When you’re writing an informative article, credibility is crucial. So, unless you’re already a true know-it-all in your subject matter, you need qualified sources to back up your points.

To be clear, qualified experts do not include your mother, your bartender or the loudest guy in your office. They’re people who, by virtue of education, research or experience, know what they’re talking about — and have official and tangible qualifications to prove it. That’s tangible, as in “I can look that up.”

Yet, when any and everyone can throw up a blog or Tumblr and become Googleable overnight, how do you weed out the nobodies from the knowledgeable? I’ve written my fair share of “How To” articles, so my own two cents is worth something, but, naturally, I’ve also asked some real-life experts to weigh in.

1. Use a Matchmaker

Naturally, the Internet found a way to make the process of sourcing sources convenient, if not foolproof. There are websites that specialize in matchmaking writers and experts. My personal favorite is HARO (Help a Reporter Out), created by marketing executive Peter Shankman. HARO has a solid record of success, the online interface is clear and easy to use, and you can remain as anonymous as you like. Basically, you provide a headline, description, category and deadline, and the experts come to you. Similar sites include ProfNet from PR Newswire, Reporter Connection and Pitchrate.com. None of these sites charge writers a dime to advertise, so don’t fall for anyone who asks for a fee.

2. Rely on Writers

If someone published a book on your subject, that’s probably the person you want to talk to. But don’t just take my word for it. Louise Sloan, senior articles editor for Ladies’ Home Journal, said, “Search the topic on Amazon and see who’s written a book about it. Often books are written by journalists, not experts, but it can be a good starting point in your search for the right source.”

“Social networks are an obvious avenue, but be strategic.”

Journalists aren’t half-bad either, considering they’re also in the business of finding and sharing information. Look for magazines and journalistic websites that cover your topic in detail and search for contact information in the mastheads or in the “About Us” sections of their websites.

I recommend The Huffington Post for its strong diversity of topics and published experts, many of whom are better experts than they are writers. Each contributor also gets his own biography page as well, listing all relevant qualifications. If your article has a local angle, search for experts in your neighborhood or contact the editor of your community newspaper, blog or Patch.com site, or check Angie’s List or Yelp.

3. Tap Into Trade Organizations

Big industries, and many small ones, have professional organizations that you can plunder for good experts. “Each trade or industry has an organization behind it that serves as spokespeople for the industry,” explained Shankman. “They’ll always take your call.”

Sloan agrees. “Look for national organizations that represent your topic, whether it’s pediatric medicine or knitting, and ask their press office for referrals to expert sources,” she advised.

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Many industry experts make their living teaching at colleges or universities, which confers instant credibility. “We want sources who are true experts in the topic, so we generally start with researchers at respected universities,” said Sloan. “Most universities have websites listing staff and their specialties.”

4. Follow the Media

Did you see someone on The Daily Show or PBS who matches your focus? Even if you didn’t, TV talk shows are good places to look for experts. Visit websites for shows that regularly feature diverse guests and a strong interviewer. You’ll find particularly strong guest archive libraries at these TV sites: The Daily Show, Tavis Smiley, Moyers & Company (full disclosure: I’m the director of digital strategy for the show) and Charlie Rose. In response to complaints that there are too many male experts in the media, two sites specializing in female experts may also match your need: SheSource and the UK’s The Women’s Room.

5. Use Social Networks___ Wisely

Social networks are an obvious avenue, but be strategic. Gregory Galant, co-founder of Muck Rack, a searchable social network for journalists and marketers, breaks it down like this: “If you’re looking for a topic area expert, use Twitter and Quora. If you’re looking for someone who went to a given school or knows a certain person: Facebook. For someone who works at a certain place, try LinkedIn.”

“When you quote someone with a flimsy reputation, if hurts your own standing as a writer.”

Shankman says social networks are a good place to find experts, because you can “use the people you know,” which he said “brings a level of trust at the start.”

LinkedIn, in particular, has become a good place to make professional connections, even for article help. Just put your subject in the search box and see what — and who — comes up. “Most professionals on LinkedIn would be excited by the opportunity to appear in media, but many don’t actively look to do it,” said career coach Megan Pittsley-Fox. “Those who have a lot of connections with many endorsements and recommendations are good targets, plus you get to review their experience before reaching out.”

6. Verify Your Sources

Your sources should never mind a little extra verification. Ask what they’ve done, written, taught and anything else — that you can see with your own eyes — which proves they have expertise. Galant recommends going beyond email. “After you find them, get on the phone or meet in real life,” he advised.

Shankman agrees a little bit of scrutiny can go a long way. “Use the phone, so you can hear intent,” he said, “and Google your sources as well.”

Remember, when you quote someone with a flimsy reputation, if hurts your own standing as a writer. You always need to do your due diligence on any “experts” you cite to make sure their credentials and statements check out. As the Manti Te’o scandal reminded all of us, media outlets citing the same sources over and over doesn’t necessarily make the information, or person spewing it, legit.

NEXT >> 5 Digital Skills Every Journalist Should Have

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Joel Schwartzberg — who’s on call if you need an expert on horror movies or donut-eating — is a nationally-published writer and author of The 40-Year-Old Version, a collection of essays.

One way to judge a gossip magazine is to take a look at how many scoops it gets. On that count, Star appears to be doing pretty well these days. According to newly installed editor-in-chief James Heidenry, the publication was the first to identify Tiger Woods’s new girlfriend as Lindsey Vonn, first to report that Ryan Seacrest’s relationship with Julianne Hough might be on the rocks and first to relay whispers of Liam Hemsworth cheating on Miley Cyrus.

As he approaches his first anniversary with the publication on May 1, which is also the launch date for the new Starmagazine.com, the EIC spoke with us about how his bicoastal staff’s “good, old-fashioned reporting” will topple the Big 3 of celebrity news.

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Name: James Heidenry
Position: Editor-in-chief, Star magazine
Resume: Before joining the gossip ranks, spent four years with Modern Luxury’s Manhattan magazine, which he helped launch. Was also part of the launch team for Maxim, has worked as a project manager at Time Inc. Content Solutions and consulted for The Knot and In Style specials.
Birthdate: March 21, 1968
Hometown: Manhattan
Education: Fordham University
Marital status: Married with children
Media idol: “My father; Ted Turner a distant second”
Favorite TV shows: Fox Soccer Roundup, Family Guy, PBS News Hour with Jim Lehrer
Guilty pleasure: Lobster tail from Rocco’s and Dlisted.com
Last book read: Legacy of Ashes by Tim Weiner
Twitter handle: None

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For those who only occasionally glance at Star at the supermarket counter, how would you describe the brand?
Star magazine’s reputation, I think, is that it’s a little more gritty than the rest [of the celebrity weeklies]. We don’t have the marketing department trying to position us any differently than what we are. We trade in gossip; we pay sources; we pay them a lot of money. We have great reporters in L.A., in New York, and we don’t do anything that Us Weekly doesn’t do, certainly anything In Touch doesn’t do, and from time to time People doesn’t do.

One of Us Weekly‘s best-selling issues in 2012 was Jessica Simpson at home with baby. Of course, they weren’t home with her. They didn’t even speak with her. And they do those stories every six weeks where they say, you know, “Kelly Clarkson, how have you lost 22 pounds?” They didn’t speak to Clarkson; they just got a photo of her. Those kinds of stories are really bait and switches.

We have a lot of sources. They range from people who work in the homes of celebrities to bartenders to former publicists. When a source tells us something, we sometimes think there’s not too much to it and we move on. But then we’ll get a second tip. For example — I won’t name who it was — we got a tip on this husband who was going to a hotel. We decided not to waste our time on that, since it could be anything. Then three weeks later, this guy is back in his hotel and he has a lot of luggage. So we’ll send a reporter there, and sometimes we’ll send the reporter back again a second time, because the status of things on, say, a Wednesday is different than on a Saturday. And on that Wednesday, we’ll start to try and contact other sources we know who have relationships with the couple. So, we build the story that way.

“Us Weekly and People are, in my mind, the mouthpiece of celebrity publicists.”

And the result, you’ll see that some of the stories we’ve broken come out two to three weeks before Us Weekly and People and the Internet, like Chris Brown and Rihanna getting back together. We routinely get the news from sources that is accurate; maybe we’ll have a little something wrong, but the main details are accurate. Us Weekly and People are, in my mind, the mouthpiece of celebrity publicists. And the editors at those two magazines, who take themselves super seriously, have a high opinion of their magazines — People, rightfully so, of course.

They covet these relationships with the publicists, and as a result they don’t say negative things about the celebrities, something like a famous person getting caught cheating, whereas we don’t have any such relationships. We still talk to them all the time; sometimes they call us to ask why we ran something and try to correct it. So, we have relationships but we don’t covet them.

We did reports on Kris Kardashian and Bruce Jenner for three weeks in a row. Finally, Us Weekly went to Kris and said, ‘We’ll tell your side of the story. Whether or not they paid her for that, I don’t know, but they routinely pay the Kardashians a lot of money for access. We don’t pay celebrities for access. We report on them through other sources. We pay for sources, but that’s besides the point. That’s just part of the industry we work in.

Do any of the other magazines, like People, ever credit Star either online or in print for breaking something first?
No, but what’s really funny is even Bonnie Fuller who used to run Star magazine doesn’t give us credit at HollywoodlLife.com. But Us Weekly, I think, is the biggest culprit of hypocrisy. Star magazine, three weeks ago, put Kim Kardashian on the cover with something like a 65-pound weight gain, sold really well. And, of course, we knew that our competitors were going to copy us. Two weeks later, Us Weekly and In Touch both ran “Kim Kardashian heavy” covers. In Touch, at least, were honest about it and said, “Kim Kardashian is gaining weight; she can’t stop eating.” Us Weekly has Kim on the cover saying “Don’t Call Me Fat,” and when you open up the issue, it points out our cover and says, “Look how these tabloids are making fun of her” when they are doing it on the cover themselves — not making fun of her, but using Kim’s pregnancy to sell magazines and trying to take a holier-than-thou attitude. To me, it was just a lack of respect for their readers.

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Taking L.A. as an example, what is roughly the size of your reporting staff and what do you look for in terms of people you think might be good for the beat?
We currently have seven reporters in Los Angeles and, quite honestly, it’s tough to find good ones. They start out at a certain age in the office doing a lot of legwork on the phone, and they also go out at night to all the events and parties to establish contacts. It’s a 12-hour, 14-hour job, especially in the beginning. Reporters have to love celebrity news, they need a high energy level and they have to be intelligent. You can go down a million different rat holes and find nothing. You also have to be able to put two and two and seven together really quickly to figure out stories and whether it’s going to be worth our time and sources. We always try to be respectful.

When Tom Cruise was reunited with Suri, the very day of his divorce in New York, we were the only magazine that had someone inside the hotel that was surrounded by paparazzi. It was 95 degrees, and I told the female reporter to just hang out by the pool. And I told her, “When he comes there by the pool, ask him if he wants privacy and, if he says yes, immediately leave. And if not, wait at the pool and read and observe.” And she did. She didn’t identify herself as a Star reporter, but she offered him that choice, and we meant it, because this was his daughter on the first day of his divorce. A lot of us have kids. So… it’s a tough business. You need to have a strong stomach, and we try to balance the right thing with doing our jobs.

Can you tell me a bit more about how Star deals with publicists?
It’s a give-and-take-relationship. Sometimes we have a story that’s very explosive. We kind of call them and ask “Do you want to comment?”, and very often they’ll say “no comment,” or “that’s not true” as we decide what we’re going to do with that information. And sometimes, a publicist will ask, “Why did you run that story?!” And we tell them, “Read our magazine; that’s what we’re about.” If a publicist wants to serve their clients, they should have a good relationship with us, because, frankly, we do have stories on certain people that we hold, because we like the relationship with the publicist and we’ve done Q&A with the celebrity in the past or photo shoots with them.

“We pay for sources, but that’s besides the point. That’s just part of the industry we work in.”

Almost always, publicists aren’t aware we even have the stuff. We’ll do, let’s say, an at-home photo shoot with a Real Housewife, and they’re nice to us… We like doing cooperative stuff with celebrities sometimes; it’s a nice break from the hard news we do. And then something will come up; we’ll get a tip [of] “Oh, this woman used to do soft-core porn,” and we’ll decide “Let’s not do that” as part of our nice relationship with them. So some stuff, we just hold close to the vest and there’s really no need to publicize it.

How much attention will you pay to what TMZ does once you launch Starmagazine.com?
You can’t ignore them; they’re a 500-pound gorilla. TMZ has to monetize itself [on the Web] in order to employ; we don’t. We don’t have to have a revenue stream come in from the new website; we get to relate and serve the readers. It’s not really to bring in more money so, to me, TMZ and StarMagazine.com are unrelated.

Are there any topics Star will not cover?
No, we don’t really have bullet points of what we don’t cover, but we don’t typically out people, for example. There are several male celebrities who we have evidence of them being gay, but we choose not to do that; it’s just not our thing. And sometimes we get news about athletes doing drugs, and we generally won’t do those, because it will affect that person’s ability to earn a living wage and make a livelihood, just things like that. But, for the most part, what you see in Star magazine is what you’re going to get week to week.

NEXT >> So What Do You Do, Jane Pratt, Editor-in-Chief of xojane.com?

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Richard Horgan is co-editor of FishbowlLA.

A good magazine is lucky to have one successful brand extension. The Fader? It’s as well known for what it does outside its pages as it is for the about-to-break musicians it puts on them, maybe even more so.

Led by publisher Andy Cohn, the bimonthly has launched The Fader Fort and Brooklyn Bound performance series in conjunction with Converse, vitaminwater and Fader uncapped, which put R&B golden child Frank Ocean on the same bill as indie folksters Bon Iver, and the Step Into the Black Music Series sponsored by Captain Morgan Rum. Then there are the exclusive prints, posters and T-shirts for sale on thefader.com, Fader podcasts, East Village Radio, the online vinyl superstore Insound, and the forward-thinking decision to put the magazine on iTunes as a PDF.

But don’t dare accuse the pub of selling out. “If a brand came to us and said they wanted us to come and cover something that they’re doing in the music space, but the artists didn’t align with The Fader and our editorial filter, we wouldn’t do it,” said Cohn. “It doesn’t matter how much money is on the table.”

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Name: Andy Cohn
Position: President and publisher of The Fader
Resume: Interned at SPIN in college and got hired full-time after graduation in 1996, ultimately handling all of the pub’s music and entertainment marketing and advertising. Moved to The Source as national sales director and joined The Fader in 2003 as associate publisher. Promoted to publisher six months later.
Birthdate: March 15, 1974
Hometown: Lynbrook, New York
Education: B.S. in journalism, Indiana University, 1996
Marital status: Married with two kids
Media idol: Al Cohn (father), writer and editor at Newsday for 42 years. “Part of my editorial sensitivities definitely comes from the household I grew up in, with a newspaperman as a father. He taught me how to be passionate about something and then let everything else take care of itself.”
Favorite TV show: Boardwalk Empire
Guilty pleasure: Anything having to do with outer space
Last book read: Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
Twitter handle: @andycohn

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There wasn’t exactly a blueprint in the publishing industry for you to follow when you began to expand the Fader brand. Were there companies or visionaries in other industries that you modeled your approach after?
I don’t think so, because I think we just stayed really true to what The Fader‘s mission statement was when we first launched, which was being ahead of the curve in the discovery of music of all different genres. So, I think by staying true to that mission statement — and anything and everything we did relating to the brand had to run through that filter — the natural extension for us, being in the music space, was experiential, because what’s better than seeing live music? Being in that category, it was a very natural evolution for us. So, I think we have always just stuck to our guns. We haven’t tried to change with the times, and we haven’t tried to be something that we’re not. We just stayed very true to our original intent, and I think, 14 years later, to say that we still have the same mission statement that we did when we first launched is something that I’m definitely most proud of here.

You came up with the idea to distribute The Fader as a free PDF through iTunes. Why did you feel that was a good idea, and were you ever concerned it would cannibalize your print sales?
No, because iTunes is, in itself, an aggregator of extremely passionate and hard-core music fans. So, to get that exposure for The Fader brand in front of that specific audience was an enormous value for us, and we saw a huge lift in awareness and Web traffic, and all good things came of that. I think there was always somewhat of a concern about the cannibalization, but once we kind of let it go, we didn’t see any downslide in our print circulation. I think for us it was more of a marketing and exposure thing for the brand and, if anything, we saw an uptick in subscriptions after we did that. I think people saw it and were exposed to it and really just actually wanted to see the physical magazine.

“We haven’t tried to change with the times, and we haven’t tried to be something that we’re not.”

The Fader is still an independent magazine with a lot less money and resources than bigger brands. Why do you think that your mag has done so well and others haven’t? Is it just not possible for a big behemoth title to be nimble, or are they just making bad decisions?
Part of the reason why I came here was that I never believed in a lot of the traditional publication protocol and the typical publishing business model, so to speak, of driving circulation at all costs just to charge more for ad pages. I think that there are a lot of publications that grew circulation in any way, shape or form that they could, and then when all of that stuff started crashing around, they were just too exposed and unwilling to make the changes that probably would have needed to be pretty drastic in order for them to stay alive.

I think, to your point, a lot of them were just too large and too overexposed in the print world. For us, we again always treated The Fader as a brand first. And to an earlier point that I was talking about, we play to the strength of the medium. We saw a lot of other music publications trying to become websites and just becoming very busy and very formulaic. For us, we let our website be the website and let the magazine play to its own strengths, both from a visual — design, photography — and medium- to longer-form journalism standpoint. The approach that we’ve always taken is great content first, and then figure out how and where it goes second. And we’ve always been willing to let our readership play a role in that, because we’re not going to ever be married to one medium.

NEXT >> So What Do You Do, Jermaine Hall, Editor-in-Chief of Vibe?

Although print media is struggling, there are still countless college grads who want to enter the business. What advice would you give those courageous (or crazy) enough to want to publish their own magazine?
I would say to have a long-term plan and stick to it, and know that it’s not going to be easy, and it’s going to take time. But if you stay true to what that passion is and what you’re trying to do, eventually I believe you can find a successful way to publish as long as you’re open-minded, as well, and not overly committed to, say, having a print publication that comes out every month. I think it’s having the balance of mediums and approaching it across platforms. I think a lot of people get caught up on just trying to build Web traffic and posting things that aren’t really essential to the core of what they’re all about, writing to the lowest common denominator, etc. You now see sites and media properties that tweet about breaking news that has nothing to do with the core of their editorial platform. And that’s the stuff that may give you short-term eyeballs and short-term gain in traffic or circulation but, ultimately, you’re going to alienate any kind of core audience that came to you for what your original intent was.

With only a bimonthly publication schedule and so many other things going on, how do you ensure that the print magazine remains a fresh, must-read?
Building The Fader as a brand and creating that air around Fader‘s credibility in discovering new artists [has played a key role]. I mean, we were the first ones to ever write about Kanye West, The Strokes, The White Stripes, Drake, Frank Ocean. These are artists that had never had coverage anywhere before, and when they were on the cover of the magazine people had no idea who they were. So, having a magazine that can focus on its brand and the credibility of having put Kanye on when no one knew who he was, it’s helped build our brand to the point that when we put artists on the cover, there’s no predictability.

“You now see sites and media properties that tweet about breaking news that has nothing to do with the core of their editorial platform.”

The other angle — which is why, I think, Fader has carved out such a great lane for itself — is that we cover multiple genres of music. We’re not pigeonholed as a rap magazine; we’re not pigeonholed as an alternative music or indie rock music magazine, and I think that is really one of the keys to our success because we were doing that 14 years ago before the internet was what it is now. I think we just happened to do it around the same time that kids were now getting access to music on the Internet. So, the access to multiple genres and discovery of music through the digital age, so to speak, has really helped us, because we were really the first publication that credibly approached the discovery of music from a multiple-genre standpoint.

The Fader has won a bazillion awards, and you’ve won several personally as publisher. Which means more to you: the industry accolades or the tangible things, like newsstand sales, unique users, etc?
The awards are great, and I think the ASME nomination that we got for general excellence last year was really one of the things that has meant the most to me in my entire time at The Fader. We all know how passionate we are about The Fader; we know how passionate our readers are about The Fader. So, I think being in a room with The Atlantic and Vanity Fair was so mind-blowing to us and such an amazing pat on the back that we never really look for, and when we got that it was really just an incredible exclamation point on at least my own personal 10 years here.

NEXT >> So What Do You Do, Jermaine Hall, Editor-in-Chief of Vibe?

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

With YouTube becoming the first website to claim over 1 billion monthly unique visitors, Hulu monetizing its name-brand content through Hulu Plus and both Amazon and Netflix creating original films to rival the Hollywood studios, it’s pretty clear that Web video is here to stay.

Now, there’s Blip. Featuring series of every imaginable persuasion, Blip stands as the largest independently owned and operated video network in the world. And CEO Kelly Day, having joined the company in 2012 after successful runs in e-commerce, is determined to make the little-known but widely watched portal the next big player in entertainment.

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Name: Kelly Day
Position: CEO, Blip
Resume: Started at AOL, holding a variety of e-commerce positions, before moving on to The Knot as VP of e-commerce. Also oversaw digital media and commerce at Discovery Communications before joining Blip in spring of 2012.
Birthdate: September 4, 1971
Hometown: Pittsburgh, PA
Education: Penn State University
Marital status: Married
Media idol: “I don’t idolize people. We’re all human.”
Favorite TV shows: Hipsterhood, Girls, Game of Thrones
Guilty pleasure: Vampire Diaries
Last book read: Startup Life: Surviving and Thriving in a Relationship with an Entrepreneur by Brad Feld and Amy Batchelor
Twitter Handle: @itskellyday

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Blip Studios launched shortly after you joined the company last spring. How does that new component figure into the overall plans of the company?
I came to Blip, because I wanted to build a real consumer brand for original Web television, basically build a TV network for digital platforms. I’m a big believer that if you want to build a brand, you have to have something special, something exclusive for the audience. So, we set up Blip Studios as more of a virtual production company. Unlike a lot of other set-ups in L.A., we do not have formal studio space. We rent space as needed and do a lot of co-productions with other companies. So, Blip Studios is a production company, but it’s more of a virtual entity rather than an actual production studio.

We’re pretty ubiquitous also in terms of how we think about distribution. Most of our audience happens on blip.com and other Blip-operated properties, but we’re kind of an equal-opportunity distributor so we window content to YouTube, AOL, Yahoo and other places. We try and help content creators get the smartest distribution, to help them find audiences and to monetize the audience they already have.

What about Roku, Google TV and the whole set-top box end of things? How much of a part of Blip right now are those applications?
The audience growth there has been a little challenging. We haven’t seen a ton of people move in that direction. It’s not a big area for us, but we really like what the guys at Roku are doing; we think the platform is great. We’ve had some apps on Roku for the last couple of years, it is on our road map and we’re planning to come out with a new Roku App this year. That’s definitely a platform that we’re really interested in, and we will certainly continue to put some support and additional investment into it.

“I’m a big believer that if you want to build a brand, you have to have something special, something exclusive for the audience.”

Blip works with roughly 7,000 content creators to produce programming for 16 different channel categories. How are these partnerships set up?
We basically have a couple of different ways that we work with content creators. Probably the most common way is that they just come to our website; they apply. We have a pretty simple application process, and we have a human being actually watch your video and look at your application. We review the content; we rate it. And a lot of this — we’re not very apologetic about saying it — is kind of subjective. We’re looking for quality, good storytelling with character development. We’re looking for episodic content, because that is what we focus on. We’re looking for production values, content that is often TV-14 and above, because advertising is the primary way that we support ourselves, so TV-14 tends to be a little more brand safe. Once a content creator is accepted, they can go ahead and start uploading, and then we share the revenue with them 50-50.

More recently, we have done some other types of deals and created some other types of relationships with content creators. In a few cases, we have underwritten original content. An example of that is we did a show called The Gauntlet with our production partner Rooster Teeth Productions. It aired in the fourth quarter of 2012; we’re super happy with it. We were really fortunate in that we had a great brand, Geico, that came on board and sponsored it. And so we’re going to bring that back for a second season later this year.

More and more, we are taking bets on funding original content. Some of it is with a brand on board; some of it we are deficit funding, very selectively. But the message, I think, is we’re really flexible. We don’t have a boiler-plate way we work with content creators. We like to find the very best types of content. We work hard to curate it and have a point of view about it. And depending on the nature of the show, depending on who the content creators are, we put the specific deal together.

NEXT >> So What Do You Do, Janice Min, Editorial Director of The Hollywood Reporter?

In terms of Blip’s programming, is there a clear, consistent “Top Ten”?
Like any other television-related business, certainly there are some shows that are more popular than others. It’s probably more like a “Top 100.” We’re not overly reliant on views from five or 10 different shows. The top 100 shows generate the majority of our views, and there is a lot of seasonality of shows coming in and out of new episodes and hiatus. Fortunately for us, there isn’t really a spring and fall season. There’s constantly new shows coming on to the platform; there’s constantly dozens of shows releasing new episodes.

Tell us a bit more about one of your Top 100, The Chris Gethard Show?
Chris is fantastic. He’s been an amazing partner and he’s a great story. He’s had a fairly successful, more traditional TV career. He’s had a show on Comedy Central; he’s done some guest spots on The Office. He’s certainly one of those people who, if he wanted, could make a living exclusively working in linear TV. He does “The Chris Gethard Show” because he’s really, really passionate about it. He’s got an equally passionate, mainly young female audience. They love the show and they love him. He uses the studios of a New York public broadcaster where he does it on an agreed, low cost-per-hour basis. He’s super smart, and we’ve got a number of things we’d like to do with him moving forward.

Where does YouTube for Blip figure in terms of delivering viewers?
They’re in our top five. There are certain shows that we have that do well on YouTube, and it’s certainly an important part of our distribution strategy. At the same time, we don’t get an overwhelming number of our views from YouTube. Our brand has been built over the past seven years catering to maybe a different kind of audience. We actually don’t even see a critical audience overlap with YouTube. We see a lot of non-duplicated audience, actually.

What about competitors such as My Damn Channel, Revision 3 and Alloy when it comes to talent. Do you try to lock people up to exclusive arrangements?
It depends. We have some talent that we work exclusively, others that we work with on a non-exclusive basis. I think we’re in a really fortunate period right now where there is actually more amazing great storytelling and content being created than there is good, aggregated distribution. Everybody thinks that digital distribution and platforms are just ubiquitous, right? That there’s just an endless amount of distribution. And, while theoretically that is true, what there is not an endless supply of is really concentrated, aggregated audiences where content creators can go and find audiences at scale. So, I think we’re in a fortunate position right now where we see lots of great content created from people like My Damn Channel, with whom we have a great relationship.

“More and more, we are taking bets on funding original content.”

What about live vs. on-demand. How much does the former account for current Blip audience numbers?
On-demand is definitely the predominant source of views, and I don’t think it’s going anywhere. I think one of the reasons people like watching TV on digital platforms is that they cannot just take it with them and watch on a phone, but watch whenever they want.

In terms of real-time viewing, Blip does have shows for which we have tested appointment viewing. So for example, while we were doing The Gauntlet, we told the audience we would release a show every Thursday night at 10 o’clock. We did live Twitter chats and things like that every Thursday with the talent, hosts, some of the contestants, some of the people from Blip. We even had the Geico client in the chat room, and the audience showed up; they were there at 9:45, waiting for the show to start. So, I think there is room for both types of models, and I think there’s going to be a ton of testing and experimenting over the next couple of years.

Clearly, when you have a super-passionate fan base, combined with an advertising supported model, where you really do need to accumulate audiences, there are certainly opportunities to attract audiences for specific dates and times on digital platforms.

NEXT >> So What Do You Do, Janice Min, Editorial Director of The Hollywood Reporter?

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Richard Horgan is co-editor of FishbowlLA.

Scott Carney got involved in reporting on the body part business through an unexpected personal experience — he was responsible for exhuming the body of an American student who had died on a class trip to India, under his supervision as a teacher.

Despite the fact that buying and selling body parts is illegal in many parts of the world, business is booming. Classroom skeletons that sit in many of the United States’ most esteemed universities have been traced to grave robbers in India. Tsunami survivors living in refugee camps in India are selling their kidneys for a fraction of the dollar that Europeans and Americans are paying for them.

In his new book The Red Market (William Morrow) Carney goes out on a limb to report on these nefarious deals, expanding on his work for magazines like Wired, Fast Company and Mother Jones. And his diligent research and willingness to take risks proves that, even in an era of watered down blogs and regurgitated news cycles, investigative journalism is alive and well.

How do you approach reporting on criminal activity?

Most everyone in the world thinks that they are genuinely a good person, from the most hardened mafia don, to the black market person, to the cop who brutally beats some innocent victim. Everyone has a way they rationalize that what they do is a good thing. The trick is going into the interview empathizing with your subject and trying to see the world from their view. Say I’m talking to a kidney broker. They don’t really think about themselves as a person who kidnaps someone and steals a kidney. They look at themselves as lifesaving individuals that bring organs to people who might die otherwise.

Is it a dangerous job?
A lot of these people are doctors, adoption coordinators. They are a professional class of people who are involved in a black market trade. They are not necessarily thugs with guns who go around shooting at random journalists.

In the story about discovering a raid on stolen bones, you got tips from the local journalists and police in India. How do you work with local police and local newspapers to get your story?
The bone story was originally reported by Reuters and listed the location of the bone factory. It’s not that difficult. When news reporters go into the field, they are not necessarily looking for crafting an interesting feature about a story. They go in for the quick, dirty reporting: Here are the facts on the ground and we’re out of here and onto the next story. They don’t necessarily see the potential for a larger piece, so I found a lot of leads in local newspapers.

“The trick is going into the interview empathizing with your subject and trying to see the world from their view.”

The question about police is tricky in India. Sometimes they are amazing to work with; sometimes they are horrible to work with. If you have a cop who feels like it is his duty or his honor is at stake with a certain crime, then he will go to the ends of the earth to solve it. These guys want to be like superheroes. And if you get a superhero cop, they are usually very helpful. But a lot of the police are corrupt and don’t do anything. It is sort of like a potluck when you get out there.

Have you ever had to bribe anyone?
I don’t believe in bribing people; I think it muddies the waters. The worst part of paying somebody to speak to a journalist is that you start creating this economy for stories, and no journalist who follows up on your work is going to be able to get the story without bribing the local people.

How do you ensure accuracy in your reporting?
For most of these [stories], I am present. I went into the surrogacy clinic. I saw the women on the beds. I’ve met people with obvious kidney extraction scars and I’ve seen medical files. I do a lot of background work to be sure that, as much as possible, everything is accurate. And, since a lot of these were magazine stories already, I had the enormous benefit of having a fact checker for at least half of the book who would go through and actually call up every single source and look at every single report.

Have you ever had to lie and say you were shopping for a kidney or that you wanted to adopt a baby?
That is something that I have had trouble going forward with. Obviously that is the easiest way to do it. To go forward and say, “Hey, I’m a customer or I want to sell my kidney.” But then at some point you have to reveal that you are not lying, and if I want to fact-check the story and have it verified later, no one is going to come forward and say “Yeah, that is true.” I believe that it is better to tell upfront who you are and why you are talking with them and get them to talk with you despite that. Occasionally, I will send some probing emails out first where I don’t reveal who I am, but I don’t say I’m not who I am. So it will be like, “Hey, can I buy a kidney at your hospital?” If they would say that to anyone, then I figure that is not subterfuge. That is just their marketing plan.

“The worst part of paying somebody to speak to a journalist is that you start creating this economy for stories.”

You tracked down a child who was kidnapped from a family in India and adopted by an American family who went through what they thought was a legitimate agency. How did you decide to tell the American family that their adopted son was stolen?
I couldn’t see a way to do the story and not tell the American family that they had adopted a kidnapped child. I went there when I was about 99 percent sure that I was accurate. I had done three months of ground research in India — going through court documents, talking to covert sources, police, you name it. I was really running the length and width of Chennai to be sure that everything was accurate. I was in a very difficult position, because we were dealing with a minor. We were dealing with a family that didn’t know that they were involved in some sort of trafficking, and I had this moment when I was parked outside their house in a rented car where I didn’t know what to do.

I just really worried that I could ruin a kid’s life, but on the other hand, this kid’s life has already been irrevocably changed by these adoption agencies. So I went in and I knocked on the door and I did my best given that situation. Obviously, I was crossing a line that a lot of journalists are uncomfortable crossing and I was uncomfortable crossing, but there was no other way to tell that story. Since I finished the final manuscript of the book, we have gotten word from the FBI that the DNA test was processed by an Indian laboratory, and there is a genetic link between the child that I saw in the Midwest and the family in India. So, I am positive it was the same kid.

Scott Carney’s tips for conducting dangerous investigative reports:
1. Make sure you have the assignment first. “Don’t go on one of these stories just on a lark, because you are going to invest a lot of resources into this, and if there is no guarantee that it is going to be published then you are going to be in a world of financial trouble.”

2. Empathize with your subject. “There is always a logic to why they do what they do. You need to understand what that logic is before you go in there, or else you are going to sound like you are trying to uncover their horrible crime.”

3. Accept uncertainty. “I am never 100 percent sure that I will get what I want, but I will be upfront with the magazine about this. I usually give them a best case scenario, a second best case scenario, and a third case scenario for what sort of information I’ll be able to get back.”

NEXT >>

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Dianna Dilworth is an eBookNewser contributor.

If you think print pubs have had it bad, just look at the R.I.P. list in the music category: Blender (March 2009), Giant (November 2009), Spin (December 2012). But, thankfully for urban music and entertainment fans, one iconic brand was able to rise from the ashes.

Within months after folding in 2009, Vibe — founded by producer, composer and all-around musical genius Quincy Jones — was re-launched by new owners looking to infuse it with fresh content for the digital age and new editorial blood, namely EIC Jermaine Hall.

“I’ve always been so close to the brand. I interned here in grad school and my first gig was here in the online department,” Hall told us. “So, I knew what it had been when it started, where it was when it closed, and I just felt like I really knew where it needed to go. I felt like I had the master plan.”

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Name: Jermaine Hall
Position: Editor-in-chief of Vibe
Resume: Started as an editorial assistant at the trade magazine Civil Engineering. Moved to Vibe to run the digital department before becoming features editor at Hook.com. At The Source, ascended the ranks from associate music editor to music editor and, ultimately, features editor. Served as executive editor and editor-in-chief at King before rejoining Vibe in 2009.
Birthday: October 10
Hometown: Queens, New York
Education: B.A. (1995) and M.A. (1997) in journalism from Iona College
Marital status: Married, with a 5-year-old
Media idol: Mark Golin. “What he was able to do with Maxim is really incredible because, not only did it spawn a whole bunch of offshoots, but it changed the voice of a lot of magazines. They started to get a little lighter and more humorous.”
Favorite TV shows: Revenge and Homeland
Guilty pleasure: reality show Love and Hip Hop
Last book read: The Way You Wear Your Hat: Frank Sinatra and the Lost Art of Livin’ by Bill Zehme
Twitter handle: @JermaineHall

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What were you doing when you got the call to take the helm at Vibe?
King had closed down, and I was actually working on Puff Daddy’s interview for Playboy, which I was really psyched to do just because we’ve worked on so many stories together throughout my career. And then I got the call from Brett Wright, who I used to work with at Hook.com, a hip-hop website. He was like, “Hey, we just bought Vibe, and I think you have the right sensibilities to make it happen.” I came in and had a conversation, talked terms, the usual, and then everything matched up. Everything that I thought the brand needed to be at this state and point matched up with what they wanted to do.

“Being editor-in-chief is a lot of schmoozing; it’s a lot of fixing relationships.”

How does the new Vibe differ from the old one?
The first thing that we did when I got here was to really have people understand that Vibe.com really needed to be the hub of the business. That was first and foremost, and that was going to be the driving force of this brand in this digital age. Then, step two was just to hire the right people who really understood digital but also had a good amount of magazine experience, so that we could still keep the magazine at a high level and keep producing the content that the Vibe reader is used to consuming.

Speaking of hiring the right people, obviously with the magazine closing, there were editors who lost their jobs. Did you consider bringing any of them back on?
Yeah, some of them actually came back. Rob Kenner, who has been with the brand since the test issue, was one of the first people who came back. For one, his history with the brand is incredible. He might be one of the only people on this planet who has been with Vibe from day one, up until recently, when he finally left. So, he was the guy who kinda knew where all the bodies were buried, his contacts were insane, and his knowledge of the brand was pretty much invaluable really. Then I wanted to make sure I brought through a music editor who, one, really understood digital but, again, had some magazine experience and who was in between this new generation (generation “we share” as I like to call them) but also understood the music and the culture that’s been associated with Vibe for the last 20 years. So, I think I’ve found that person: John Kennedy has done a great job thus far.

What advice can you give to other editors who are looking to position themselves to become an editor-in-chief during their careers?
I think it’s just about, whatever position you’re at, excelling at that and mastering that position. And then, once you have that down, I think it’s just really starting to expand. A lot of things that come with being editor-in-chief aren’t necessarily drilled down into the day-to-day tasks. It’s a lot of schmoozing; it’s a lot of fixing relationships; it’s a lot of bartering; it’s a lot of people skills, I would say. It’s really going out there to be the ambassador of the brand on all levels. And that doesn’t necessarily come from being the strongest writer, it just really comes from people skills and the contacts and the relationships there that you’ve been able to build over your career. So, I think it’s knowing that it’s more than just writing and more than just editing at this level.

NEXT >> So What Do You Do, Dylan Howard, Editor-in-Chief of Celebuzz?

In considering the Web, how do you keep the print magazine relevant now that it’s bimonthly and there are so many music blogs and sites online?
We try to make every issue an event. I think that’s what you have to do with a bimonthly. There’s no way you can compete with the monthlies, and there’s no way you can compete with the weeklies. So, each issue has to almost have a coffee table feel to it. We have to create these undeniable moments for the consumer so that when the impulse buyer walks by the newsstand, and they see the front page, they can’t help but to get it. But to drill down into that question a little bit more, I just try to theme-out every single issue. I try to concentrate on one specific theme, and then whatever’s going on in the space and in the culture, we try to pick out what fits best into that theme.

Speaking of covers, the October 2012 issue featured Ke$ha and sparked a ton of controversy as she was the first white woman on a Vibe cover. Why’d you do it?
Vibe is always going to be rooted in hip-hop and R&B, but I do think that the brand lends itself to cover pop and to cover more mainstream subjects. And I think that if we do it in a way that isn’t too jarring, I think the readers will accept it and will go with it. I think that the core reason for this blending is because I think the Vibe reader that we speak to today — the 18- to 34-year-old and specifically the people on the younger side of that spectrum — listens to music a lot differently than how we listen to music. All the genre walls have come down. Now, you just have these kids who listen to music, period, whether that’s hip hop, R&B, pop, rock… They have very broad tastes. It kinda reminds me of how the young generation coming up in the 80s listened to music. There was a time when people listened to Phil Collins, Madonna, Public Enemy, LL Cool J; it was just a hodge-podge of artists, and it seems like it’s going back to that.

“We try to make every issue an event.”

What is one of the most challenging aspects of working with musicians who are often notoriously fickle and temperamental?
I would say access. Because of social media and because these artists now have their own voice, it’s like “I’m an artist and I want to get a message out. I don’t need to wait for a magazine to interview me, I don’t need to wait to go on radio, I don’t need to wait to go on a television program — I can just say it right now. I can say it on my Twitter account; if there’s a picture that I want to put out there, I’ll go to Instagram and do it right away.” So, I’d say one of the challenges that we face is getting the amount of time that we need to really craft a good story or put together a fantastic package.

Vibe‘s 20th anniversary is this year. In your opinion, what has been the most pivotal moment in the magazine’s history?
Speaking to my experience being a fan of the brand and also working at the brand, I think it was pretty pivotal when Alan Light was editor-in-chief… He was covering the right people; he was covering moments that were so important to the culture. It was like ’95, ’96, and there was so much going on in the culture at that time, and he was able to pretty much document everything. We weren’t in the age of digital, where we could just go online and read something, and I think Alan’s documentation of the culture during his run was a really intricate part of Vibe‘s history.

NEXT >> So What Do You Do, Dylan Howard, Editor-in-Chief of Celebuzz?

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

More than 15 years of research, at least 1,200 interviews and hundreds upon hundreds of travel miles — that was the investment Isabel Wilkerson made in writing The Warmth of Other Suns. The book was released in 2010 to fanfare from critics who lauded its marriage of historical accuracy and humanity. And readers weren’t scared off by its 600-plus pages, pushing it to the top of the venerable list of New York Times bestsellers.

That’s largely thanks to Wilkerson’s background in narrative journalism. The Warmth of Other Suns tells the stories of men and women who lived through the Great Migration, when 6 million African-Americans moved from their homes in the South to new promise in the North.

“If I’d have known it was going to take 15 years, I don’t know that I would’ve even tried it,” admits Wilkerson, who is the first black female journalist to win the Pulitzer Prize. “But by that time, I had to finish it. I had to push through.”

Where did the idea for the book come from and what was your initial vision?

It’s hard to pinpoint one moment, because something this big doesn’t come to you overnight. I am the daughter of people who were part of this great migration, who had lived it but never talked about it. I grew up in Washington, D.C., surrounded by people who were from beautifully predictable parts of the South: South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, Virginia. Yet, no one said anything like, “Remember when we came up during The Great Migration?” Once I became a journalist and traveled all over the country, it became clear to me that there were these streams of people who had migrated from different parts of the South. I knew it wasn’t going to be a scholarly text; it was going to be an oral history in which I interviewed lots of people.

“I always go into interviews with a great sense of gratitude for the courage it takes to share one’s story.”

How long was your writing process from start to finish and what roadblocks did you encounter on the way?

I spent two years going from city to city auditioning people, you might say. I went to senior centers, churches; there are Baptist churches in New York where everybody is from South Carolina and Catholic churches in L.A. where everybody is from Louisiana. There are multiple Mississippi clubs in Chicago. I tried to find the oldest members of this migration and capture a range of experiences. I had several criteria, but, most importantly, I wanted them to have been adults at the time of their migration. I wanted them to have made their own crucial decision to leave. That meant that some people were up in age when I found them.

I actually found someone, a WWI veteran, who turned 100 during the interview process. That also meant that there were illnesses, which was my biggest obstacle. There were times that I had to travel to Los Angeles or New York, and when I’d get there I’d be looking forward to spending time with them and listening to their stories, and instead I would have to go to the hospital. There were times when I ended up having to take someone to dialysis instead of meeting with them at home. One of them was in a coma. One of the men I chose, the one from Florida, was keenly aware that he was speaking to unborn generations of people. He took it very seriously. At one point he said, ‘If you don’t hurry up and finish this book, I’m gonna be proofreading from heaven.’ And he was right. He didn’t live to see the book.

NEXT >> Hey, How’d You Land a TV Series Based on Your Atlantic Article, Kate Bolick?

You interviewed more than 1,200 individuals. What skills do you possess that made people feel comfortable sharing their stories and information?

I always go into interviews with a great sense of gratitude for the courage it takes to share one’s story, particularly one so painful and heartbreaking, things that they had deep within themselves and had just gotten to the point of being able to share. So I think being an empathetic listener, someone who was truly wanting to understand what they had endured — those are things I think they could pick up and sense in me. I also think they felt I had a sense of connection with them.

Race is such an obscure issue. People talk circles around it, but shy away from addressing it directly. Yet this book has been widely celebrated by critics and readers alike. What do you think that says about America’s readiness to honestly confront race-related issues?

The book does not to my recollection use the word ‘racism.’ It’s not that I don’t believe it exists but, for the purposes of the book, I wanted people to experience what [others] went through and endured. The phrase that I use most commonly in it is ‘caste system.’ I believe it’s a more complete and all-encompassing way to describe what’s happening in this country when it comes to race. It’s more than race — it’s a value applied to what people look like, an artificial hierarchy that restricted and limited people and controlled what they could do for a living. Living in that kind of suffocating world is more than just race, and I wanted people to imagine what it was like to be these people at that time.

“Something that takes a long time to do requires a level of devotion that can’t be manufactured.”

A New York Times bestseller isn’t bad for a first-time author. Were you at all surprised by how well it was received and do you plan to write another?
I had written narrative journalism, primarily for The New York Times, and people find that kind of storytelling does really captivate them. I believed if people would just read the book, they would fall in love with it. It’s been extremely fulfilling, especially to hear so many stories from people whose ancestors experienced the same thing, no matter where they came from. I’m a writer, so obviously writing is what I’m compelled to do. It is who and what I am. But the book took off to such a degree that it has literally taken over my life and I am on the road all the time. There are actually engagements booked into 2014. That said, I do have plans for the next book, but I haven’t had a clear space to devote time to that one thing. But I will soon.

Isabel Wilkerson’s Tips for Transitioning from a Journalist to an Author:
1. Find something that you’re passionate about. “If there’s something that needs to be said that you’re not seeing it being said anywhere else, then I think that’s what will propel you through the more difficult times. Something that takes a long time to do requires a level of devotion that can’t be manufactured.”

2. Respect the authenticity of your interviews. “When you’re spending a large amount of time with people, it becomes a partnership. They’ve made the decision to open their hearts and their memories to you, so you owe them the gift of deep interest and concern. Let them know that you will do right by the story that they’ve told; that means being truthful, honest and respectful. It doesn’t mean covering over anything. In fact, if they share with you, they want these things to be known.”

3. Say something that matters. “There are so many things that need to be said, that deserve inquiry in our world today. That’s what will help you feel it’s worth the sacrifice you’re going to have to make.”

NEXT >> Hey, How’d You Land a TV Series Based on Your Atlantic Article, Kate Bolick?

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.”

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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.”

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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.