No one ever said being a manager would be easier than reporting to one. Inevitably, one of your valued direct reports will make a substantial mistake, and it’ll be your job to point it out without being too bossy or too passive.

Come on too strong and you could damage his morale. Come on too soft and he might never improve. Either way, you can be sure his peers—and yours—will hear all about how you handled the situation the next time coffee gets brewed, and you only get one chance to do it right.

So, take this advice from a few career experts on how to put the ‘constructive’ in constructive criticism, and turn a moment of correction into a turning point for success.

1. Be Prepared

Probably the easiest and most popular response to a manager’s complaint is “I didn’t know this was an issue.” Get ahead of that response by communicating your expectations early and by having regular, honest meetings with staffers.

Maynard Webb, eBay’s long-time COO and author of Rebooting Work: Transform How You Work in the Age of Entrepreneurship, says regular check-ins make critiques less surprising and easier to accept. “I’ve often implemented informal weekly and formal quarterly check-ins in an effort to force a dialogue and prevent a big disconnect when employees find out they weren’t doing as well as their perception led them to believe,” Webb says.

Leadership consultant Doug Sundheim, author of Taking Smart Risks: How Sharp Leaders Win When Stakes are High, agrees that frequent check-ins can make criticism less jarring. “One reason conversations about mistakes kill morale is because the mistakes often build up for weeks and months as small issues that aren’t being addressed along the way,” he says. “When it finally comes time to say something, the employee feels blindsided with a litany of issues.”

2. Get a Room, You Two

When delivering a critical review, discretion is key. Tom Armour, a human resources specialist and co-founder of business consultancy High Return Selection, says negative feedback requires a specific time and place. “Do it privately and one-on-one,” he says. “Never give this type of criticism in an open forum.”

Ben Eubanks, a human resources generalist and blogger with upstartHR, says managers who have the greatest success coaching employees through their mistakes treat their staff like they themselves want to be treated. “Instead of having the discussion in a public place, they pull the person aside to show consideration for privacy,” says Eubanks.

You can have the discussion off-site, but know it may be awkward sitting across from a suddenly disgruntled employee while waiting for the bill.

3. Listen Up

Don’t start by talking; start by listening and soliciting information. Even if you don’t agree with what you hear, giving your direct report a chance to explain her side will instantly make her feel acknowledged and respected.

“When a boss gives an employee feedback, there’s immediately a status inequity, and we’re sensitive to status issues,” says business consultant and chief happiness officer Scott Crabtree of Happy Brain Science. He recommends asking employees “to assess what happened and what should be done about it” before making your own diagnosis and prescription.

4. Maintain Focus

It’s easy to let your opinion of someone’s performance bleed into an assessment of his personality—but don’t go there. “Addressing a mistake is really just a form of feedback,” says Katie Slater, a job coach with Career Infusion. “As such, feedback needs to be focused on behaviors or actions, not the person or personality.”

Slater says a manager should also emphasize fixing, not finger-pointing. “People often know when they’ve made a mistake. Treat them like adults and talk about it,” she says. “The point is not to blame or finger-point, but to figure out what went wrong and what can be done to fix it in the future.”

5. Give a Full Review

When you address errors, also compliment your employee for jobs well done. Crabtree sees it as a matter of science. “Studies indicate that when we receive three positive comments for every negative one, we feel safe and stay open to feedback,” he says. “Include good things in the discussion to keep the employee’s brain happy and receptive to feedback.”

You can even praise the effort behind an endeavor that ultimately didn’t work out. “A mistake is a sign that an employee was making things happen,” says Crabtree. “While this didn’t turn out perfectly, you generally want employees taking informed risks. If employees never make mistakes, they’re either doing too little or not taking enough risks.”

6. Include Your Employee in the Solution

Your direct report will be eager to discuss solutions—if only to take the focus off the problem—but she will also feel respected and empowered if she plays an active role in the corrective step. Involve her in conceiving the correction and implementing it.

Kathi Elster, a workplace consultant and co-author of Working for You Isn’t Working for Me, also advises “helping them figure out ways to avoid repeating the same mistake.” Her examples of such ways include proofreading more carefully, confirming appointments, taking more time to think things through and using interns and assistants for help.

7. Act on Behalf of the Team

Remember that how you handle a problem with a staff member will have reverberations with the entire department and company. “By addressing mistakes, you’ll often improve overall morale,” explains Slater. “Those who try to minimize mistakes and do good work will very much appreciate when things that go awry are addressed.”

Amy Feldman, general counsel for an international placement firm and a specialist in employment issues, agrees that there are indeed worse problems than making a poor-performing employee feel demoralized.

“While you may fear killing morale by being harsh, it’s the failure to deal with a difficult or terrible employee that’s the real morale killer for the rest of the office,” she says.

There are a few universal ways to measure career success: Financial freedom. A flexible schedule. A working relationship with Oprah. In three short years, Paul Brunson has acquired all three, ascending from a virtually unknown matchmaker/relationship coach to published author, TV personality and personal friend of Ms. Winfrey herself.

Surprisingly, the man who has been referred to as the “real-life Hitch” (in reference to Will Smith’s character in the movie of the same name) says he always knew he’d be kicking it with O.

“I don’t want to sound conceited when I say this, but when I first met her I wasn’t nervous at all because I knew that moment was going to happen,” the former investment banker recalled. “I knew it. I saw it in my mind… Now, are there moments when I reflect back and say, ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t believe this is happening’? Sure, I definitely do that, but I felt in my heart that it was going to happen.”

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Name: Paul Carrick Brunson
Position: Matchmaker and relationship coach, co-host of OWN’s Lovetown, USA
Resume: Worked as the director of U.S. investments for Bahcesehir Ugur Educational Institutions until 2008, when he left to study matchmaking. Launched his own matchmaking company in 2009. Joined the cast of OWN’s LoveTown, USA in August 2012 and published the book, It’s Complicated, (But it Doesn’t Have to Be) in October. That same year, nominated for an NAACP Image Award, the iDate Matchmaker and Relationship Coach of the Year award, the Impact Leader of the Year award and chosen as a Dell Inspire 100 Honoree.
Birthday: August 24
Hometown: New York City “But then I’ve lived in the D.C. area longer than I lived in New York”
Education: BA in Business Law from Old Dominion University, MBA from Georgetown
Marital status: Married
Media idol: Gary Vaynerchuk. “He’s one of the first video bloggers and he achieved incredible success building his brand. He’s a social media guru.”
Favorite TV shows: Meet the Press, No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain
Guilty pleasure: Cookies and cream and coffee milkshakes from Gelati Celesti in Richmond, Va.
Last book read: A Billion Wicked Thoughts by Ogi Ogas and Sai Gaddam
Twitter handle: @paulcbrunson

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What’s the key to writing relationship advice that resonates with readers?
I think that writing it so that you are writing it for yourself is really important. So everything that you’re writing and that you’re suggesting is something that you will do, that you can do, and that you follow. And that goes back to the whole adage of walking your talk. I just think that’s really important. I also believe that whenever you are a reader of advice, it is very important to know the values of whoever the expert is that’s giving you advice. Because if your values don’t jive then, typically, the advice that they’re giving won’t be as applicable to you as it would be if your values do jive. So that’s important as well.

“Just because you’re in a relationship doesn’t mean that you’re qualified to give relationship advice.”

How do you differentiate yourself from other matchmakers and relationships experts?
It’s interesting [that you asked that], because I just tweeted today that about two years ago, I really stopped competing with others. I now only compete with the highest expectation of myself. And that is the truth. It’s important as a business owner to be aware of your industry and who’s in it, and it’s important to know your growth and all of those business-metric things but, ultimately, when it comes to competing with individuals, that’s something that I find to be very unhealthy. And the reason is because it creates frustration; in some people it creates insecurity and, ultimately, we all have been given very unique gifts. No one can be you, so why try to emulate someone else? Instead, you should literally be the best you. No one else will be able to do that. So, I do not compete with anyone anymore. I just compete with myself.

Can someone be an effective matchmaker or relationship expert if he or she is single?
A few years ago, I definitely thought that you had to be in a committed relationship for an extended period of time before being able to give credible advice on relationships, but I have now shifted. And the reason why I have shifted is because I have met more people who I highly respect that give relationship advice and are not in committed relationships. And the reason I was able to understand this was really because of going to [my son’s] pediatrician. She does not have children, but I believe that she is outstanding. For one, she has a lot of theory — she’s gone to school, she’s learned, she continues to study on the subject and she’s a subject-matter expert. And, secondly, she practices. So she’s able to have clients and see how her advice plays out in real time and how she needs to tweak. So, just because you’re in a relationship doesn’t mean that you’re qualified to give relationship advice either. What qualifies it is that you have mastered theory, you’ve become a subject-matter expert, and you also actively practice.

NEXT >> So What Do You Do, Nicholas Sparks, Bestselling Romance Novelist?

So how did you get your book deal?
I’m always really transparent on social media, so I went on Twitter and tweeted to my followers that I was thinking about writing a book. And one of the associate publishers at Penguin saw it and said, “Hey, if you ever write something, let us know. We’d love to look at it.” A couple months later, I sent him a direct message on Twitter and told him that I had finished the proposal, and he said that he would love to have me come in. I immediately went to New York — no agent — and sat down and had a meeting with them. Within four hours of the meeting I had a deal, and I signed it the next day.

And how did you land the deal with OWN? That was through Facebook, right?
It actually started on YouTube. They were watching some of my YouTube videos and, from there, someone from the network contacted me on Facebook. We went back and forth several times via Facebook; at first I didn’t think it was real because there are so many spammers on Facebook. I then came into the offices in L.A. and met with the network team, once again with no agent. I was there with my business partner, and we sat at this long table. There were 13 of them on one side and just my partner and me on the other. It was incredible. So, they basically pitched me the idea for LoveTown and I immediately signed with them.

“By the time our show aired, and even today, [OWN]’s ratings continue to climb dramatically.”

Looking back, how do you think that you were positioned to take advantage of such an awesome opportunity?
Two things: One is quality over quantity. Don’t let numbers skew you because the video that [Oprah’s team] saw was, like, my fourth or fifth episode. So, if I would have let low viewership impact me, I might have stopped at my second or third episode, and I never would have gotten that look. So, if you feel as if you’re walking in your purpose, and you’re walking in passion, then you walk. And don’t ever let anyone tell you to stop.

The second thing is that, even though we didn’t have great viewership, I really did spend a lot of time on those videos. I’m talking about focusing on the sets and buying the right cameras and the right audio equipment, and I learned a little about editing and positioning, and I wrote a script, and then I would study and memorize the scripts. I mean, there were countless hours put into each one of those videos. And I think the story there is that you should put real time and effort into the things that you love. Don’t half-ass. There’s so much half-assing going on. And we think that we have to be fast to market or that we have to get a lot of stuff out. And that’s the reason why we half-ass sometimes, because we try to cover wide, but we actually need to go deep.

Given the negative press that the OWN Network had received prior to the launch of your show, Lovetown, USA, was there any added pressure for it succeed?
What’s interesting is that even though the press was beating up on OWN when they came out the gate, the fact of the matter is that by the time our show aired, and even today, her ratings continue to climb dramatically. So she’s been on an upward trend. That being said, it wasn’t as if this was a situation like, ‘Oh my gosh, this show has to do these numbers for the network to survive.’ It didn’t have anything to do with that. But for me, and I don’t know if this was a part of the question or not, there was no hesitation on my part — zero — in participating on the Oprah Winfrey Network, given anything the press was saying. It’s the Oprah. Winfrey. Network.

NEXT >> So What Do You Do, Nicholas Sparks, Bestselling Romance Novelist?

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Andrea Williams is a freelance writer based in Nashville. Follow her at @AndreaWillWrite.

Building a website or a social media page for your company means you’re opening the door to a wide variety of visitors. Some are fans, happy to tell you how much they love your brand or simply offer constructive criticism. Still others — often called trolls — simply want to make mayhem, as rowdy children would with an open microphone.

Can you recognize the difference between a handful of haters and a real problem worth responding to? And, even if you can, how do you know when to delete and when to respond? It’s a tricky business: Be too restrictive and you’re stifling conversation; be too lax and you’re inviting damage to your brand.

This is not a question for crowd-sourcing; it’s one for experts. Below, some social media mavens weigh in on handling audience feedback in a way that best serves you and your audience.

1. Don’t just delete
Resist the temptation to delete all critical comments. The purpose of your feedback engines and social media is to foster open and civilized dialogue about your mission, not to simply rally the choir. And how you police those platforms will have reverberations.

“How you handle a negative comment says much more about you than the comment itself,” said Shama Kabani, CEO of The Marketing Zen Group. “Removing a comment can lead to others accusing you of censorship and, at worst, can lead to a PR disaster.”

Whitney Haldeman, a media specialist at digital agency Paramore who manages social media for Tennessee tourism, agrees that deleting comments should be a last resort.

“Never delete a valid complaint,” Haldeman stressed. “This could turn into a back-and-forth war of the user continuing to post, and cause your brand to lose credibility with the audience that notices.”

“How you handle a negative comment says much more about you than the comment itself.”

2. Be responsive

While it’s a bad idea to blindly delete negative comments, it’s just as bad to let them sit around unaddressed. “When left ignored, users may wonder why the brand has a Facebook or Twitter presence in the first place or if their opinions matter at all to the brand,” said Kristen Berke, a senior account executive at the Web consulting firm Magnet Media. Berke recommends categorizing individual comments into larger issues — like complaints about customer service or criticisms of a particular incident — then responding to that group as a whole in a reply or in a new post.

Katie Creaser, vice president of the PR and social media firm Affect, recommends “posting an official statement or posting status updates that answer the questions being asked most frequently, versus answering every single user individually.”

Haldeman also encourages posting a mass response to show you’ve acknowledged the situation. “Until you do, users will continue to feel the need to speak out to be sure you’re hearing them,” she said. “Plus, it takes less work than responding individually to each comment.”

Sometimes, the simple act of acknowledgement will settle an aggravated commenter. “Most of the time people simply want to know their complaint is being heard,” said Emily Taffel, owner of Mugsy PR, a Miami-based social media consultancy. “By replying through social media, you’re showcasing that your company is listening and responding.”

Responding quickly and publicly is the key, says Creaser. “Keeping that type of interaction public will allow other users to see that the organization is both responsive to and concerned about their needs,” she said.

Trying to have its comment cake and moderate it too, NPR recently decided to temporarily pre-moderate comments from new users — and current problem users — in an attempt to crack down on inappropriate commenting. Once users demonstrated they could behave consistently, their posts were allowed to pass through instantaneously. In an interview with The Daily Beast last summer, Kate Myers, NPR’s product manager for social-media tools, said putting a filter on their front door was a tough decision because of “conflicting goals of encouraging a safe space for people to comment and to have a civil discourse.”

3. Just say no to nasty behavior

You should respond to thoughtful criticism, but comments that are vulgar, insulting or patently offensive require no such respect. They can, and should, be deleted.

“In some rare cases, where someone is clearly over-the-top nasty, responding may just make it worse,” said Michael Fertik, founder and CEO of Reputation.com. “Take them down and consider blocking the user if they’re a repeat offender.”

“If the comment is purely hateful and mean, delete it as soon as you find it,” said Kate Dinkel, Internet marketing manager at CyberMark International. “People will know you’re not trying to seem perfect — because you answered constructive criticism — but that you won’t stand for inappropriate posts or language.”

NEXT >> The Biggest Mistakes Journalists Make in Social Media

4. Have a plan — and person — in place

To protect yourself when you need to cancel someone’s posting license, you need both a clear process and a specific policy.

“Identifying and implementing a response process for negative and positive comments on social media is critical today,” said Amy Marshall, COO of digital marketing agency Fathom. “Social media strategies can be incorporated into an existing crisis communication plan or written as a separate plan, but one of the most critical elements is to ensure there’s one owner to monitor and be responsible for resolving customer posts.” Marshall added, “Respond as soon as possible, but 24 hours or less is a general expectation of the online community.”

Your social media policy — the ‘rules of the pool’ — should be clear and easy to find both on your site and on your social networks. “Posting a quick social media policy via Facebook notes, for example, which clearly states which comments you’ll allow and which will be removed, can help you justify future actions,” said Kabani.

Creaser encourages being “upfront about the types of comments that will be removed. For example, it’s fairly common to remove violent, abusive or inflammatory comments.” She says such rules can be placed on your ‘About’ page on Facebook or on the bio in Twitter.

As models, here are such rules as set forth by The Huffington Post, The New York Times, Mashable and TripAdvisor.

5. Show the Likers some love too

If you want your audience to know you’re listening, don’t just reply to negative feedback. “If you condition your audience that if they complain, they’ll be rewarded, they are more apt to complain,” said Haldeman. “Recognize people who share positive experiences about your brand___ they’re more likely to continue sharing their experiences.”

Dinkel agrees. “You don’t have to answer every single one, but throw in a ‘thank you’ here and there, as well as answer any specific, relevant questions that get asked.”

“If you condition your audience that if they complain, they’ll be rewarded, they are more apt to complain.”

6. Take big complaints offline

If a particular commenter’s ire continues after you respond, don’t keep the conversation going. Offer to take it offline, giving your company’s generic email address. (Just make sure to look for it later.)

Guy Kawasaki, former chief evangelist for Apple and author of APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur said, “If the commenter tries to drag the company into a public battle, the company should publicly suggest taking the issue offline and handling it privately.”

Courtney Kettmann, community manager for the social media service Viralheat, said that by taking the conversation offline, “you’ll decrease the probability of the sentiment spreading to the rest of the public.”

Kettmann also suggests posting links that can provide more information and insight. “Of course, make sure there’s a human touch to each post. A brief response could come off as rushed or uninterested,” she said.

7. Be transparent

The bottom line: Your visitors trust you with their honesty; return the favor by being open about your process. “Transparency is the best policy,” said Caitlin Bergmann, social media manager at The Concept Farm, a digital marketing and production company. “It’s important that your social followers see how your brand or organization works to get a situation resolved — and how quickly it happens.”

NEXT >> The Biggest Mistakes Journalists Make in Social Media

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Joel Schwartzberg, essayist and author of The 40-Year-Old Version, encourages you to speak your mind in the comments below.

For Dave Karger, Oscar nominations day is his version of the Super Bowl. It’s his busiest day of the year and a media whirlwind, amplified this time around by an extremely competitive film awards season. How busy is Karger, you ask? Last week when the 2013 nominees were announced, he did a whopping 27 interviews for everyone from NBC’s Today to Access Hollywood and Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live.

Having just settled into his new position at Fandango after a successful 18-year run at Entertainment Weekly, the movie aficionado says reporting on Oscar-winning films and the stars behind them is just as challenging and thrilling as ever.

“When I was with the magazine, along with TV and radio interviews, I was also writing a big article about the nominations to go in that week’s issue and usually interviewing some of the nominees, as well as blogging,” he told Mediabistro. “But with my Fandango job just being a broadcasting position and not really a writing position, I was able to focus on the on-camera stuff… It really is my version of election night, and I love being that busy. It’s a real rush for me.”

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Name: Dave Karger
Position: Chief correspondent, Fandango
Resume: Started at Entertainment Weekly in the summer of 1994 and worked his way up from intern to senior writer. After 18 years at the magazine, Karger joined Fandango in September 2012.
Birthdate: April 4, 1973
Hometown: Yorktown Heights, New York
Education: Graduated with a double major in English and psychology from Duke University
Marital status: In a relationship
Media idol: Matt Lauer. “His adeptness at any topic from pop culture to politics is astounding. I’ve been interviewed by him about 70 times over the years, and I feel like I’ve gotten to learn from the best.”
Favorite TV shows: Parenthood, Southland, Mad Men, Modern Family
Guilty pleasure: All the singing-competition shows: American Idol, The X Factor and The Voice
Last book read: “Gone Girl by my former EW colleague Gillian Flynn. So impressive.”
Twitter handle: @davekarger

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Do you think Seth MacFarlane is sort of the Academy’s last unconventional bet for hosting the Oscars, and if he fails Hathaway-Franco style, that they might move towards someone more classically molded like Jimmy Fallon?
I don’t sense desperation on the Academy’s part. I think they brought in Craig [Zadan] and Neil [Meron] to produce in part because of their great musical background, and wanted someone who was not just funny but also had great song-and-dance skills. I don’t get the sense that it’s a last ditch effort of any kind. I just feel like MacFarlane had a great year. His movie Ted was a massive success, his SNL hosting was well received… Obviously he appeals to a younger demographic than, say, Billy Crystal does, and I know that getting ratings for the telecast is very important to them. I think that, combined with the fact that a lot of the movies that are nominated this year are very commercially successful, I think it bodes well for next month’s Oscar viewership.

“Find something that you’re extremely interested in, so that becoming an expert in it doesn’t feel at all like a job or a chore.”

How can someone position themselves for TV appearances of the kind that you make regularly? For a writer looking to get into that, is it just about getting the right job (where producers come to you), or is it about actively pitching yourself?
I think the important thing is just to know what you’re talking about and really study it. Find something that you’re extremely interested in, so that becoming an expert in it doesn’t feel at all like a job or a chore. If I didn’t have the job that I have, I would still be obsessed with the Oscars and I would still know who Quvenzhané Wallis is. It just happens to be that this is what I get to talk about for work.

I feel like all the great stuff I’ve gotten to do over the years, whether it’s the Today show or being the Academy greeter, it was never a calculated plan. I just tried to be comfortable in front of the camera and really develop an expertise. I think the fact of the matter is that I’m really interested in this, and that just shows when I talk about it or in the past when I have written about it. And I think that’s all you can do: Just find what it is that you are truly fascinated by and become an expert in it. If you can speak about it in an articulate fashion and not get nervous on live television, then producers, I think, will respond to what you do.

You’ve done so many celebrity interviews. On that front, what are a couple of do’s and don’ts?
For me, there’s two things that I would say. With my Fandango show “The Frontrunners,” as with all the shows I’m developing for the site, the goal is to have the format be different enough that it’s the only time these celebrities will do that exact interview. So with “The Frontrunners,” I pick one scene from each actor-director’s movie, and we watch it with remote controls, and we pause it at opportune moments to really dissect what’s going on. That’s the only time they’ll ever do that.

I have a show I’m developing for this summer where a celebrity will bring with him or her someone else from their movie that they think is deserving of some attention, whether it’s the costume designer, or the dialect coach or the cinematographer. And, that way, that’s the only time they’ll ever do that kind of interview. So, that’s the first thing that I try to do and has proven helpful so far.

NEXT >> So What Do You Do, Elvis Mitchell, Film Critic and Host of KCRW’s “The Treatment”?

The other thing that is very important to me and has always been, whether I was a print interviewer or now a broadcast interviewer, is to never have my interviews feel like an interrogation but rather a conversation. And I think there’s an important distinction between those two. I go out of my way to try and make my interview subjects feel respected and comfortable, because the fact of the matter is these are people who get interviewed on a regular basis as part of their job. I try to create an atmosphere that will hopefully make them comfortable enough that they’ll say things to me that they wouldn’t necessarily say in any other interview. So those are the things that I’ve tried to do. Just being friendly goes a long way.

Most celebrity reporters have had the occasional bump in the red carpet or interview road. Is there one that you’ve had that you care to share and also impart what you learned from it?
Obviously, the biggest challenges are the celebrities who are more reticent like Harrison Ford or Tommy Lee Jones. But I happen to love both of them as performers, so I always agree to interview them and try to do my best. I remember being unprepared when [composer] Alan Menken came to me on the Oscar red carpet and I definitely low-balled how many previous nominations he had received. He was very nice about it, but that was a lesson to me to focus even more on some of the behind-the-scenes people, because when it comes to the Academy Awards, they are just as important as the other stars.

As far as this year’s Oscar nominations are concerned, obviously everyone has been talking about the omission of Ben Affleck and Kathryn Bigelow from the Best Director category. Were you as surprised by that as everyone else?
Definitely. The whole category of Best Director was the biggest surprise. I just think that people need to remember that the directors’ branch of the Academy, which solely votes on that race, is fewer than 400 people. So, just a handful of votes can make the difference between getting into that category and not. I think that’s why you saw them go off the reservation a little bit with some of their picks, because it’s a small and very high-brow group. It is very difficult to get into the directors branch of the academy, so these are people that are not necessarily easily impressed by spectacle and scope and scale. They are looking for a real point of view, and that’s what they saw in Benh Zeitlin [Beasts of the Southern Wild], Michael Haneke [Amour] and David O. Russell [Silver Linings Playbook]. Hence, the three surprises in that category.

“I try to create an atmosphere that will hopefully make [celebrities] comfortable enough that they’ll say things to me that they wouldn’t necessarily say in any other interview.”

I was also surprised and disappointed by the absence of John Hawkes [The Sessions]. A few months ago, he was someone at the top of everyone’s list, and I just think for whatever reason that movie lost steam. It’s just too bad, because it’s such a wonderful performance. And for Best Actress, I had a feeling they would either nominate Quvenzhané Wallis and have the youngest nominee in history or Emmanuelle Riva and have the oldest nominee (85) in history. I did not expect the Academy would do both, and that was very exciting to see.

Have you been able yet to get a sense of the incredible data that Fandango gathers from movie ticket buyers, and how you can tap into that as a journalist?
I am only just beginning to scratch the surface of what I’m realizing is a wealth of data and information that Fandango amasses on a daily basis. They really seem to have a pulse on what moviegoers like and get excited about. I’m definitely looking at ways to incorporate that into my programming, because my programs first and foremost are for the hardcore movie fan. So why not have their voice in there, somehow?

The next show that is going to start for me at Fandango is a weekly preview show, where I talk about all the films that are opening that weekend and help guide people to what they might be most interested in. That’s the kind of show I think that could really benefit from the data that Fandango is developing.

NEXT >> So What Do You Do, Elvis Mitchell, Film Critic and Host of KCRW’s “The Treatment”?

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Richard Horgan is co-editor of FishbowlLA.

There are 42 million people in America right now who fall under the category of “independent worker.” Sara Horowitz doesn’t know all of them personally — she’s popular and all, but not quite that popular — but she does understand and appreciate the issues specific to the self-employed.

In 1995, she founded Working Today, a nonprofit organization that leveraged freelance mojo to influence industry and politics. Eight years later, she reshaped that mass movement into the Freelancer’s Union, empowering folks in that growing sector, which comprises almost a third of employed America and countless media professionals, with membership resources and affordable health insurance.

An attorney by trade and an activist by design, Horowitz didn’t set out to champion the cause of cubicle counter-culturalists, but she is. “Freelancers, to me, are the important workforce of this next era. Our economy has changed so much that we have to have new ways and new structures,” she told us. “We must all evolve, and freelancers are in the midst of all this great change.”

Here, the author of the newly released The Freelancer’s Bible shares what she’s learned about organizing the masses and what the future has in store for the independently employed.

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Name: Sara Horowitz
Position: Founder and executive director of the Freelancer’s Union and CEO of the Freelancers Insurance Company
Resume: In 1995, the one-time labor lawyer and union organizer founded Working Today, a nonprofit designed to unify freelancers. Created Freelancer’s Union in 2003 to promote the needs of the independent workforce through advocacy, education and services. Launched Freelancers Insurance Company in 2008 to provide independent workers with quality health insurance. FIC now insures close to 25,000 New Yorkers with revenues approaching $100 million. Plans for expansion are actively in the works.
Birthday: January 13
Hometown: Brooklyn
Education: Earned her BA from Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations, where she was awarded its labor prize. Graduated cum laude from the SUNY Buffalo Law School and completed her MA at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Marital status: Married
Media idol: C.J. Cregg of West Wing
Guilty pleasure: Labor history
Last book read: Future Perfect by Steven Johnson
Twitter handle: @sara_horowitz

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The Freelancer’s Union was the fire behind the pioneering Payment Protection Act, which helps freelancers in New York “get paid, not played.” How does the burden of chasing paychecks affect freelancers specifically and the media industry as a whole?
One of the typical things that freelancers face, obviously, is not getting paid — not the full amount or the total amount. And there’s no place to go but small claims court. We wanted them to be able to go to the Department of Labor, and we came within a hair’s breadth of that. Now [the act] is pending in both New York and New Jersey. I think the media industry tends to treat freelancers like invoices, like receivables, so they say ‘OK, you’ll get paid 30, 60, 90 days out.’ This gives them a lot of float, because they’re holding on to that money for that time, and, if you want to get paid within two weeks, you get paid $0.96 on the dollar. You lost 4 percent. If you were a traditional employee in New York right now, that would be illegal. This is bad practice and something we’re going to be looking at in the next year.

“Freelancers, to me, are the important workforce of this next era.”

How did representing the interests and concerns of independent workers become your personal and professional mission?
I was hired as a lawyer and I was made an independent contractor. I wasn’t given any benefits. My orientation is always to be a builder, and I don’t think it’s always helpful to focus on, ‘OK, this bad thing happened.’ It’s like, what are we going to do about it? So when I started to talk to freelancers and independent workers, one issue was health insurance. I just started building. There are structural problems in our society where the laws and the regulations are stuck in the 30s, and we need to start thinking about the future. And the future, it turns out, is really so very different from the past.

We’re coming together in, almost in DIY fashion, and building our own institutions, like our own insurance companies that we own. It’s not charity; it’s ourselves. In New York, the rates are 30 to 40 percent cheaper. We just had a zero percent increase in premiums. We now are opening up this medical practice. We can do so much, because government just doesn’t get it. If we wait on them, we’ll be just sitting there by the side of the road. We’re not doing that. We’re going to take care of ourselves and government will come around. They’ll figure it out, but they’re going to want our votes.

Freelancer’s Medical, the first primary care facility for freelancers, opened last month in Brooklyn, and you must be extremely proud to provide this level of specialized service. Do you plan to open others and where do you think they’re needed most?
We’re doing them in Oregon, as well. I’m not able to say what’s next, but the co-ops are going forward, and the exchanges are certainly going to create a great way for people to be getting health insurance, particularly for freelancers who are under 400 percent of poverty. That’s going to really matter to our members who are older and lower-waged. And then we’re going to be looking at what to do for our members who are above 400 percent of poverty, because that’s really our middle-class. That’s where we’re going to be innovating and looking at how the landscape is changing and planning from there.

NEXT >> So What Do You Do, Lola Ogunnaike, Freelance Journalist and TV Personality?

How does the re-election of President Obama and his healthcare agenda play into the future of the practice?
There are other things that are good all around, like the end of the preexisting conditions. We’re a nonprofit and we own our own insurance company, so there are no private shareholders. I think what we’re going to see is that a lot of private equity is going to move out of the insurance business per se, because they won’t be able to make as much money. So, I think there’s going to be a lot of changes afoot in the healthcare industry.

How do you foresee the freelance workforce growing in the next five years, and how can they meet professional needs in ways that traditional 9-to-5-ers can’t?
There was a tipping point that happened like three years ago. On the one hand, you could work for a company full-time with no job security and bad benefits, or you could freelance with no job security and difficult benefits, except for in New York. I think people started saying, ‘Well, why don’t I just freelance?’ I think what you’re seeing is companies like IBM, who predicted that half of its workforce is going to be working independently. We’re starting to see companies really wanting more of their workforce working remotely. We’re going to see new institutions start to create it — for instance, Kickstarter and Etsy and Freelancer’s Insurance Company. There are multimillion dollar companies now seeing that freelancers are customers. So, the whole ecosystem is really starting to heat up.

How are independent workers and freelancers equipped to compete against publishing and design houses, for example?
It’s interesting. There are two big elements to answering that. One is these big design houses are so chock full of freelancers. It’s not like there are just full-time people in them. Full-time freelancers are nimble, working on teams in every big company and every big design firm. They’re everywhere. I think the other thing is that you’re going to start seeing freelancers coming together like the United Artists in the early days of figuring out ways where they can group and create new hybrid types of cooperatives to do their long-term work. Some people are great at marketing, some people are great at writing, and we need to start bringing people together so they don’t have to know how to do everything and start evening out their income. There are already intense and robust informal networks of freelancers. This is the future. This is what Freelancer’s Union is working on.

“We’re going to take care of ourselves and government will come around.”

What did you like about independent contracting? What are some of the not-so-great things about it?
When you meet freelancers who have really found their groove, there’s a sense of almost zen in it, because they’ve switched around the equation of ‘here’s my job; I wake up; I do it; I come home; I go to sleep.’ And they say, ‘what is my life for? What am I doing and what do I love? And how do I fit work around that?’ One of the challenges for all freelancers, though, is it can be feast or famine, and they’re not eligible for unemployment to help even out when they’re in a rough patch. We would like to see people be able to create pre-tax accounts so when they’re in the feast stage, they could put money in and draw in famine. In the recession, 12 percent of our members went on food stamps because they weren’t eligible for unemployment. That’s bad. We also have to start thinking about access to capital to grow business — not huge amounts, small amounts — so that we start having new banks and financial institutions that understand the risks, the real risks, of lending to freelancers so that they can mitigate the risks and get money to them.

What advice would you give to someone who wants to take the dive into working for themselves?
Really pay attention to your network. By network, I mean the people you care about. So when you go to a networking event, don’t just take your card out and shove it in somebody’s face. Look to find the one or two people you like and can relate to and nurture those relationships. Your network is going to be everything. The second thing is look at your consumption and stop overspending. It’s bad for America, but you’ve also got to keep your expenses down. People become very anxiety-ridden because they try to maintain a standard of living, but when you’re starting out, you don’t know what your standard of living is going to be. So be frugal.

NEXT >> So What Do You Do, Lola Ogunnaike, Freelance Journalist and TV Personality?

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As journalists, we are used to asking hard-hitting questions and writing up engaging prose. But, in the age of technology and the Internet, we need to know a few more tools in order to stay relevant and appeal to tech-savvy audiences. Simply tweeting or putting a collage on Pinterest isn’t enough — reporters must also leverage those technologies to stay ahead of the curve.

“[Journalists] are increasingly being required to take away from time doing actual reporting to do a million other things like community building… promoting their stories… and so they will be required to engage in some of that stuff,” said Menachem Wecker, a Virginia-based education reporter at U.S. News & World Report.

So, whether you’re looking for a new gig or just trying to keep your existing one, here are a handful of skills you absolutely, positively, without a doubt should have in your arsenal (and on your resume). Feel free to add your own in the comments section.

1. Social Media Management

By now, everyone knows that Twitter allows 140 characters per post, but how long should your tweet really be? Considering that a retweet from your readers will include the original post and your handle, the shorter, the better.

“If you want to share a link, shorten it first,” writes AllTwitter’s Shea Bennett in his post, “10 Must-Learn Lessons for Twitter Newbies.” “Use bit.ly (or Twitter’s internal shortener) to shorten long links into 20 characters. This gives you 100 characters of free space to talk about what’s inside that link.”

Once you’ve written the perfect post, monitor how well it does through platforms like Chartbeat and Google Analytics. Find out how many shares you’re getting through Facebook posts or whether Twitter fans are actually reading your stories or just retweeting them. Then, take it a step further and promote your stories during the times of day when your audience is the largest. Tweetdeck will let you “future post” updates, as will other apps like Twuffer or twitmessenger.

Now that social media is no longer just a fad, your goal should be to familiarize yourself with any and all platforms that will bolster the efficacy of your accounts.

“[Journalists] are increasingly being required to take away from time doing actual reporting to do a million other things.”

2. Photo Editing

With the popularity of visuals online (Pinterest, slideshows) and in mobile (Instagram, anyone?), knowing how to create and modify art for your stories means getting your stories out faster and, possibly, wider.

“It’s unfortunate that many publications are expecting their reporters and freelancers to___take on the role of photographer and photo editor, but that’s the reality,” said Wecker.

Although freelancers may find Photoshop a costly investment, it’s not the only program out there. You can grasp some photo-editing basics with Google’s Picasa and Adobe Photoshop Express, which is perfect for when you need to post a photo on location. Whatever graphics program you use, you’ll want to learn how to do things like crop, resize and reduce red eye.

Let’s not forget infographics. A good one can be page view heaven online, and if you can use Photoshop or Illustrator skills to brand it with your news org’s logo, it could bring even more people back to your site.

3. Basic HTML

Once you’ve mastered a user-friendly blog platform like WordPress, you may think that having basic HTML skills is unnecessary, but that’s not completely true. (Raise your hand if you’ve published something only to see that the finished product is in all italic or bold font or that your bulleted list came out as something else entirely.)

NEXT >> 4 Lessons for Writing in the Digital Age

“So much on the Web is ready-made plug and play and that’s fantastic, but you as a professional want to have the skillset to make it look seamless,” explained Meg Heckman, former online editor at the Concord Monitor.

There are a million things in a story’s code that can screw it up online, but you can only catch errors if you know what to look for. All those italics are probably due to an open < i >< / i > tag and the bulleted list gone bad is probably because your < ul >< / ul > is off. Check out Lynda for tutorials or browse these basic HTML tips.

Firefox’s Firebug or Google Analytics Debugger let you view, edit, debug, and monitor webpage code. Add those extensions to your browser and you can see the HTML behind any website. So, if you like another story’s format, you can duplicate it for your own.

4. Search Engine Optimization

Sometimes, maximizing page views is all about having the right words and phrases in your story, and Google AdWords reigns supreme for generating the best keywords.

“You enter the crux of what your story is about, search for a related keyword that has high search results and fairly low competition, then make that your keyword and ensure it’s in your title, URL, header and content,” explained Bret Love, a journalist from Atlanta who runs Green Global Travel.

Bloggers who want to optimize posts as they write can install an SEO plug-in such as Yoast, Love said. “It’s basically like an idiot’s guide to SEO, giving you a green light when it’s good, yellow light when it’s OK, and a red light if your SEO stinks,” he said. It also tells you where a term is lacking, so you can easily fix it. However, he advises journalists to write as they would and not get too caught up in using too many keywords like a “marketing nut.”

“Diversification is key to surviving the changing tides in our industry.”

Heckman notes that most newsrooms have content management systems, which can help reporters determine keywords to use as they type. Content doesn’t matter as much as what’s on top of it. “For the vast majority of reporters and even your average editor, a strong Web-appropriate headline is what really matters,” she said.

5. Audio and Video Editing

In today’s digital era, being able to record and edit interviews can set you apart from the rest.

Journalists can edit audio easily with Garage Band or Audacity. If you browse online, you’re bound to find some useful tutorials (like this one, for Audacity) that can aid you in using the software.

Web videos can be just as powerful. Erica Sandberg, a personal finance expert and editor-at-large for BankRate.com’s Credit Card Guide promotes her articles with short videos. She recently started putting together clips for MySourceTV as part of her show, “Making It with Erica.”

“To me, as far as journalists and reporters spreading their stories around the globe, a short video is the way to go,” Sandberg said.

Although Sandberg plans to hire an inexpensive production company to make more videos, DIY solutions include Final Cut Pro, iMovie and Windows Movie Maker. iPromptPro or i-Prompter are other neat tools that let you turn your smartphone into a teleprompter.

More Skills, More Opportunities

Whether you try out another social networking tool or learn how to operate new software, it’s important to push yourself as the industry moves forward.

“In my experience, diversification is key to surviving the changing tides in our industry,” said Love, who has done everything from graphic design and social media consulting when writing was slow. “The more tools you have in your box, the more valuable you become as an asset.”

NEXT >> 4 Lessons for Writing in the Digital Age

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Kristen Fischer is a copywriter and Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW) living at the Jersey Shore. Visit her at www.kristenfischer.com.

An estimated 80 percent of Americans want to write a book someday, and it’s very likely that most of those people have been silently crafting their stories for years, mentally stringing together character sketches and plot lines. But what if your dream is to tell someone else‘s story, to write a book that brings to life the imagination or experiences of another person?

Author David Ritz has been doing just that for over 35 years, collaborating with more than a few high-profile celebs, like R&B artist R. Kelly and Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry. He even played a part in the creation of Marvin Gaye’s iconic hit “Sexual Healing” while working on Gaye’s biography, Divided Soul: The Life of Marvin Gaye, published in 1985. At age 68, Ritz is easily one of the most prolific writers in the publishing industry — ghost or otherwise — and he shows no signs of slowing down.

I read in the L.A. Times profile of you that you taught a class in contemporary R&B. How did you segue into ghostwriting for artists?
In graduate school, I was working on my Master’s and my PhD in English, and I taught a course using the lyrics of R&B songs and had students examine them as poetry. For a while, I was going to be an academic and a scholar, but it just wasn’t me. I wanted to meet the people who make music, and it was really important to me to get in that life. I wanted to know who are they, and how do they think, and where do they come from? And what’s it like to actually hang out with them and talk to them?

When I first met Ray Charles, I didn’t know about ghostwriting; I was just going to do a biography of him. And then his agent asked me, “Which book would you be more interested in reading: a book about Ray Charles written by an egghead, or a book written in his own voice?” I told him that I would much rather read the book written in his own voice, and he told me, “You should write the book you would want to read, not the one you believe you should write.” And that was a big turning point for me.

“You should write the book you would want to read, not the one you believe you should write.”

So, how do your collaborations typically come about now? Are people seeking you out?
There are times now when people do [seek me out], but I’m really a hustler — in a good way. I get out there and chase down people. I initially got Ray Charles 35 years ago by sending a telegram to him in Braille, because his manager wouldn’t let me see him. So I’m real determined. And Aretha [Franklin], I chased after her for 25 years before she agreed to a book. And now I want to do a book with Keyshia [Cole], so I’ll pursue her.

I would say that the first 25 to 30 years of my career I did all my own hustling. I’m like The Temptations: I ain’t too proud to beg. So I call people and tell them, “Hey, I’m a writer for hire; hire me because I love you and I want to tell your story, and I want to get to know you.” You do get a lot of rejections — and I’ve probably gotten as much rejection as anybody in the world — but you just develop a thick skin. You don’t take it personally, and you realize it’s part of the job. I like to sell, and I like to meet people and try to talk them into using me as their writer. I enjoy that.

I noticed that some of your recent books say “with David Ritz” as opposed to just having the celebrity’s name. Was that your decision?
Yeah, I mean, I kinda feel like there are two kinds of ghosts. One is the kind of ghost where you get your name on the cover with ‘with’ or ‘and’ or ‘as told to’ and your name is not as big as the star’s. And the other kind is where your name is nowhere on the book, even though you’ve written it. And I don’t like that, even though that makes the truest ghost. I still have enough of an ego that I just want to see my name, or else you wouldn’t have heard of me, and we wouldn’t even be having this talk. It doesn’t have to be large, and I don’t have to have my picture with the star’s in the back. But I do want at least acknowledgement of my participation. Most people don’t have an objection because they realize how important my participation is.

NEXT >> Under Pressure: Nailing The Celebrity Interview

Have you ever turned down the opportunity to ghost someone’s book?
Sure. I mean, if I don’t like the person, or I don’t respect them, I can’t do it. It’s a million times easier when I fall in love with the people that I’m working with and I deeply respect them or their art. But, yeah, I’ve turned down books with people that I either didn’t believe — I thought they were inherently dishonest — or I was uninterested in them. You’ve been with some people, and when they talk you just get bored and you can’t concentrate. If that’s the case, then I can’t do the book because I have to be interested in the person in order to render their voice in a captivating way.

You’ve written novels in addition to the numerous biographies you’ve penned. As an author, is there a more enjoyable experience for you? Would you rather be writing fiction or nonfiction?
I’ve written a lot of novels; I’ve had novels written under my own name, and I’ve written novels as a ghost. So I love writing fiction, and I love making up stories. But I guess I feel about fiction or nonfiction the way I do about R&B, jazz and gospel — I just kinda love it all. And, as long as I’m into a story, I’m a happy guy. As long as I have an idea where it’s going, whether I am making up the story or I am re-scoping the story of a person’s life, I’m happy either way. And I feel very lucky to be able to work in the two categories.

“I still have enough of an ego that I just want to see my name, or else you wouldn’t have heard of me, and we wouldn’t even be having this talk.”

Is there one that comes more naturally?
My mother was a knitter, and when I write I often think of my mom because I feel that’s what I’m doing when I’m writing: I’m knitting a sweater. And I think one of the reasons I’m so prolific is that I don’t take it all that seriously. Not every book has to be War in Peace or Shakespeare. You knit a sweater and it keeps you warm in the winter, and hopefully it looks good and it kinda feels good. And you write a story; hopefully it has an inspiring message and 10,000 or 100,000 or a million people read it, and it makes them feel good. And then you’re going to do another story, and another story, and you’re going to knit a scarf and you’re going to knit another sweater.

I’m just a guy out here writing stories. There were a million storytellers before me, and there are going to be a million after me. So I don’t have to tell myself, “I’m working with T.I., the greatest rapper in the world, or I am working with Marvin Gaye, the greatest R&B singer in the world, and I better write the greatest book.” Those kinds of voices, when they come into writers’ heads, are very destructive because they put undue pressure on you.

David Ritz’s tips for aspiring ghostwriters:
1. Learn how to listen. “As you conduct your interview, you really have to give yourself over to the individual and really try hard to understand them, because, once the interviewing process is over, you’re going to become that person.”

2. Learn the art of interviewing. “Part of the job of the interviewer is not just to ask penetrating questions that will yield important information, but to make the other person feel comfortable and safe.”

3. Be enthusiastic about the process. “Always look for ways to renew your enthusiasm because the book is born out of the dialogue between you and the other person, and, if that dialogue does not contain a lot of enthusiasm, then the book is going to lay flat.”

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Andrea Williams is a freelance writer and journalist based in Nashville, Tenn. Follow her @AndreaWillWrite.

Wondering how to stay relevant in the digital age? Look no further than Elvis Mitchell, a film critic who kept right on going after being let go from a major daily newspaper — albeit not without a couple of major bumps.

Since departing The New York Times in 2005, Mitchell has continued to host KCRW’s “The Treatment,” his popular weekly syndicated public radio show. The program has been on the air since 1996 and allows him to do what he does best: chat in free form with mostly film but occasionally music, TV and literary personalities.

And after briefly (and fitfully) returning to the film criticism ranks in 2010 as co-host for Roger Ebert’s reboot of At the Movies and as chief film critic of Movieline, Mitchell landed an even better gig: film curator for non-profit group Film Independent. In just two short years, Mitchell has put his indelible stamp on the organization’s slate of events at the L.A. County Museum of Art while continuing to spotlight past and present films that he believes in.

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Birthdate: December 6. (“My suit size is 42 regular and shoe size 11, if you’re in the mood to shop.”)
Position: Film curator for Film Independent, host-producer of KCRW’s The Treatment
Hometown: Detroit, Mich.
Career: Successful stints as a film critic with Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Detroit Free Press, L.A. Weekly and The New York Times. In 1996, began hosting the KCRW radio show, The Treatment, which is currently syndicated to several dozen public radio stations around the country. Producer of the 2008 feature documentary The Black List and host of the Turner Classic Movies interview series Under the Influence. In 2011, named film curator for non-profit Film Independent where he orchestrates various co-sponsored activities at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).
Education: Wayne State University, B.A. English
Marital Status: Single
Favorite TV shows: “These days, I’m loving Key & Peele, Bob’s Burgers and it wouldn’t be a day without Rachel Maddow, The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. Also, a big fan of the Jimmy’s — Fallon and Kimmel — and I try to squeeze in Craig Ferguson’s Late Late Show. Maybe I should try to sleep.”
Guilty pleasure: “I’m too shallow to be guilty about anything.”
Media idol: “Idle what? Sidney Poitier, always.”
Last book read: John Hodgman’s That is All

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Your very first guest on The Treatment was Charlie Rose. What were your objectives when you launched the program, and what do you think accounts for the show’s longevity?
My goal, simply put, was to get a guest on the show every week. Someone who could be articulate about what it is that they do. I really look at it, still, as a week-to-week process. We’ve gone from scrambling for guests in the early days of the show, just because people didn’t know it, to now where we get too much great stuff offered to us all the time.

Excepting Christmas, when we broadcast repeats, we do a new The Treatment for every week of the year. That puts a lot of pressure on, to find and produce content that people want to hear. It’s mostly film stuff, but I also like to try and show how wide-ranging a pop culture world it is and that everything touches on everything else. Film, TV, books, music: all of these worlds of popular culture are interconnected.

“The workload for a film critic today is just so Herculean.”

Are you friends with a lot of the people you interview on The Treatment? I was struck, for example, during a recent episode with Saturday Night Live‘s Bill Hader by how much fun you seemed to be having.
I actually met Bill Hader at a screening, and he walked over to me and told me he was a fan of a show that I did on Turner Classic Movies a few years ago. We started talking and then it was just a matter of our respective schedules. I like him a lot and just knew he would be a great person to have on. It turned out to be a really fun show. A lot of it, though, is I kind of like to have new people on the show who I don’t know and learn about them too.

What are a couple of surprising moments from the earliest days of The Treatment?
To be honest with you, I was kind of surprised that [April 1996 guest] Anthony Hopkins showed up for this new show that nobody had heard of.

I also remember Ben Kingsley came. It was a thrill to have him then, and I had made a pumpkin cheesecake that I brought to KCRW. He asked if he could have some, and, of course, I replied, ‘Oh please, help yourself.’ So he was sitting, eating cheesecake while we were doing the interview, and I thought, if I ever write my autobiography, it’s going to be called Ben Kingsley Ate My Cheesecake.

He’s somebody that I’ve gotten to know through the show. It’s really great when we get repeat guests. We get to ask them different questions and they’re really game. Someone like Kingsley really loves to talk about anything and has had such an interesting, erudite career. We talked about him being the first artist signed to Apple Records and how he changed his breathing for Sexy Beast. I said, ‘That guy seems to be basically sputtering, almost oxygen-deprived,’ and Kingsley said, ‘Yeah, I changed the way I breathed. I wanted that guy to always be on the edge of anger; his brain has to be starved almost of oxygen.’

NEXT >> So What Do You Do, Matt Atchity, Editor-in-Chief of Rotten Tomatoes?

Do you ever go long with The Treatment and, if so, what do you do with the unused audio?
We generally tape 32 minutes of conversation for our 28-minute programs so, no, it’s rare that we go way over. However, it does sometimes happen. For example, my recent interview with Louis C.K. wound up going about an hour and there’s a ton of great stuff there that we weren’t able to use. At some point, if we do wind up getting a lot of shows where there is extra, worthwhile material that we can’t use, we may have to figure out a way to post an extended version.

Would you ever consider, if the opportunity arose, returning to the ranks of a daily newspaper film critic?
[Laughs] The workload for a film critic today is just so Herculean. They’re writing reviews, they’re blogging and they’re doing extra things for the Web. And, with movies that are based on books, you want to at least give the book a thumb-through and prepare. Add in film festivals and I’m not sure how people in the profession can keep up with it today. It’s just shattering now, the workload.

There’s so much stuff out there now, you can almost narrow-cast the ones that have the same taste and are directly in sync with your own likes. And that’s a great thing. On the other hand, you can also be so specific in what you look for on the Internet that you can miss someone who might be able to introduce you to work that you don’t know about. The more diverse voices there are, the better off we are.

“As a kind of superficial forum and endeavor, showbiz journalism is even more shallow than I thought it would be.”

Your October Interview magazine conversation with Joaquin Phoenix got a large amount of media pick-up thanks to his comments that film awards season is “total bullsh*t and the worst-tasting carrot.” What was your take and experience of the feedback you got after this interview?
I was astonished that this got so much reaction. There is a pretty lengthy part of the conversation that is about race, which I thought was as worthy if not more so as to what he was saying about awards season. That he walked away from a movie because he wasn’t happy with the way it was being handled, and he thought there was this inertia that plays on this really antiquated attitude towards people of color in the movies.

And, so far as I can see, almost nobody picked that up. I thought that would have been the thing that had people really jumping. It kind of makes me think that as a kind of superficial forum and endeavor, showbiz journalism is even more shallow than I thought it would be. Because that was an incredible thing to say: that he not only walked away from the movie in terms of the producers and screenwriter on what was lacking in the script, but he also went on to talk about race in other parts of the society and asked pointed questions about it. I somehow thought that would get some coverage.

How do you and Jason Reitman work together on the “Live Read” LACMA series?
We select the scripts together. For example, I chose four of the six scripts for the 2011-12 run. But, as far as announcing each installment to the public and revealing the actors that are taking part, that’s all up to Jason. This is his baby. He puts them together, does all the casting and publicizes them the way he wants to. LACMA and I give him full leeway.

You’re showcasing Beasts of the Southern Wild on November 29 at LACMA and doing a Q&A with the director and cast. Where do you personally rank the film?
It’s great to see an epic made with the limited resources of independent film. Indie films are usually intimate kinds of affairs. So, to see something on that scale, with that kind of voice and a whole new group of actors, literally new to performing. And that little girl — at this point, I think she may win through the Oscars… To see somebody that young with that kind of presence who can hold a movie basically with almost no dialogue is incredibly exciting, in something that changes the literal complexion of movies.

NEXT >> So What Do You Do, Matt Atchity, Editor-in-Chief of Rotten Tomatoes?

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Richard Horgan is co-editor of FishbowlLA.

Managers may think the biggest things employees want from them are pay raises, promotions… and pay raises. And did I mention pay raises?

Sure, raises and promotions make happy workers, but there are other ways you can meet the needs of your direct reports—as well as build morale, loyalty, and productivity—without having to change a budget or a business card. Below, workplace experts weigh in on the four things employees most want and value from their bosses, and the positive ways bosses can respond.

1. Appreciation

When it comes to what employees want from a boss, appreciation is number one. Leadership consultant Roxana Hewertson, CEO of the Highland Consulting Group, says appreciation drives self-esteem, happiness and loyalty.

“The number one difference between people who love their work and people who don’t is the degree of appreciation they receive from their boss and their peers,” says Hewertson.

Such appreciation can take the form of an email or a personal visit—the more public it is, the better. At the lower end of the effort scale, “just pay solid attention to your people, answer their questions, be accessible and say a heartfelt ‘thank you’ as often as possible,” Hewertson says.

Morgan Norman, co-founder and former CEO of a social performance tool called WorkSimple, says employers can also praise workers through social networks, blog posts or company newsletters. “Internally, this helps an employee to feel appreciated by an organization,” says Norman. “Externally, everyone else sees what a great job the worker did, which creates a healthy competition.”

But realize some expressions are more meaningful than others. Anja Schuetz, people management coach and author of Poker Cards for Managers, suggests saying a formal “thank you” instead of a more casual “thanks,” and elaborating on the specific reasons behind the appreciation.

She also recommends managers often ask their staff “what do you think?” even if a decision has already been made. “It really boosts people’s confidence and makes them feel valued and included in the decision-making process,” Schuetz says.

2. Trust

Jennifer Hancock, who’s working on a book about humanism in the business world, says trust is also a key factor in strengthening your relationship with your workers. “Trust your employees. Take their advice seriously. Give them some space to do their job and empower them to bring problems to you,” she says.

“This approach makes a huge difference in whether or not your employees feel valued.”

Halley Bock, CEO and president of Fierce, Inc., a leadership development and training company, says there’s an overall lack of trust in organizations, “and employers need to earn that back.” To do that, Bock suggested “having an open-door policy, welcoming questions and allowing people to have insight into the decision-making process.”

Trust is also developed when managers encourage independent responsibility, but this doesn’t mean letting employees make every decision by themselves.

“People are only truly empowered when they understand which decisions are theirs to make, which decisions need to be jointly made and which decisions should be passed along to others,” says Bock. “Provide clear delegation guidelines, creating roadmaps for professional development and opportunities for employees to request more responsibility.”

3. Honest Communication

Just like in a personal relationship, good communication can enhance the experience, and bad communication can kill it.

“When employees have a voice, they feel as though they are part of a team. And, as a result, they become more engaged,” says Bock, who suggests regularly inviting team members around a table to discuss workplace matters and to highlight those who’ve made a positive difference.

“When employees have opinions, and they are heard and acknowledged, they are more productive, engaged and connected to their organization,” Bock says.

Remember this is about honest communication—don’t think you can play your employees like violins.

Hancock breaks it down: “Be ethical. Be honest. Don’t lie. Be responsible. If you don’t know something, it’s okay to admit it—just make it your responsibility to find out the answer. Don’t say you will do something and then not do it. If you have bad news, share it,” she says. “Your team can’t support you and help you solve problems effectively if you aren’t honest about what’s going on.”

4. Understanding

One of the biggest staff complaints is that a manager just doesn’t understand what’s really going on or how things get done. Joel Gross, founder and CEO of Coalition Technologies, a Web design and marketing firm, says his staff just wants him to understand how complicated it is for them to do their job. “They want me to realize they have to follow a specific process in order to achieve the desired result.”

If feasible, take the time to learn what each member of your staff does, the tools they use, and the keys to their success. It’s okay not to know the details—but ask lots of questions. Make them the “experts.”

Understanding your employees also means taking their whole lives into account. “Everyone who works for you is a real-life human being. They have their own issues and problems, and you need to be compassionate,” says Hancock.

“If you feel compassion for your employees, you will treat them better and come up with better management solutions to help your employees succeed. They aren’t just there to support you. You’re there to support them, as well.”

One good way to show understanding and support is to develop a reasonable work-from-home schedule, or a relaxed seasonal schedule. Even half-day summer Fridays can make a big difference in how staffers feel about their employer—and you.

Melissa Harris-Perry is no journalist. She respects them, she appreciates them, she depends at least partly on their handicraft, but she’s pretty candid about not having a desire to be an on-the-ground reporter or investigative newshound. The role she’s carved in the media pantheon, she clarifies, is offering perspective on the news stories that journalists produce. “I’m an analyst and an academic, and my goal is to take information and understand it, even while I bring data and evidence to bear and engage people who disagree with me in order to test those arguments,” she explains.

That and she hosts an eponymous cable TV show that confronts those little conversational topics like race, gender and politics with aplomb and just a twinge of unapologetic controversy, highlighted in the open letter she wrote to WaPo columnist George Will about his criticism of Americans’ racial empathies for President Obama. Here, the Tulane University professor and author of Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America — who pens a column of the same name for The Nation — talks the upcoming election and the one “presidential” issue she wants thrown off the table for good.

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Name: Melissa Harris-Perry
Position: Author, professor, columnist and host of MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry
Resume: Professor of political science at University of Chicago (1999-2005), politics and African-American studies at Princeton (2006-2010) and, currently, political science at Tulane University, where she serves as founding director of the Anna Julia Cooper Project on Gender, Race, and Politics in the South. Author of Barbershops, Bibles, and BET: Everyday Talk and Black Political Thought (2004) and Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America (2011). Monthly columnist for The Nation and frequent TV and radio commentator. Debuted Melissa Harris-Perry on MSNBC in February 2012.
Birthdate: October 2
Hometown: New Orleans
Education: B.A. in English from Wake Forest and a Ph.D. in political science from Duke; studied theology at Union Theological Seminary in New York
Marital status: Married
Media idols: Bill Moyers, Gwen Ifill and Rachel Maddow
Favorite TV shows: House Hunters and Parks and Recreation
Guilty pleasures: HGTV and baking
Last book read: Assata: An Autobiography of Assata Shakur
Twitter handle: @MHarrisPerry

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There’s been a lot of talk about the independent or undecided voter. Are people really undecided at this point, and how much do you think news and media can change their votes?
That’s funny you ask. That’s my lede for Saturday morning: Are people actually undecided? When there are clear differences and when we’re less than a month out with two very different candidates in a hotly contested election where there’s been a great deal of information over the past year, there aren’t really undecided voters in terms of preferences. There are just voters who haven’t decided whether they’re going to show up or not. Voting is always sort of a two-stage process: Do I care enough to go through the hassle of voting and, once I’ve decided to vote, have I made a decision about which candidate I will support?

One way to think of it is undecided voters are probably mostly going to support an incumbent so, when I say they’re going to support President Obama, it isn’t because he’s President Obama per se. I just mean that incumbents tend to get those voters. But the real question is: Is this election sufficiently interesting, and are barriers too high for them to end up in the electorate? The only undecided voters that the candidates care about are the ones that live in swing states, and there’s no way that those voters don’t have sufficient information to show up for one candidate or the other.

“I have never once had someone from this network come to me and have a conversation about ratings, good or bad.”

Having a show with your name on it makes you a brand. Who decides the direction of the show, and how do you balance the network’s desire for ratings with your own vision?
I have never once had someone from this network come to me and have a conversation about ratings, good or bad. No one. Maybe they’re talking to my executive producer, and that’s completely possible. But none of them have ever walked in here and said, “You know what? You cannot do that because of the ratings” or “Please do that more because of the ratings.” I will say that I have been completely clear, to the point of being fanatical, that my staff is not to share with me ratings information. I don’t ever want to know because, for me, the point of doing this show is not about the ratings. But I can tell when it’s not been a good weekend just by looking at the staff the next week. It’s kind of like after President Obama had that bad showing in the debates, like you just know that nobody was walking around happy in [Obama campaign quarters] OFA 2012. So, I can kind of tell if I had a week that wasn’t great because people are kind of down but, if I had a week that’s great, people are in there bouncing around.

The editorial decisions for this show, even with my name on it, are made collectively between me, the senior producer, the executive producer and the segment producers. I have veto power and I have been known to veto whole ideas, but I’ve also given my segment producers a great deal of latitude because I trust them. They’re smart, they’re capable, they have great vision. Sometimes what we’ve done has fallen flat — I don’t know if it’s fallen flat in terms of ratings but I’ll come off like, ‘I don’t want to talk about that topic again’ — and other times I’ll come off the set feeling like ‘this is the whole reason I’m doing this show.’

As MSNBC continues a progressive shift in its programming, do you hear from news viewers who pine for the days of unbiased news? How do you think cable networks’ moving away from the “objective” center has affected the political process?
I not only sometimes hear viewers’ angst about wanting journalistic reporting, I feel it myself as somebody consuming the news. I report and analyze what’s going on in the news, but I also want to know what’s happening in the world. For me, that angst is primarily about newspapers. I live in New Orleans, where we’ve lost our daily newspaper and don’t have reporters on the beat in our neighborhoods. That’s a story repeated over and over again across America. So, when I think about what’s lost, I tend to not think about it in terms of television news, which I never particularly watched, but print journalism. If MSNBC were interested in hiring a journalist to do on-air investigative work, that would be great and I would watch that. But it wouldn’t have anything to do with what I do.

NEXT >> So What Do You Do, Roland Martin, CNN Contributor and Host of TV One’s Washington Watch?

I think the biggest cost is the one that Chris Hayes talks about in his book, Twilight of the Elites, that there’s an absence of one place or person or thing that if it says it, you can believe it, whether you’re a Democrat, Republican, liberal or conservative. That is bad for democracy because there have to be some spaces where we can say, ‘I believe that because it’s reported by that person.’ I talked about this last year at Christmas time. If you remember “Yes Virginia, There Is a Santa Claus,” it was the editor of the paper who wrote that letter. Who could now write that letter? Not me. Not Bill O’Reilly. I mean, who could convince you if you were a little kid that there is a Santa Claus? Nobody, because there’s not any one source that we all trust.

There was a clear difference between the tone and fluidity of the presidential debate under Jim Lehrer and the vice presidential debate under Martha Raddatz. Who do you think was the better of the two?
I really enjoyed the vice presidential debate for a couple of reasons. For one, my best friend had just given birth about 10 minutes beforehand. I’d just been in the delivery room with her, and she and I were watching it together in the recovery room. Beyond that, there were things that I think made this debate better. They were physically sitting at the same table, and I think there’s something about that proximity, when people are sitting right next to one another, that creates a sense of engagement. But the other thing is you had the sense that both Biden and Ryan had come to play. They were prepared to be aggressive; they weren’t concerned with this sort of niceness by which they were going to be judged.

Jim Lehrer offered some willingness to engage, but I think Martha Raddatz’s expertise in foreign policy was as much on display as the vice presidential candidates’. I had a sense as a viewer of trusting her to direct the conversation in a substantive way. Not that Jim Lehrer’s not substantive — obviously, he’s got decades of substance behind him — but in this particular debate, he was far more removed and she was much more engaged.

“Some of our greatest presidents have been absolute dorks, and some of our most horrible presidents have been affable, lovely, engaging human beings.”

If you could take one issue off the table in this election, what would it be and why? What, in your opinion, is just white noise that’s distracting from real issues?
Style. Whether or not President Obama is cool or whether Mitt Romney is likable, I really do not care. I assume that Mitt Romney’s wife loves him and Barack Obama’s wife loves him, and they both can probably tell a funny joke when they want to. I mean, really, who cares about style? Some of our greatest presidents have been absolute dorks, and some of our most horrible presidents have been affable, lovely, engaging human beings. That’s not the business of politics.

The course you teach at Tulane, Black Women’s Political Activism, is surely a catalyst for your students to get involved. What do you think is the most pressing issue facing women today, and what can they do to affect change in that area?
I teach a lot of gender-based classes. This is one of my favorites, though. For women in general, I think there are two critical issues and they are linked to one another: one is the issue of poverty, economic security and economic justice, and the other is about reproductive rights. And of course, those things are linked. You cannot have economic justice unless you have control of your reproductive capacity. It just is not possible for women. At the same time, control of your reproductive destiny doesn’t matter much if you can’t feed yourself or your family.

NEXT >> So What Do You Do, Roland Martin, CNN Contributor and Host of TV One’s Washington Watch?

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