Pop Quiz: Richard Rushfield
Today’s interviewee is so important that 1.) He only had time to answer four questions, not five and 2.) His interview is going photoless because should you gaze upon his glorious visage, verily you will be blinded. He is the author of Vanity Fair’s “Intelligence Report” and senior editor at LATimes.com, amongst many other things.
After writing the Intelligence Report for some years for Vanity Fair, do you have advice for writers on how to get a good piece out of a list or chart? Or should they stay away from your territory?
The ancient and venerable calling of Chart Journalism has never seen such a Renaissance as it is going through now. Front-of-the-books spring charts like fields of wildflowers. But heydays bring challenges. It’s easy enough to throw together a list of the five hottest nightclubs or James Bond Villians and compare their catchphrases and use of shoulder pads. But what chart journalism at its apex does is to make comparisions between seemingly unrelated phenomeon, or to call attention to the unnoticed nooks and crannies of the great names. Which is my overwrought way of saying – it’s very easy to do a chart on a familiar topic- do something offbeat and unexpected.
What made you decide to start LA Innuendo? And what is going on with it now?
My co-founder, co-editor Stacey Grenrock Woods and I had spent many years trying to publish articles making fun of the things in Los Angeles that people normally forget to make fun of. And a million rejected query letters to magazines later, we finally decided the only way we were going to get all this out of our system was to do it ourselves.
Now, the Innuendo is on a bit of hiatus. Stacey and I both went and got a little busy and publishing an unfunded magazine is a hobby that can swallow your life. We both vow however that the Innuendo will return someday, chastened but unbowed.
Based on your experience as a cool hunter, what advice do you have for writers on how to sniff out what’s up and coming so they can pitch articles about something hot but not overdone?
The basic formula is (and if you tell this to anyone Claire, I’ll have you killed) – look at the hottest, edgiest magazines you can find. See what they are saying are the hottest and edgiest things going in the world today, then go out and look for the exact opposites of those things because that will be the breaking trend by this weekend.
For our writing friends on the left coast, what are the best places for freelancers to break in at LATimes.com?
The website is not really using many freelancers right now. However, we are growing, expanding and breaking into new fields so we are very open to hearing new ideas for online projects. Every idea should be able to answer the questions: 1. How is this different from what’s online already. 2. Why is this a web idea and not a print idea?
Create a social media strategy, launch your campaign, and track the results in our 
