Voices of the Industry
TV anchors, bestselling authors, magazine editors, media founders, showrunners, and broadcast journalists, in their own words, on how they built their careers.
Media Career Interviews
The Archive
Mediabistro's original interview series asked prominent media professionals to describe their careers in their own words: the decisions, the pivots, and the unglamorous early years that most people don't talk about. The question was always simple: what do you do, and how, exactly, did you get there?
56 of those conversations are archived on this page, featuring everyone from Hoda Kotb and Nicholas Sparks to Cathy Hughes, who slept in her own radio station before building a publicly traded media company.
We're still doing it. On the Record is our current interview series, in which working media professionals discuss their careers, how the industry is changing, and what it actually takes to build something that lasts today.
New conversations are added regularly. If you're a media professional with a story worth telling, get in touch.
Recurring Career Themes
Read enough of these interviews and patterns emerge. Specific, structural patterns in how people broke through.
The most common thread across these interviews: no one handed them the path. Cathy Hughes slept in her radio station to make rent. Amanda Hocking self-published from her parents' spare room. David Karp dropped out of high school at 14 to build Tumblr from his bedroom.
A specific decision or gamble that rerouted an entire career. Nicholas Sparks wrote The Notebook in stolen evening hours while working full-time. Harvey Levin left a law practice to chase something no one had built yet. Cecily von Ziegesar pitched Gossip Girl to a publisher who asked if she'd written it herself.
Frank Warren mailed postcards to strangers asking for anonymous secrets. PostSecret now has more than 200 million visitors. Pete Cashmore launched Mashable at 19 from rural Scotland. These are stories of earning an audience one person at a time, before the industry took notice.
From TV correspondents to magazine editors, interviewees return repeatedly to the same gaps: how to pitch cold, survive systematic rejection, navigate newsroom politics, and develop the judgment to know which story is really the story.
Deborah Norville has anchored Inside Edition for decades. Maria Elena Salinas built a legendary career at Univision. Kai Ryssdal became one of the most recognized voices in public radio through Marketplace. Their interviews explore what longevity actually requires, and what they sacrificed to keep it.
Several interviewees built careers on the specific quality of their writing before anything else. Taffy Brodesser-Akner became one of the most sought-after magazine writers in America through the work itself. Amy Sutherland turned a New York Times column into a book deal. The path was always the same: write something undeniable.
Bevy Smith
Host, Bravo's Fashion Queens
Deborah Norville
Anchor, Inside Edition
Dominic Chu
Markets Anchor, CNBC
Eric Noe
Managing Editor, ABC News Digital
Hoda Kotb
Co-Anchor, NBC Today Show
Isaac Mizrahi
Fashion Designer & TV Personality
Jesse Ventura
Governor of Minnesota / TV Host
Lola Ogunnaike
Correspondent, NY Times / CNN / E!
Maria Elena Salinas
Anchor, Univision
Michael Hirst
Creator, Vikings & The Tudors
Mike Catherwood
Host, Loveline
Nina Parker
Reporter, Access Hollywood / E!
Soledad O'Brien
Journalist & CEO, Starfish Media
Tamron Hall
Anchor, MSNBC / Tamron Hall Show
Tucker Carlson
Founder, The Daily Caller / Host, Fox News
Amanda Hocking
Self-publishing pioneer, millions sold
Amy Sutherland
Author, Modern Love NYT column → book
Cecily von Ziegesar
Creator, Gossip Girl
Darby Murnane
Freelance Journalist
Denene Millner
Co-Author, Act Like a Lady Think Like a Man
Kara Taylor
Published author & TV writer
Nicholas Sparks
Author, The Notebook
Sara Shepard
Author, Pretty Little Liars
Taffy Brodesser-Akner
NYT Magazine / GQ / Fleishman Is in Trouble
Toan Lam
Founder, GoInspireGo.com
Adam Glassman
Creative Director, O, The Oprah Magazine
Amy Astley
Founding EIC, Teen Vogue
Brendan Deneen
Executive Editor, Macmillan Entertainment
Elizabeth Graves
EIC, Martha Stewart Living
Joe Zee
Creative Director, Elle
John Tejada
Video Producer, Adweek
Keija Minor
EIC, Brides (Condé Nast)
Kierna Mayo
Editorial Director, Ebony.com
Laura Brown
Harper's Bazaar / EIC, InStyle
Marcy Bloom
SVP & Publisher, Modern Luxury
Mark Aldam
President, Hearst Newspapers
Noah Callahan-Bever
Editor-in-Chief, Complex
Cathy Hughes
Founder, TV One & Radio One
David Karp
Founder, Tumblr ($1.1B exit)
Frank Warren
Founder, PostSecret (200M+ visitors)
Harvey Levin
Founder, TMZ
Kathryn Finney
Founder, Budget Fashionista & digitalundivided
Mike McAvoy
President, The Onion
Natasha Eubanks
Founder, The Young Black & Fabulous
Nicole Williams
Career Expert, LinkedIn / Author
Pete Cashmore
Founder, Mashable
Ryan Schreiber
Founder, Pitchfork
Stacie Hunt
Founder, Point Media
Pitch Us
If you work in media, journalism, publishing, advertising, or the creative industries and have a story worth telling about how your career developed, we want to hear from you.
Pitch On the Record at editors@mediabistro.com. Mediabistro has been covering careers in media since 1999.
