts can get away with big words and long episodes, she isn’t sure what their “special sauce” is.
Stop 2: World Trade Center
Who: Jim Pensiero, retired deputy managing editor of The Wall Street Journal
What we learned: Next, we made our way to the 66th floor of the World Trade Center to meet with retired Deputy Managing Editor of The Wall Street Journal Jim Pensiero, who graduated from the University of Oregon in 1975. He advised us to “never stop putting in the work; you have to go places you don’t want to go. And always tell your readers something they don’t know.”
Day 5: Turning shoes into a career, scrollytelling and context matters
Stop 1: Complex Networks
Who: Brendan Dunne, general manager and host of Complex Sneakers Show
What we learned: Our final day began at Complex Networks, where we met SOJC alum and General Manager Brendan Dunne ’12, who also hosts the Complex Sneakers Show. We got a glimpse of the podcast set and saw the studio where “Hot Ones” is filmed. We also sat down with Dunne to hear how he turned his passion for shoes into a career.
Ava Chand ’25, an avid fan of Complex, was thrilled. “Complex was a surreal experience,” Chand said. “Brendan showed us how someone with the same education and resources can actually make it in the journalism world. Real life isn’t that far away, and people who are just like us are the ones who are making the journalism world go round.”
Stop 2: The New York Times (NYT)
Who: Bill Ruthart, writing coach and editor; Andy Rossback, senior editor for storytelling; Ryan Frank, communications director; Hamed Aleaziz, reporter
What we learned: We met with Bill Ruthart, Andy Rossback, and SOJC alums Ryan Frank ’99 and Hamed Aleaziz ’09, who urged us to “be able to go anywhere and understand that people will reject you.”
Rossback talked about the NYT’s use of “scrollytelling,” which is customizing interactive stories that move as a viewer scrolls. It’s an example of one way the NYT and other outlets are moving toward nontraditional storytelling formats.
Stop 3: The Athletic
Who: Ryan Mayer, manager of the audience editors
What we learned: Our final stop was where we met with Ryan Mayer from The Athletic to view its real-time audience analytics from Chartbeat and learn how the staff applies that in the newsroom.
He offered a specific tip to help us engage readers: Just because you know something doesn’t mean your audience does. It’s important to add context and background.
Countless pages of notes, numerous subway rides a day and a whirlwind of a week later, my peers and I were at the end of our experience and ready to head back to the SOJC with new ideas, good advice and a lot of NYC connections.
Tony Adamo ’25 summed up what many of us felt. “My experience was amazing,” he said. “It was one of the best things I’ve done, school-related or not. Being in NYC and seeing everybody grind and work for whatever it is they do was inspiring.”
Sydney Seymour '25 (she/her/hers) is a media studies major minoring in ethics. She is a writing intern for the SOJC and the editor-in-chief of Align magazine. Connect with her on LinkedIn.