The deep pockets of Jay Penske are jangling yet again, this time via the graduation of freelancer Vlada Gelman to full-time status at TVLine.com.

Her SoCal media career is a reminder that persistence pays off. She worked as an intern not once but four times after graduating from UC San Diego, at Advanced Marketing Services, the San Diego Tribune, Crain Communications, and Entertainment Weekly. She has also freelanced along the way for EW, the LA Times Show Tracker blog, and Vulture among others.

As the Twitter congrats started coming in today, Gelman at one point noted that “everyone who works there has a name that starts with M, except for me.” But we’re pretty sure Michael Ausiello, Matt Mitovich, Megan Masters, and Michael Slezak won’t hold that against her.

Gelman also stoked the freelance visibility fires with her blog Staying In.