Nothing better represents the holy grail of social media achievement than working for Twitter. And, for Mark Luckie, becoming the site’s manager of journalism and news is just the latest in a line of sweet social media gigs.

The author of The Digital Journalist’s Handbook held positions at Los Angeles Times, EW and Center for Investigative Reporting before selling his uber-popular blog 10,000 Words to Mediabistro’s parent company, WebMediaBrands, in 2010.

Now at Twitter, Luckie says he’s working to take the No. 2 social media platform in the world (and how we use it) to even higher echelons of greatness, including making it easier for us to integrate audio, video and graphics into the stream of conversation. And, while Twitter is increasing the prominence of non-text multimedia, Luckie says it all comes back to those basic 140 characters.

Let’s go back a little. How and why did you first launch 10,000 Words?
There was one camp that was speaking about online journalism in general but not really talking about the technology that affected it, and then there was the other camp that was talking about technology but not talking about it in a way that journalists could understand and process it. So, I saw the need for that, and really wanted to fill that void for journalists like me who were just beginning to understand technology and wanted to hear about it in a way that spoke to them, that was simple, and most importantly, that they could take something away from it and then go on to do great things in journalism.

“The most important trait beyond technology is being able to communicate with people.”

You scored the ultimate coup for many bloggers, and that is getting big enough to be bought out. Was it always your intention to eventually sell 10,000 Words, and how can other bloggers make their sites attractive enough to do the same?
It was never my intention to sell the blog. I thought about it in some of the later years, but I really felt like I wanted to keep control of it. I was thinking about advertising first, but I didn’t want to be beholden to advertisements and making certain numbers of pages views. But there came a time when the blog grew bigger than what I could do myself. It was getting tons of traffic, tons of page views, and getting shared everywhere, and I wanted to do more than what I was currently doing. The great thing about Mediabistro is that it allowed me to hand it off to a group that could take it to that next level that I couldn’t do by myself.

If anything, the things I prepared for in the sale was to make sure that I knew who my audience was, to look at the numbers. What are my pages views? What are my uniques? What is my bounce rate? What is my social media presence? How many Twitter followers do I have? How engaged are they? These are the questions that I asked myself, so I knew my self-worth before moving on and presenting the blog to WebMediaBrands.

You have to think of your blog as a business if you want to take it to that next level. So, you need to understand what is the product that you’re selling, who can you pitch it to, and not just say ‘This is my baby. This is something personal for me,’ but also understanding that this is a [viable product] to other people. But you have to understand that value first.

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You then became social media manager for the Washington Post. Besides using social media, obviously, what’s one skill or trait that someone needs to succeed in a position like that?
I think the most important trait beyond technology and all of the data skills and that good stuff is being able to communicate with people. If you don’t know how to communicate with people, or you don’t know how to foster conversations, keep those conversations going, understand what people want, I think you sort of do yourself a disservice. Anyone who’s in that world can tell you that it starts with really great communication skills. Part of even the managerial role — learning how to communicate with people inside the newsroom as well as Washington Post‘s readers in the social media space — that sort of really grew my knowledge and my ability to tell a story through social media.

Now, you’re at Twitter. What does a manager of journalism and news do exactly?
It’s working with journalism organizations to come up with creative ways to use the platform beyond just the basics. I think a lot of journalism organizations really understand how Twitter works, but how do you take it to the next level? How do you create some great engagement? So, coming up with those ideas myself, working with journalism organizations to do so, and working with them to roll out products that we’re working on, like expanded search and our Twitter Cards. There are a lot of things that journalism organizations want from Twitter, and I’m sort of like the inside man who’s working on behalf of journalists to say, ‘Hey this is what journalists need to be able to do their jobs on Twitter.’

What creative uses of Twitter have you witnessed coming out of the digital journalism community that made you say, ‘I wish I had thought of that!’?
I have that reaction all the time. I actually keep a list of all of the great things that journalists and non-journalists are doing in the Twitter space. I love live chats. I love that journalists have taken on conducting live chats with readers with no sort of interference or handling by the company itself. I love taking hashtags and taking them to the next level, really ask questions via hashtags. BET’s 106 & Park, in particular, is really good at fostering conversations with hashtags and not just sort of attaching them at the end. I love what The Wall Street Journal is doing in terms of pushing graphics through Twitter, realizing that Twitter is not just a text community. That’s what it was when it originated, but now there is so many media that you can share via Twitter and really take advantage of.

“There are tons of ‘gurus’ out there, but you have to be the one that’s done something different to separate yourself from the pack.”

What sort of new products will Twitter be rolling out in the near future to help us produce and share our content and engage with audiences better?
Those new products are coming, and I have seen what they are, and I can tell you that they are amazing. I just can’t tell you what they are, because we are still working on them, but you are seeing some of them roll out already like the Twitter Cards and a new iPhone app. I guarantee you that they are working on various things that are just really, truly amazing that are going to transform the news.

Putting on your futurist hat, how do you see Twitter impacting journalism in the next two to three years?
I think journalists are becoming much more sophisticated in the way that they use Twitter. It isn’t the purely promotional tool that it used to be, when journalists would just sort of [push out links] and sort of wait for an audience to come to them. But what we are seeing now and what you’ll see much more in the future is journalists engaging around content, using it as a reporting source, using it as a way to engage with readers and engage with sources versus just listening to them. Some journalists are lurkers, sort of watching from the sidelines. And that’s okay, but I think you’ll find a much more engaging experience if you actually interact with people via Twitter. The more people do that, the more value they get from the platform, so you are going to see much more of that in the future.

Luckie’s Tips for Getting a Social Media Job
1. Know how to sell yourself to companies… “Really push yourself out there and say ‘I’m really talented at social media. Here’s what I have to offer.’ You should have a portfolio and be sort of promotional and let people know how great you are.”

2. but back it up with a strong portfolio. “Talk the talk and walk the walk. Have some really great engaging social media profiles. Some people say ‘I’m a social media guru;’ then, you look at their Twitter feed and it’s just a bunch of links. So, it’s really about showing ‘What’s different about me? What am I doing on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram? How am I using the ecosystem of social media to really propel my message or the message of others?'”

3. Don’t be just another social media “guru.” “Get out there and take the time to build out your ideas, because people are looking for innovators; they are looking for people who are doing things differently. There are tons of ‘gurus’ and ‘mavens’ out there, but you have to be the one that’s done something different in order to separate yourself from the pack.”

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Jennifer Pullinger a freelance writer in Fairfax, Va. Visit her at www.jenniferlpullinger.com and on Twitter @JLPullinger.

In the world of celebrity journalism, few stars are rising faster than that of Celebuzz editor-in-chief Dylan Howard. Count the scoops: Justin Beiber’s scuffle with a paparazzo, the Desperate Housewives feud, and let’s not forget that leak of Community star Chevy Chase ranting on show creator Dan Harmon. It was Celebuzz who posted the recording online — five months later, Harmon was canned.

Yet, Howard says the BUZZMEDIA site will continue to make waves not just for its original reporting, but for the way its stories are covered. He says declining sales for typically negative tabloid stories show that users are hungry for more in-depth coverage of their favorite stars, and Celebuzz also has plans for a live video webcast beginning later this summer.

“This represents a substantial investment in the site and our people. Our users will also be a central part of the programming we produce, too,” the native Australian told us by email. “This is not just a Web-only operation. We are evolving into a full multimedia, multi-platform operation and will be broadcasting content from two new, state-of-the-art studios, one on the Sunset strip and the other in the heart of Manhattan.”

Watch out, TMZ. There’s a kinder, gentler outlet in the building.

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Name: Dylan Howard
Position: Editor-in-chief, Celebuzz
Resume: Cadet reporter for The Geelong Advertiser, covering sports. Entertainment reporter at Reuters Television in New York City and on-air reporter at the Seven Network in Australia. Senior executive editor of Radar Online and Star magazine. Recruited by BUZZMEDIA to lead Celebuzz in March. Taught television journalism at Monash University in Australia. Regularly appears as a celebrity and justice pundit on HLN’s Jane Velez-Mitchell, Dr. Drew and Fox News’ Justice with Judge Jeanine. Four-time L.A. Press Club and National Entertainment Journalism Awards finalist.
Birthday: January 19
Hometown: Port city of Geelong, located in the state of Victoria, Australia
Education: Bachelor of Arts in journalism and politics from Deakin University
Marital status: Single
Media idol: “Too many to name.”
Favorite TV shows: The Good Wife, Scandal, Revenge and The Newsroom
Guilty pleasure: Real Housewives. “So bad, it’s good television.”
Last book read: Bruce Guthrie’s Man Bites Murdoch
Twitter handle: @dylanshoward

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How did you obtain your biggest scoops?
Like any news organization, we don’t comment on sourcing. That said, one thing I would like to mention… it’s not just about the scoop at Celebuzz… If you look at the audience, users are traversing from site to site each day. It is our mission at Celebuzz to be the site where they become squatters.

How will we do that? We must provide the most comprehensive coverage of the top 40-plus stories each day that are being aggregated by our rivals. I want our stories to go beyond the headline. That sounds jingoistic, but there’s method behind it. When you look around the Web, the top showbiz stories are all covered the same way, packaged like Associated Press copy. For instance, when Jason Trawick became a co-conservator for the affairs of fiancée Britney Spears in April, not even The Washington Post explained what is a co-conservatorship. I don’t know what a co-conservator is, or what it does. If I am asking the question, I bet the 21-year-old college student in Missouri who reads our site is too.

What will make Celebuzz successful is putting these stories into context, often through the use of expert analysis. With that post, we will be dialing a lawyer into the post via Skype for a live chat to dish the 411. Because of that, our readership will extend well beyond the 9.6 million unique readers we had in April, as measured by Google Analytics. We’re on the way, but we’re not there yet.

“It is our mission at Celebuzz to be the site where readers become squatters.”

Parent company BUZZMEDIA has been described as a “kinder, gentler TMZ,” managed by several people who used to work with Harvey Levin. Are there certain kinds of celebrity stories that you will not touch, no matter how many hits might come from them?
I have a voracious appetite to want to break big stories. Therefore, any exclusive that comes across my desk, it would be remiss not to take a serious look at it. But, like any news organization, there are considerations that are made behind-the-scenes. That said, we are more People than Radar when it comes to reporting a so-called scandalous story. Take the recent allegations swirling around John Travolta, as one example. We all covered it, but not in the explicit and tawdry detail that others, like Radar, did.

Again, it comes back to depth. As we add key editorial personnel to our newsroom, our readers will see a noticeable change in how Celebuzz covers such stories. For example, with the benefit of a features desk, I would have commissioned a writer to investigate how Travolta could survive the scandal in Hollywood, or a narrative on the man whom the most serialized tabloid figures turn to in times of crisis, famed lawyer Marty Singer, or a piece that answered the question “Will the scandal hurt Travolta’s career?” These were the questions we were all asking. Celebuzz will therefore provide answers.

Does that make us a “kinder and gentler” TMZ? It certainly makes us more authoritative, and, even though I admire Harvey Levin and what he has been able to achieve with the TMZ brand, I don’t view the site as a competitor to Celebuzz.

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

You’ve cultivated some great sources in Hollywood. What are the keys to gaining the trust of a high-powered publicist or someone close to a celebrity?
Publicists are important and sources can lead you to the pot of gold, but finding a path direct to the source can often be the most rewarding route. Case in point: Charlie Sheen.

As Sheen embarked on a 24/7 roller-coaster ride of tirades and rants, I was the one journalist who was actually there, documenting the scandal as it happened. Indeed, it’s often forgotten, but before he spoke with the Today show, Piers Morgan Tonight, Dateline, TMZ, the Howard Stern Show, 20/20 aired its special and he took to UStream, Sheen sat down with Radar for a no-holds barred interview.

Being that close to the epicenter of a story was a remarkable. To understand how I landed it, we need to go back to October 26 of 2010, when Sheen was hospitalized after an incident with a high-class escort. After a little research, I hit gold, sourcing Sheen’s phone number from another source. When I called his cell phone, his personal assistant Rick Calamaro, told me Sheen wouldn’t be commenting. Unperturbed, I sent Sheen many more text messages, offering him that time-honored reporter’s standby: a chance to put forth his side of the story. Eventually it paid off and I got replies from the man himself.

Our unlikely pairing continued through text message conversations over the next few months. When Sheen was rushed to the emergency room suffering ‘severe abdominal pains,’ 24 hours later he turned to me to break his silence after it was announced his bosses had persuaded him to check into rehab. Going straight to the source can deliver dividends; if not, at the very least, it gives you a good story to tell your pals at the pub.

“I’ve seen a number of American-born journalists in Hollywood who have a fear of hard work.”

Does Celebuzz.com ever pay sources for stories?
As a principle, we believe payment should not be made for interviews or information. I think it is dangerous and undesirable to pay people to make serious and often unproven allegations against anyone. Money should not be a motivating factor in someone telling his or her story. However, I believe there are occasions when we are justified in paying a licensing fee for photographs, documents or video. In that scenario, we are no different than network news divisions, Entertainment Tonight, TMZ or even People, who like us, license photos from various agencies every day. Overall, though, we are able to break news based on the strength of our staff and the size of our audience.

You are the latest Australian journalist to find major success in Hollywood. In your opinion, what makes, proportionally, so many Down Under-bred journalists skilled at this side of the business?
Regardless of what went wrong in the practice of journalism at the News of the World, Rupert Murdoch’s footprints are still all over journalism in Britain and Australia. He shaped a lot of journalists’ careers, including this one. If you’re an Aussie working in journalism here, there’s a fair chance you worked for Murdoch there. Most of these titles have a dense concentration on celebrity-based scoops and populist news. From the outset, it was drilled into this young journalist that, to sell newspapers, you need to break stories. Therefore, it became part of my DNA. With the exception of a handful of rogue Brits, the Murdoch empire has produced a prodigious number of news breakers, who incidentally, do it the right way.

The other thing is hard work. I’ve seen a number of American-born journalists in Hollywood who have a fear of it. It staggers me. Recently, I’ve had people apply for jobs, go through the process, be selected for employment, and then when finite expectations are outlined, they bail. [Americans are] clock watchers, too. I used to sit in the newsroom waiting for the paper to hit the presses to ensure my stories were updated to the minute. No editor likes staffers who clock off at 5pm. We are in a 24/7 news cycle.

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.

Ever flip through your favorite magazines and notice the same bylines in every issue? Like, a writer who penned a Brett Favre profile for GQ also has a feature in Vanity Fair the same month, or that A-list writer who seems to get every cover story for Esquire, Essence and O.

Well, while it might appear that top editors and writers have a secret club where they’ll only work with each other, the truth is no one starts his career writing for Rolling Stone or New York. The five veteran scribes we spoke with say it takes years to build up a reputation and the trust of mega magazines ___ and once they got to the top, there are several key things they did to stay there.

“If you haven’t read three to six issues, you’re not ready to pitch.” — Aliya S. King

King’s ascent in the freelance hierarchy is a unique one. The contributor to Vibe, Essence and Latina (just to name a few) started off her professional career as a teacher. King eventually decided to focus on her writing career and has three books to her name, including the 2008 Faith Evans memoir, Keep the Faith.

Often doling out advice to aspiring freelancers on her website, King’s first piece of advice is a simple one. “Before you even think about sending a pitch to a new magazine, make sure you have done your homework ahead of time,” said King. “If you haven’t studied the magazine for three to six months, you aren’t ready to pitch the magazine and you’re probably not going to have success with it.”

While there’s no consensus on how to pitch, most of the veterans we spoke with agree that new freelancers or those pitching an outlet for the first time should err on the conservative side by including as much detail as possible. “I don’t do informal pitches,” said King. “And sometimes, I’ve worked as an editor as well, and I’ve never appreciated someone sending me an email saying, ‘Hey, I’m thinking about writing a story about this. What do you think?'”

“Pay attention to formatting.” — Daniel Duane

Daniel Duane, contributing editor for Men’s Journal, contributor to Bon App_?tit and New York Times Magazine, and author of several books, followed a similar approach by hitting the newsstands and buying any magazine that he was interested in writing for. “I think there were a couple of years where I probably subscribed to 15-20 magazines at any time,” he said. “It’s not like I read every word of every one, but every single one that came, I read the table of contents, looked at the format of the stories and thought about the format. You want to be able to develop that feel.”

“You will have communicated something neat, which is I get it. That alone is a big success, just to show that you’re really paying attention.”

Duane says that paying close attention to the details could be considered a win, even if an editor passes on your pitch. “Let’s say you finally got an editor at Islands magazine to actually pay attention to your pitches. You’ve been calling them, and you sent them emails, and you finally sent an email with some pitches. You have their attention for the moment and here’s your great Orkney Islands pitch, not knowing they are about to do an Orkney Islands double issue.” Although they will likely pass on your idea, he says, “you will have communicated something neat, which is I get it. I totally get your magazine and I totally get what you’re looking for. That alone is a big success, just to show that you’re really paying attention.”

“Focus on producing quality copy on a consistent basis.” — Mike Sager

Dubbed the “beat poet of American journalism,” Mike Sager entered the freelance magazine world in 1984 after working at the Washington Post. The 2010 winner of the American Society of Magazine Editors’ National Magazine award for profile writing is a writer-at-large for Esquire, a former writer-at-large for GQ, and former contributing editor for Rolling Stone.

Yet, Sager is probably best known for his Rolling Stone feature on the late porn star John Holmes and his role in the 1981 Wonderland murders. Instead of worrying why he was only getting $2,000 from Rolling Stone for a story that took him eight months to complete, Sager focused on making it a great story.

“You have to think about every piece being as amazing as you can make it,” he explained. “I don’t get to always choose what I do, but I just think I’m going to kick the ass of any assignment that I get because I got it and my name is going on it. Then the money follows.”

The money truly did follow for Sager as his piece on Holmes served as the inspiration for a pair of Hollywood blockbusters in Boogie Nights and Wonderland. “Over time, that $2,000 has translated into a lot more, but at the time, that’s not what I’m thinking about. At the time, I’m thinking about the work.”

“Don’t pester editors that much.” — Anthony DeCurtis

If Anthony DeCurtis has learned anything about staying power over his 30 years as a freelance writer, it’s the importance of being likeable. “One thing I do is I don’t pester editors that much,” said the Rolling Stone regular, University of Pennsylvania English professor, and author of several books, including Rocking My Life Away: Writing About Music and Other Matters. “If I have an idea that I think is good for them, whether I’m going to be doing it or not, I’ll just pass it along to them. I just try to be as cooperative and reliable as I can be.”

Sager agrees. “Don’t give them any more reason to hate you than they already have,” he said, quoting one of his mother’s favorite sayings.

Remember, you’re selling more than just your words. “The cost of a story to a magazine is only partly the check they are going to write you,” said Duane. “It’s also what you’re going to put them through. Work to be low maintenance.”

“You have to think about every piece being as amazing as you can make it.”

“Have diverse ways that you’re getting paid.” — Kelley L. Carter

Nearly two years ago, Kelley L. Carter’s world was turned upside down. USA Today laid off the Emmy Award-winning entertainment journalist, leaving the longtime newspaper reporter to ponder what her next move would be. “Freelance for me was not supposed to be a career; it was supposed to be something to do in the interim until I got my next full-time job,” said Carter. Before she knew it, Carter had received enough phone calls from editors at MTV.com, ESPN.com, Ebony and Jet and was doing better financially than she was as a full-time newspaper employee.

If you want to avoid chasing paychecks, she says, find outlets with various payment schedules. “Fortunately, I have a couple of people that pay me direct deposit. Some pay direct deposit once a month. Some pay every week. And then I still get paper checks mailed to me too, so I’m never necessarily reliant on one form of money to come in at one particular time,” she explained. “That’s what has made this whole thing on the financial side of it less of a headache.”

And if you’ve been consistent with your work and feel you’re due for a pay bump, ask for it. Freelancers with beaucoup bylines know that many editors will make exceptions (or fight for) those writers they feel are worth it. “Some editors are so protective of their budgets,” said DeCurtis. “There’s always money around. You can shake it out of people. The more established you get, the easier it is to have those conversations. It never hurts to bring it up.”

“Find the story that only you can write.” — Aliya S. King

King is an advocate of sometimes dialing down expectations and writing the story that fits you. “Find a story that only you can write,” she said. “Maybe it has something to do with where you’re from, or something to do with an artist you have a relationship with, or something to do with something that you’re particularly well equipped to write about.”

Duane had a recent conversation with a former college basketball player turned writer who was looking to stand out in his pitches. “I said, ‘There’s your subject,'” he recalled. “First of all, there has to be some great personal essay he can tell about his four years, some game that was heartbreaking to lose. That’s a world that that guy knows and we are interested in. A lot of us have areas of interest or passion that we don’t even realize we have or even occur to us.”

Part of what gives the veterans we spoke with such longevity is they’ve carved out a niche. For King, DeCurtis and Carter, it was music and entertainment. For you, it might be women’s health or college football. Write what you know, be consistent and easy to work with, and it might be your byline in all the books.

NEXT >> 7 Things They Don’t Tell You About Freelancing

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Marcus Vanderberg is co-editor of FishbowlLA.

While Spike Lee was preaching purity and Tyler Perry was telling Spike to go to hell, there was another black filmmaker quietly making waves. T.D. Jakes, the man Time dubbed “America’s Best Preacher” turned his influence as senior pastor of Dallas’ 30,000-member megachurch The Potter’s House into serious box office clout with films like Jumping The Broom, which surprised Hollywood insiders by landing at No. 3 during its first week of release.

Yet, even with his success in and out of the pulpit, the preacher and philanthropist says he still has much work to do. With his highly-anticipated films Winnie and Sparkle on the way, Jakes spoke with Mediabistro about bringing diversity and spirituality to Hollywood, how to sell your first script, and what it was really like working with the late Whitney Houston.

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Name: Bishop TD Jakes
Position: Pastor, author and film producer
Resume: Began his ministry in a small church in West Virginia in 1979 before relocating to Dallas, Tx. and founding The Potter’s House. Author of over 30 books, including two New York Times bestsellers and Woman Thou Art Loosed, which was made into a film in 2004. Launched a line of greeting cards with American Greetings in 2007. Producer of the films Not Easily Broken (2009), Jumping The Broom (2011), Woman Thou Art Loosed on the 7th Day (2012), and the upcoming Sparkle and Winnie Mandela biopic, Winnie. Named “America’s Best Preacher” by Time in 2001, called “perhaps the most influential black leader in America today” by The Atlantic in 2006, and included on Ebony‘s “Power 150” list in 2009.
Birthday: June 9, 1957
Hometown: South Charleston, W.Va.
Education: B.A., M.A. and doctorate in religious studies from Friends International Christian University
Marital status: Married
Media idol: Sidney Poitier
Favorite TV show: Starting Point with Soledad O’Brien
Guilty pleasure: Twitter
Last book read: The Speed of Trust by Stephen Covey
Twitter handle: @BishopJakes

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You produced Whitney Houston’s last film, Sparkle. What was your experience working with her, and if you could say something to her today what would you tell her?
My experiences with her were very positive; I can say that. I did not know her prior to her involvement with Sparkle. I certainly knew who she was and I loved her music. I was a great fan of some of the movies that she had done in the past. Both Debra Martin Chase and myself, who worked together as producers on Sparkle, were just thrilled that she had come on board. She performed professionally and effectively and delivered, I think, a very believable role playing the mother character in Sparkle, so that was all wonderful.

As it relates to what I would say to her today, wow, that’s a really hard question because there’s so much that I do not know about her personal life. I don’t know anything other than what I’ve read. I’ve never been in a personal setting with her. I have learned to read with some skepticism information that is filtered about a person through media, because sometimes it gives us a warped perception of who they really are. We all make mistakes and choices.

“The impression [Whitney Houston] left with me is that she was swinging upward, regaining her sense of who she was.”

I can say that the impression she left with me is that she was swinging upward, regaining her sense of who she was, that she was trying to really get her life back together and I, like many Americans, was rooting for her, that she would be able to do that. My personal thought was that Sparkle would be the beginning of many more films and opportunities for her to come, because I thought she was really rebounding, and I was shocked and hurt and disappointed that her life was cut away so soon.

How did you first get involved in film production, and what were your goals when you first started?
I kind of stumbled into it. I started out doing gospel musical plays that toured a circuit throughout the U.S. [Casting director] Reuben Cannon saw a production that we had done and wanted to do a movie that was inspired from the play, and I thought, “Wow! That’s exciting.” So, we did what we thought was going to be a made-for-television production of Woman Thou Art Loosed that we entered into the Santa Barbara Film Festival and won the film festival’s award. We ended up going on limited screens for an independent film, and it did very well for a week; it was only on 400 screens. So, that kind of stirred a meeting between me and Sony Pictures, and Michael Lynton, who is the CEO of Sony Corporation of America and chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment, offered me a first-look deal that Sony would be willing to fund the movies that I wanted to produce, and a relationship was born.

As a pastor, is it a requirement for you that your films have a spiritual component?
Not necessarily. I mean, Sony is a business, and they want me to do films that are true to who I am, and they want to be able to benefit from my following. And my following knows that, though I am a pastor, I like to talk about a lot of diverse issues. Now, many of the films will have a faith component to them because that’s who I am, and other films will just have a good message that is universal, that anybody could use. I like to do both things because good wisdom and good truth is something that transcends our spiritual beliefs and background.

NEXT >> So What Do You Do, Dr. Wayne Dyer, Bestselling Author and Speaker?

What criteria do films or screenplays have to meet before you get involved as a producer?
I think it has to be something that has a message that I think it is important that would be of interest to my constituency, and then we’ll take a look at it. We’re looking at a film now about Winnie Mandela, and I thought it was interesting because it brings to screen some very interesting things about Nelson Mandela and about South Africa, a country that I’m very passionate about. I try to do diverse things. I don’t like to be pigeonholed where it’s all comedies, or it’s all suspense or murder or what have you, but I just like to do a lot of diverse things that are entertaining and yet edifying…

I looked at [Winnie] and thought it was interesting, thought it was intriguing, have a great deal of love for South Africa, and I decided to be a part of it. The fact that Jennifer Hudson plays the lead role and Terrence Howard plays Nelson Mandela also helped in that decision, because I think they’re both very good actors and performers, so we went with it.

Tyler Perry has gotten a lot of praise and flak for his work. What do you think about the controversy over his films and his TV shows?
You know, I don’t think that there really should be any controversy. I think there is room in the industry for a lot of expressions. Every other type of director/producer produces a wide array of different types of products… For instance, Jackass might not be a film that I would want to go see, but people go to see it without causing controversy. And you don’t see other producers like Steven Spielberg saying, “Well, that’s not authentically a movie, because it’s not something of the artistic quality of what I would do.”

People are very diverse, and they go to films for different things. Some people go just to be entertained and to have a good time, and some people appreciate the artistic quality of the film. And I think serving the audience of people, the demands of the people, is what all businesses thrive on: supply and demand. Obviously, there is a demand for what [Tyler Perry] produces or he wouldn’t stay in business.

“You don’t see producers like Steven Spielberg saying, ‘Well, Jackass is not authentically a movie, because it’s not something of the artistic quality of what I would do.'”

George Lucas was very vocal about the resistance that he got trying to make Red Tails. How much truth do you think there is in the idea that Hollywood doesn’t want to make films with an all-black cast anymore?
Well, I think the real issue is that Hollywood wants to make money, and they don’t always know what they don’t know. They think that, if it’s only a certain type of film, that’s the only thing that people will respond to. And every so often a movie will come along, like The Color Purple or other movies, that transcends all barriers and reaches all people, and people who live in glass offices with their heads stuck down in computers don’t always have a good pulse beat on what’s going on in the world today. I don’t know whether it is so much about race — that could be a factor in it — but I think more times than not, it’s the presupposition that profit only comes through doing certain stereotypical ideologies about people that are absurd, that really don’t fit. No community is monolithic, and the more diversity we have in the marketplace, the better reflection of our society the art emanates.

Why do you think that people of color maybe don’t get in a position to actually make the films or head their own studios?
Well, I think what we have to do is stop waiting on other people to catch the vision to tell our stories, and we have to tell our own stories, and tell them in the way that we want to see them, and then let others catch up with us. I think all people have to do that. If you have something that you want to put out there, you may have to do it yourself to get it out there, and a lot of times people don’t have the funding to do that or the business acumen, more times than not. Really, if you have a good idea and a good script and a good cast, funding is not that hard to come by. There are people out there who will fund good films. That’s something that I have experienced. Red Tails got done. You know, it didn’t get done through a conventional way, but I think more and more films are being done in nonconventional ways, and that’s exciting to me.

“Really, if you have a good idea and a good script and a good cast, funding is not that hard to come by.”

What are your tips for breaking into Hollywood and selling that first project?
Patience. The old adage is it’s not what you know but who you know. I think that’s very, very important. There are a lot of people who know the “what” of it but don’t know the “who” of it. Everything advances through relationships, and the better you build strong relationships, the more opportunity you’re going to have. My second counsel is don’t start the relationship with an ask, because people really don’t gravitate toward people who only get to know you because they want something. So, get to know people because of who they are and what they’ve done and how you admire them, and then over time to be able to interject an idea or a thought. It’s far more permissible to a friend than it is a stranger in a 10-minute meeting.

What do you wish someone had told you in terms of filmmaking when you first began?
Well, I’m still learning. I think the biggest thing that I’ve learned so far is not to be afraid to think outside of the box, not to always color within the lines as it relates to what Hollywood has seen before. For example, The Blair Witch Project was shot on a very small budget and made an incredible amount of money. It’s not always the stereotypical ideas of what works; sometimes you can do something that’s out of the box and very nontraditional and the public has a strong response to it. The thing that you cannot ignore is what the public has an appetite to consume. No matter how fantastic you think the script may be, if no one thinks that but you or a small modicum of people, then you’re not going to be able to get the resources that you need to be successful.

NEXT >> So What Do You Do, Dr. Wayne Dyer, Bestselling Author and Speaker?

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Jeff Rivera is a GalleyCat contributor and the author of Effortless Marketing.

It is one thing to have talent, but, if you can’t market it successfully, getting your freelance business off the ground isn’t going to go so well.

Most freelancers have a few fool-proof ways to stay visible and keep projects coming in. Whether it is attending networking events or using social media, these tactics ring tried-and-true for successful self-employed professionals.

1. Use social media.

This one is somewhat obvious — you should certainly have a LinkedIn profile and consider using Twitter. Aside from just having social media accounts, what else can you do to get the most out of these channels?

“If you can combine social media with in-person networking, it is so much more effective,” says Ilise Benun, founder of the Marketing Mentor business coaching program for creative professionals and author of The Art of Self Promotion. She recently attended a conference and reached out to the keynote speaker via Twitter before the event. When she spoke up during the session, he already knew who she was because her tweet had broken the ice. It was an instant “in.”

Benun says that prior to attending an in-person networking event, find out who is going to be there and tag their name in a tweet — just begin conversing. “When you get there, you’ve already given them a head’s up… you’ve raised your hand. It really does give you access to people that otherwise wouldn’t take your call.”

“If you can combine social media with in-person networking, it is so much more effective.”

2. Network smarter.

Networking is a valuable way to promote your business, but interacting with the right group of people to meet your specific needs is important. If your goal is to find a job, look for a group that is comprised of professionals with different needs. That way, you’re more likely to meet people who may be able to use your services. On the other hand, freelancers looking to connect with other self-employed professionals will likely do better attending a group with others in similar roles; this is more of a support group. “You really want to make sure that your prospects are going to be where you’re going,” says Benun.

To find a good group, do not simply rely on the Internet to get a feel for it. Pick up the phone and call the organizer to get the inside scoop on the organization, its purpose and the members. Why? Because nothing stinks more than shelling out for a fancy lunch only to end up with zero prospects or contacts.

“Marketing is about building relationships, real face-to-face relationships. If you believe the size of your online list needs to be big, it’s time to think that about the real world as well,” notes Tammy Furey, a personal coach to freelancers. She says that contractors should make themselves as useful as possible when they join a group. “All of this will make you memorable and valuable,” she says.

But don’t expect to reap the benefits of networking right away, Furey adds. “The frustrating thing is results take six to 12 months to show up. I have seen so many people give up before the networking really starts to work.”

“Be clear about your intentions and simply ask for what you want.”

3. Ask for what you want.

No matter what techniques you use to market yourself and your business, it__?s important to be clear about what you want. When Holly DeWolf, an illustrator and author of Breaking Into Freelance Illustration: The Guide for Artists, Designers and Illustrators, wanted to secure a publisher for a book, she asked a friend for advice. “I came up with an idea, wrote the proposal, wrote a sample chapter, and then I asked them to have a look at my work through my query letter. I had a book deal three weeks later,” she notes.

Although publishing a book may not be that simple, DeWolf’s point rings true: Be clear about your intentions and simply ask for what you want. If that’s a new client, connect with them and then ask the prospect to review your portfolio or to set up a meeting. If you want to network with other creative professionals, ask questions about the group before you sign up. It’s all about putting your intentions out there and being direct, whether through promotional mailers, email lists, or your website. You need that kind of initiative as a freelancer, because no one else is going to toot your horn for you!

“Promotion is basically your own form of show and tell with a permission-marketing twist,” DeWolf says. “In a nutshell, you create your own opportunities by asking for them.”

4. Provide exceptional customer service.

Treating customers well and going above and beyond is key — it gets your clients talking about you and referrals pouring in, a result of strong marketing.

“For a small town freelancer, customer service is crucial,” explains Meredith Marsh, a Web designer. She says most of her clients run their own businesses and organizations and appreciate her ability to leverage technology to create, revise and deliver files promptly. They like that she can deliver — and do it quickly.

“They often seem desperate for someone they can trust, who has the knowledge and skills to fulfill their ideas,” she explains. “Doing work that your clients are happy with is a given… but also provide over the top, better than anyone, smile-and-agree-and-make-everything-right customer service so your clients are also happy with you.”

By exceeding expectations, clients will talk positively about you and not just your work. When this happens, you know the marketing efforts you have made are working.

5. Be consistent.

The biggest problem Benun sees from those she coaches is that they are not consistent with what they do, no matter which marketing strategies they employ. “They have too many things that they think they should be doing instead,” she says. She advises selecting three tools or strategies and working on them daily. “It’s all about execution and consistency.”

It’s easy to want to focus your days and nights on simply writing articles, designing logos, or copy editing if that’s your field. But longtime self-employed pros know that marketing is just as, if not more, important as those tasks, because it’s what brings in new business. Without it, you really are free-lancing.

NEXT >> 5 Signs It’s Time To Kill Your Blog

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Kristen Fischer is a Certified Professional Resume Writer (CPRW) living at the Jersey Shore. Visit www.kristenfischer.com for more information.

Magazine editors may not use red pens to edit articles anymore, but they still find a way to rip up your work. At first look, the article you spent hours perfecting may seem like a gigantic failure. The truth is, however, that editing is a natural part of the writing process.

Janene Mascarella didn’t know that as a newbie. She turned in an assignment and was shocked when the article came back with battle scars — several editors were bickering via comments, and the ladies got unladylike. “I felt very belittled. Some of the things they were writing were a little catty. I actually started to cry,” admitted Mascarella, who has published articles in WeightWatchers and Family Circle. She emailed the editor, who realized she had not sent Mascarella an edited version of the marked-up document.

Hopefully you never have to see what really goes on as editors clash about your work, but you will likely have to revise pieces. Luckily, these tips can help you navigate the process.

1. Relax — revisions are normal.

Why do revisions tend to get your heart racing a bit? Denny Watkins, a Chicago-based freelance writer, thinks it’s because writers feel a huge sense of relief after completing an article.

“When you get the marked-up draft back___it makes you have to revisit that mental anguish of the writing process,” said Watkins, who has written for Scientific American and Maxim. “You’re surprised they didn’t see your writing as the same level of perfection that you thought you turned in.”

Danielle Braff, who has written for Women’s Health and Self, agrees. “It always looks overwhelming when you see your piece all marked up,” she said.

Articles at major magazines typically go through more than one review: The assigning editor takes a pass; then it goes on to a committee or a senior editor. Multiple rounds of changes aren__?t unheard of; you may wind up reverting to your original concepts after changing them because editors have conflicting views (in Mascarella’s case, maybe too many).

“If you’re feeling really stressed or ticked off at some of the edits or requests, don’t reply immediately. Give yourself time to cool off.”

“It can be frustrating when you’re asked to do an initial revise when it’s clear that the higher-ups haven’t weighed in yet. That pretty much guarantees a second revision request,” said Melissa Daly, a Rhode Island writer who has penned articles for Health and Men’s Health.

Tip: “If you’re feeling really stressed or ticked off at some of the edits or requests, don__?t reply immediately. Give yourself time to cool off,” advised Daly. Then you can cheerfully respond with “Sure, no problem!”

2. Get source contact information from the get-go.

One way to accommodate editing requests is to jot down contact info from sources during the interview stage. “[Then] you’ll be able to get back in touch with your sources real quickly,” Daly said.

Mascarella believes being polite can also go a long way if you need more information later. An editor recently asked Mascarella for more details on an article she wrote; she was out that day and came home to find out edits were due the following morning. Thankfully, her source responded quickly. “It was really just because after I interviewed him, I sent him an email to thank him personally,” she noted. “So be nice!”

Tip: If you go through a PR contact for the interview, make sure to get the source__?s direct info, as well, so you can contact him or her directly if you’re in a time crunch.

NEXT >> 4 Things Editors Do to Drive Freelancers Nuts

3. Ask questions.

When your article comes back with vague instructions, get clarification so your updated draft doesn’t warrant even more rewrites.

“I used to have a major phobia of calling editors___I was afraid I was bothering them or wasting their time,” recalled Terri Huggins, a New Jersey scribe who has crafted pieces for Redbook and Sister 2 Sister. “I would do the worst thing you could possibly do: I’d just guess what the editor wanted and make my edits based on that.”

“Sometimes a senior editor will seek clarification about aspects of the piece that the initial editor did not cover in her requests,” added Braff, whose editors tend to be specific in their demands.

Meryl Davids Landau, an author and writer featured in Prevention, More and others follows up to any revision requests on the phone. She asks what the editor wants the reader to come away with after reading the piece and if the publication has covered the topic before to see if they want a fresh angle.

“I try never to revise anything until I have a clear sense of where the editor thinks my version went off the rails; otherwise the next version is just as likely crash,” she explained.

Tip: Pay attention to each comment; if an editor brings up a point once, they do not want to have to do it again.

“I try never to revise anything until I have a clear sense of where the editor thinks my version went off the rails.”

4. Know the mag.

Writers who don’t familiarize themselves with the tone and style of the publication in advance are just asking for revisions later.

“I read the magazine, so I can see how they execute things,” Mascarella said. “I get more information just from actually picking up a few copies of the magazine.”

Even if you follow the writer’s guidelines, revisions are still probable. “No matter how good you are, there will be some level of edits,” said Daly. “Recognizing that it doesn’t mean either of you is right or wrong goes a long way toward adopting a more Zen attitude about revisions.”

Tip: Get inside information about a magazine on the cheap: Grab a latte and browse an array of titles at your local bookstore. Take note of contacts, sections, formats and the writing style.

5. Think back to your query.

Staying on target is another way to prevent a large number of revisions. One way to do this is to peek at your query or assignment details before you start to write, so you recall the proposed idea.

After she gets an assignment, Mascarella sends an email to the editor to verify the angle. “I reiterate exactly what I’m covering and how I plan to execute it,” she said. Mascarella said she’s also had fewer revisions since she started asking editors for guidance during the writing process.

Tip: Upon confirming an assignment, refer back to the original query or any other communications you have had with the editor to reiterate the slant, prospective sources and length.

6. Speak up if an editor goes overboard.

Occasionally, revisions can take on a life of their own, and an editor can change direction of a piece completely.

“I’m just not shy to speak up,” said Mascarella. She suggests bringing up what you originally agreed upon, so the editor sees the revisions have gone above and beyond. In some cases, a magazine will come back with more money to compensate you for the extra time needed to refocus the article.

Be careful with this one, though, or you could get pegged as the high-maintenance writer and likely not get another assignment.

Davids Landau recalls a time when an editor told her the editor-in-chief simply didn’t like the piece after signing off on an outline. She argued for the ability to revise, but even the updated draft wasn’t accepted. She got lucky, though; she collected the kill fee and wound up selling the story to another magazine — making more than she would have originally.

Tip: Keep a copy of your initial query and contract handy, so you can remind the publication what they agreed to.

The bottom line

Here’s the skinny on revisions: Sometimes they’re a hassle and you wind up putting double the time you did writing into editing the work. That is par for the course. “Your job isn’t over when you send in the file,” Mascarella pointed out.

And even if your original work ends up looking like a bloodbath, if you’re cooperative and easygoing about it, you could earn repeat assignments. “When you don’t balk at the revisions or give the editor a hard time, they remember that,” Mascarella said. “Be a team player.”

NEXT >> 4 Things Editors Do to Drive Freelancers Nuts

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Kristen Fischer is the author of Ramen Noodles, Rent and Resumes: An After-College Guide to Life.

On the marquee for the Internet’s top movie websites, the hierarchy is clear: For tracking film favorites, it’s IMDb and Yahoo! Movies. Buying tickets? Head over to Fandango and Moviefone. But, when all you need to know is what the critics (be they actual journalists or just finicky fans) are saying about The Avengers or if the premise of Abe Lincoln killing vampires is genius or just ridiculous, Rotten Tomatoes is king.

And, with new parent company Warner Bros. behind it, RT could be poised for even more clicks. The site joined forces with Flixster to create an even bigger smorgasbord of evaluative movie data, there are plans to syndicate that infamous Tomatometer, and there’s even a Sirius XM show hosted by editor-in-chief and veteran film journo Matt Atchity.

We caught up with Atchity to talk about some of the criticisms leveled at RT’s movie rating system and the insanity of critics who pull out their smartphones at press screenings. Call it a “Fresh” look at the entertainment Internet trenches, from a man who has been there since the very beginning.

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Position: Editor-in-chief, RottenTomatoes.com
Resume: Except for a 2000-2002 sojourn with advertising agency Chiat/Day, Atchity has worked mainly on the consumer content side of the Internet with Aol, Warner Bros. and Yahoo!. He was also briefly director of production for the music download platform Jrae Live.
Birthday: December 18
Hometown: Kansas City
Education: University of San Francisco, 1989-1991
Marital status: Married
Media idol: Roger Ebert
Favorite TV shows: Game of Thrones, Mythbusters, The Office, 30 Rock
Guilty pleasure: Comic books
Last book read: Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition by Daniel Okrent
Twitter handle: @matchity

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People occasionally suggest having a third, more neutral way of categorizing reviews on your site, like “Ripe” to go along with the “Fresh” and “Rotten.” Do you agree, and what tweaks to the overall ratings system are currently being considered?
I’m not sure I agree with that, partially because we feel that there’s great value in our simplicity. The Tomatometer isn’t meant to represent an overall grade for a movie; it simply measures the percentage of favorable reviews. We’re pretty transparent with our system, and anyone can look at the way reviews are marked and see how we arrived at the Tomatometer score. However, when reviews come in, we do allow critics to add a numeric rating, and that results in an “Average Rating” figure that’s displayed on a movie’s Tomatometer page. Admittedly, that number can be easily missed, but that’s probably as close as we’re going to get to the type of categorization you’re talking about.

Every once in a while, an early review on RT gets savaged by reader comments, like a negative take of a heavily anticipated summer comic book movie. What are a couple of your favorite examples of RT users interacting with critics and why?
I have to be honest. I have really mixed feelings about the way some of our users respond to reviews. It seems particularly bad with comic book movies. I can’t say that I have a favorite, because we end up spending a lot of effort policing the outlying reviews to keep comments in line with our terms of service. I’m all for a healthy debate about movies, but so many of the comments are often so out of line that it can be a bit depressing. We’ll never get rid of our commenting system, but we may move in the direction of not allowing comments from anonymous users. In other words, if you’re going to comment on a critic’s review, you have to use your real name (in the hopes that the discussion would be a bit more civilized). But that’s a bigger debate for another time.

“The studios’ marketing machines have done more to try and drown out critics than the Internet ever has.”

What’s your “state of the union” view these days on the state of film criticism? Has it evolved as it always will, or is it in a bit of tangled lull?
I think that criticism has changed, and is still changing, but it’s still pretty healthy. There are more people writing about movies now than we saw 30 years ago. It’s easy to point to bloggers as the death of criticism, but I think that’s a simplistic view of the world. There was a time when a local critic really had a lot of influence on the movie-watching habits of their community, but I think the studios’ marketing machines have done more to try and drown out critics than the Internet ever has. Admittedly, there are some less than stellar online writers out there, but there are some dodgy print critics out there, too.

On RT, we try and make sure that we’ve got the most important writers with the broadest reach. It does bother me that critics are some of the first on the chopping block when a newspaper, for instance, makes cutbacks, and I know that what we do at RT is a part of why that happens. But I would never want to see what we do replace actual criticism. I strongly believe that professional critics are extremely important. We absolutely ought to be analyzing the media we consume.

NEXT >> So What Do You Do Richard Lawson, Senior Writer for The Atlantic Wire?

You are currently hiring a senior TV and film editor for the LA office. Has the position been filled yet? And what generally do you look for when hiring?
That position is very close to being filled, as a matter of fact. I’m looking for someone who has as much a passion for pop culture as they do for movies, because I think that will help connect to the audience.

What’s your take on people who use smartphones in the theater, and how prevalent is that these days at free, critics’ preview screenings?
I think texting or using your phone in a theater is simply inexcusable. If you’re messing with your phone in the theater, you’re either stupid enough to think it won’t be distracting to others, or you’re simply too selfish to care. The sad thing is that you’d think critics’ screenings would be safe from this, but you’d be wrong. I’ve seen more than a few film journalists using smartphones while the movie is playing. (There’s one person, in particular, I have to try and sit in front of if I see him, because he’s always using his phone.) At a recent screening of Snow White, some jerk in front of me actually answered a phone call. To me, the theater is sacred ground; it’s a shared experience, and we should be respectful of those sharing that experience with us. When the theater owners talk about actually encouraging texting (as they did at Cinema Con recently) it makes me think they’re simply going to drive away an already shrinking audience.

“If you’re messing with your phone in the theater, you’re either stupid enough to think it won’t be distracting to others, or you’re simply too selfish to care.”

The discrepancy sometimes between the critics’ aggregate Tomatometer rating for a title and that of the public is hilarious. What is the widest margin that’s ever been recorded on that front?
We’ll see margins as high as 70 percent sometimes, and I think that happens when an audience’s expectation and movie experience don’t match up. For instance, critics loved Drive and most of the audience hated it, because I think people were expecting something like The Fast and The Furious. It’s more interesting when the audience score is lower than the critics score, because I think the audience score is usually skewed too high. I don’t usually put too much stock in audience scores, because I think it’s a self-selecting pool. As a culture, we’re usually pretty successful at picking movies we think we’re going to like, and I think the audience scores reflect that. If people were more willing to see movies they were on the fence about, I think the audience scores would be a lot different than they are now.

What are some of the golden rules of engaging readers that remain as true today as they were when you started out with AOL in the mid-1990s?
With film journalists, there’s a pitfall of getting too indie-focused. When you’re seeing three, four movies a week, Hollywood formulas can be boring, and so it’s easy to start paying more and more attention to indie and foreign films, because that’s what’s interesting. But there’s not a lot of traffic in covering indie movies, compared to coverage of mainstream movies. I think ending a piece with a question for the user’s thoughts on a subject is still a good way to get engagement. Lastly, users never get tired of photo galleries. As long as the user experience is good (i.e. not reloading the entire page for each new picture), photo slide shows are something that audiences really respond to. Slide shows with good captions are an easy traffic win for online writers and producers.

NEXT >> So What Do You Do Richard Lawson, Senior Writer for The Atlantic Wire?

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Richard Horgan is co-editor of FishbowlLA.

Last Halloween, Sarah Fenske officially began what she described at the time as an impossible-to-turn-down career opportunity: editor-in-chief of Village Voice Media’s L.A. Weekly. The position still ranks as one of the city’s juiciest journalism perches and represents a big jump up for the Cleveland native, whose career with VVM began in 2004 as a columnist for the Phoenix New Times.

At the time of her L.A. Weekly appointment, some media critics took issue with the fact that Fenske lacked L.A. living experience, while others cynically focused on the fact that she used to date VVM executive Mike Lacey. But in the heat of her first L.A. summer, Fenske can point to a still profitable print side, robust monthly page views and three reporters vying this weekend for various “Journalist of the Year” honors at the 54th Annual L.A. Press Club Southern California Journalism Awards.

All told, L.A. Weekly is up for 18 L.A. Press Club honors including “Best Facebook Presence by a News Organization.” Not bad for less than eight months on the job.

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Position: Editor-in-chief, L.A. Weekly
Resume: Enjoyed brief successive stints at the Lorain Morning Journal (reporter, 1999-2001), Cleveland Scene (staff writer, 2001-2003) and the Houston Press (staff writer, 2003-2004) before joining Phoenix New Times in 2004 as a columnist. In 2011, became managing editor of Riverfront Times in St. Louis and picked up a prestigious Livingston Award for local reporting for “Mr. Big Stuff,” a piece on corruption in Maricopa County, Arizona. Named editor-in-chief of LA Weekly in October 2011.
Birthday: April 17
Hometown: Cleveland, OH
Education: B.A. from The College of Wooster
Marital status: Single
Media idol: Joan Didion
Favorite TV show: Mad Men
Guilty pleasure: Gin
Last book read: Say Nice Things About Detroit by Scott Lasser
Twitter handle: @SarahFenske

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The biggest challenge you faced as editor-in-chief was replacing Pulitzer Prize-winning food critic Jonathan Gold. What were the essential qualities you looked for when interviewing his replacement, and what finally made you choose Besha Rodell?

I really wanted to hire someone locally — if only to make up for my own weakness as an outsider. But, the more I dug into the situation, the more I had to reexamine that priority. I began to realize every good food writer in town knew every other food writer in town — and many not only knew the top chefs, they’d collaborated with them on a cookbook or something. What the Weekly needed was someone who didn’t have allegiances, someone who could assess this town with a fresh eye and call a spade for what it was. Jonathan was — and is — an incredibly beautiful writer, but he never writes negative reviews. That worked for him, wonderfully, and it still works now that he’s over at the Times. But what is the Weekly if not the alternative: the smart, edgy voice that calls bullshit? We needed someone who could be critical when it was called for, and who had no loyalties, and who was not interested in befriending the city’s chefs. And that would make the praise mean all the more when it came. We needed someone fearless. The minute I read her clips, I knew Besha was it.

“What is the Weekly if not the alternative: the smart, edgy voice that calls bullshit?”

Once Rodell was announced as food critic, Eater LA made it its mission to publish a photo of her. They failed miserably, but what is your personal take on the topic of food critic anonymity. Is it still necessary and beneficial, or — in this wired day and age — an outdated concept?
Anonymity is less important to me than a lack of allegiances. Sure, some maitre d’ might figure out who Besha is, and Eater might actually get an OK photo one of these days. (We hope not, but we aren’t actively trying to thwart them, either.) As long as she’s keeping a low profile, not befriending the people she’s writing about, and not accepting freebies, she’s likely going to get the same experience as any no-name diner, and she’s going to have an honest take on whether the restaurant works. That’s what matters to me.

Since you took over in the fall of 2011, you’ve presided over some highs (Gene Maddaus’ con man cover story) and lows (Simone Wilson falsely reporting that the L.A. Weekly had done very little original L.A. riots reporting ). How, as an editor, do you try to comfort and support a reporter when things go wrong rather than right?
That “goof,” as you say, was a tough one, and in retrospect, I could point to six or seven things that went wrong along the way. Had any number of checks and balances kicked in, that wouldn’t have happened, and I have to take full responsibility for that reason. Simone may have had the byline, but that was a team failure, which makes it my failure.

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

But the thing is, with online journalism in particular, we are moving so quickly that mistakes happen. It’s a fact of the job these days, much as I hate it. So, I try to stress owning our errors instead of erasing them, no matter how embarrassing. And then I try to analyze what happened and figure out how to prevent it from happening again. Of course, it’s like Whack-a-Mole: You fix one flaw in your system and another pops up. That’s the online beast. But everyone here is working their ass off and devoted to getting things right. That means it’s less about the blame game and more about putting systems in place, and best practices, that help these very talented reporters succeed even when they’re working at an incredibly fast pace.

Speaking of talented reporters, Gene’s scoop was just a joy to edit -– and, frankly, a joy to read. Stories like that make up for the days when we screw up to some extent, although in retrospect the lows always linger longer than the highs.

For several years, there have been rumors that L.A. Weekly might one day go Web-only. What is the current print vs. Web circulation, and how do you see that playing out over the next few years?
I think we’re at 170,000 copies out there every week and roughly 7.1 million page views a month. Online is growing; print, obviously, isn’t although the paper still gets scooped up as fast as ever. That said, it’s impossible to imagine we’d ever go online-only. The print paper is quite profitable and, I think, a damned good read. It’s great we can supplement it with all these online extras, but print is still where my heart is and where the revenue comes from, too.

“It’s like Whack-a-Mole: You fix one flaw in your system and another pops up. That’s the online beast.”

Also, have you found a big difference in L.A. Weekly Web traffic since the L.A. Times switched to a paywall in March? And is it fair to say the L.A. Times is your main competition?
The paywall hasn’t affected us much, which is probably a sign we need to hustle even more to get the word out about how much interesting stuff we’re posting online. There are just so many choices for people who want to read the news, or kill time, online. As much as the Times is, and always will be, our main competition to sources and the arts community and real news junkies, that’s a small percentage of the people online every day. And every reader that the Times loses has a million other choices for reading material even if that’s just LOLcats. It’s a constant battle to make sure they come to our site.

Whether it’s L.A. Weekly, Patch, TMZ or Huffington Post, there is a certain relentless quality to Internet journalism. What are, in your opinion, the keys to ferreting out and keeping effective 21st century digital journalists?
Frankly, I think part of it is giving them a chance to take a break from online. Dennis Romero, who’s our lead blogger and just kills it every day, just wrote a cover story — which, by the way, is awesome. The L.A. Weekly has a few perks that online-only sites don’t have: We can give you the chance to write about music or art if that’s your thing. And, hopefully, we can help you find the time to mix it up and write a 4,000-word cover story, too. But it is tough. I have no idea how most bloggers can sustain that pace. I used to fill in for our news blogger in St. Louis when he was on vacation (the perils of leading a small staff!), and it just about killed me. I have the utmost respect for anyone writing multiple posts per day.

Finally, in the time you’ve been editor-in-chief, can you highlight (without naming names) one or two of the worst pitches or job candidate experiences you’ve deal with, and why?
I had an L.A.-based PR person email me this kind of condescending note about how we really ought to write about startups — L.A. was becoming such a hub with Silicon Beach, etc. — [and] if I had any questions, to just let her know. Well, at this point, we’d been running a column in the very front of the book for four months or so called, yes, “Startups,” profiling companies that were doing just that. I wrote back suggesting she check out the column and to let me know if she had any ideas for it. I never heard back.

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Richard Horgan is co-editor of FishbowlLA.

All of us would be lucky to land our dream job at least once during our careers. Josh Elliott has hit the jackpot three times before his 40th birthday. The newest face of Good Morning America arrived at the ABC morning show after six years of ups (SportsCenter) and downs (Classic Now) at ESPN.

But don’t let the boyish good looks fool you — while Elliott has a face for TV, his breakthrough was actually as a writer for Sports Illustrated, covering primarily the NFL for six years.

“I was a subscriber to Sports Illustrated like so many of us, and I was overwhelmed by a toxic mix of naïveté and arrogance and just thought to myself, ‘I think I can write like this,'” recalls Elliott, who landed what he thought would be a short stint at the mag after graduating from Columbia. “This little spot opened up and I went to work for 17 consecutive days, because they told me it would be a three-month gig. So, I kept going back day-after-day until I think they finally took pity on me and gave me a full-time gig.”

With his print days behind him, Elliott talks openly about trading in Brett Favre comebacks for Joplin natural disasters and gives advice for those contemplating a leap into broadcasting.

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Name: Josh Elliott
Position: Newsreader, Good Morning America
Birthdate: July 6
Hometown: Los Angeles
Education: Bachelor of Arts in English literature from University of California-Santa Barbara. Masters of Science from Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism
Resume: Started out in film and TV production as a film production junior executive at 20th Century Fox, comedy development assistant for FOX-TV, and a producer for Galaxy Productions. Wrote for Sports Illustrated for six years. Became host of ESPN’s Classic Now in 2005 and anchor of SportsCenter in 2008. Joined Good Morning America as newsreader in 2011.
Marital status: Single
Media idol: Jim Murray
Favorite TV show: Top Chef, All In The Family, Lost
Guilty pleasure: UFO conspiracy theories, Simon Cowell, March Madness on a workday, Häagen-Dazs chocolate peanut butter ice cream
Last book read: The Wave by Susan Casey
Twitter handle: @JoshElliottABC

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How did you make the transition from Sports Illustrated reporter to Good Morning America anchor?
While I was at SI, I had some opportunities to be a guest on some television shows on several different networks. In 2005, ESPN came along and had cast a very wide net for a show on ESPN Classic. It was a great opportunity that I couldn’t pass up. I made the jump and the show lasted for about six months. It was a brutally hard schedule and, at times, a painful transition. Learning a new job on national television, albeit before an audience of seven people that included my family members, was still not easy. It was a long day, but it was like going to anchor college. When they finally cancelled it, I still had some time left on my deal, so the folks in Bristol brought me up and had me on a couple of ESPNEWS shifts. SportsCenter came along and I was lucky enough to work with Bob Ley and Chris McKendry on the weekends.

When they decided to go live with SportsCenter in the morning, they hired Hannah [Storm] to do the 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. shift and they needed the right person to be with her. We found a chemistry that was very rare in television. It was just a joy. As luck would have it, my now boss — the new president of ABC News, Ben Sherwood — was in Los Angeles writing books and living a great life with his wife and two young sons. His five-year-old boy was a L.A. sports nut, and he would wake his parents up at the crack of dawn and ask for SportsCenter. It got to the point where he said, ‘Karen and I would want to watch just to see you and Hannah [Storm] and the vibe play between the two of you.’ When the opportunity came for Ben to take over as the president of ABC News, I guess he had it in his mind that he would like to maybe find a spot for me on the roster, so to speak.

Soon after you started at GMA, you were tossed feet first into fire with breaking news stories in Joplin, Mo. and Springfield, Mass. What challenges did you face in covering those two tragedies?
The tarmac at the [Joplin] airport was essentially a de facto M.A.S.H. unit. Just to step off a plane and see that happening next to you was dismay. You had a sense of how bad it was. It was momentarily overwhelming. I’ve watched the tape back 100 times, and I don’t know if I would describe myself as nervous, but just not really having a sense of the technical aspects of it all. My second hit on Good Morning America was better than my first. By the time Springfield hit, I had already covered a tornado, which was surreal in itself. That allowed me to feel more thorough as a journalist. The challenges? I’m going to be doing the big thing for the first time, and I’m happy that I work at an organization that believes I’m the man to do it.

“In early to mid-August, I still feel like I should be in a rental car, driving the back roads of Wisconsin, on my way to far flung college campuses that are beset by infernally hot weather, to talk to professional athletes who are literally having the worst time of their lives.”

You had a Twitter account while at ESPN, but you weren’t really active in social media until you touched down in Joplin. How did you leverage Twitter to your advantage while in Joplin?
When you open your mind to [Twitter], you see it’s a way to interact with people and viewers. When I got to Joplin, I suddenly felt the need. The ability to simply tweet what I was seeing and provide photos… and to give the photos a bit of context and have it stand as part of the rough draft detailing what had happened there was something that suddenly felt very vital to me. I didn’t even have a sense of trending topics and what that meant, and someone told me I was #4 in the first couple of hours after daybreak that first day. It suddenly hit home of the real power of social media and Twitter specifically.

GMA has famously been No. 2 in the morning show “wars.” What do you think it would take for the show to finally snag the top spot away from Today?
I think it will take diligence on our part. I think it’s going to take continuing to develop exactly who we are. I completely respect what Today has been and what it is. They are collectively a very, very impressive show unit. The anchors are terrific at what they do. I do think there is room for more than one take in the morning. It will take a real push by GMA, but I would be lying if I said part of the excitement and joy of going to GMA right now is engaging towards that push to the summit. Like any climb, those last steps, that final push, is always the hardest. Maybe it’s the athlete in me or coming from the culture I was in, but I love competition and that there’s a competitive aspect to this. I truly love my team.

What advice would you give other print journos looking to make the leap into TV?
Be prepared to fall out of love with your words. I’m still too verbose at times. [Ed. Note: The unedited interview clocked in at over 4,500 words.] At ABC, there’s nothing that I’m doing in terms of on-air reads to pieces or during the news updates that runs more than 11-12 seconds. And be prepared to fail. Lord knows I did early and often. As a writer, you’re really in control of almost everything. That’s not the case in TV. You have to be prepared to work with a lot of people to make something happen, and you got to be prepared at least in the beginning to not be too good at your specific task. Hopefully, you have a lot of people like I had with patience enough to let you catch up to your medium.

“A lot of the very basics of journalism tend to be things that you’re born with or not.”

There’s a lot of debate about whether a journalism degree is necessary to succeed in the industry. Since you didn’t study it as an undergrad, what’s your take on it?
For me, it really does depend on the very specific curriculum that a student would take while majoring in journalism at the undergrad level. By and large, I would say it’s not necessary. A lot of the very basics of journalism tend to be things that you’re born with or not. You can learn to a degree but you also have to have a natural desire to do them. As a graduate degree, Columbia was an intensive yearlong program that meant all the difference in the world to me personally. I realize that it’s not for everyone and that there’s a lot of debate about the importance and the need for it. I respect the people that don’t agree with me. I just happen to personally think they are wrong.

With NFL training camps opening up, do you ever get the itch to write again?
Absolutely. There’s still part of my genetic makeup that feels like in early to mid-August, I should be in a rental car, driving the back roads of Wisconsin and parts of America, on my way to far flung college campuses that are beset by infernally hot weather, to go talk to a bunch of professional athletes who are literally having the worst time of their lives. The NFL will always have a real special place in my heart. It’s the secular religion in this country.

What do you see yourself doing at 50?
I have no idea, and that’s the best part of my career. That’s the best part about being a journalist. I have absolutely no idea what I will be doing when I’m 50. I do know however that if history is a guide for me personally, it will be something that I love.

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Marcus Vanderberg is co-editor of SportsNewser.

For anyone who works in the content business, Google can be like the object of a romantic crush: You want to get its attention, but you don’t know how. That’s where SEO comes in. SEO or “search engine optimization” simply means strategically grooming your work to improve its ranking on search engines like Google, Bing or Yahoo. Think of it as a way to create “something everyone ogles.”

The higher your work shows up on a search results page, the better your chances of gathering an audience. So, how do you make your articles SEO-friendly? Here are five tips from experts who are virtual matchmakers when it comes to helping attractive young articles connect with choosy search engines.

1. Know Your Keywords

When it comes to SEO success, keywords are key. These are the words or phrases that best and most specifically identify the focus of your article. Your article’s two to three keywords should match the words or phrases your potential readers would be plugging into a search engine to find just such an article. You can come up with keywords yourself or use a resource like Google’s highly-recommended free keyword research tool, which generates popular search terms based on Web addresses, words or categories you suggest.

But knowing your keywords is only half the battle — where and how often you place them into your article is crucial. “The integration of keywords into headlines, subheads and the upper 20 percent of an article can make the difference between being placed on page one and relegated to obscurity on page five,” said Andrew Barnett, director of digital strategy at Elasticity, a digital communications agency.

2. Optimize Your Headline

When matching search terms to articles, Google looks more closely at headlines than the rest of the text, so it’s important to know how to make your headline more noticeable. First, make sure your keywords are in the headline — and as close to the beginning as possible. “The importance of a keyword exponentially decays the further to the right it shows up in a title,” said David Wolf, an SEO expert and CEO of InBusiness, Inc.

Next, make sure your headlines and subheads are specific and on-point. “Headlines that are not specific enough do not come up in searches,” said Lisa Hickey, publisher of The Good Men Project, an online men’s magazine. “You want your headline to communicate one simple idea, specific enough so that people know what the post is about. This will not only help SEO, but will also help make the article more sharable. And the more it’s shared, the more search engines will see it as a post worthy of showing up in searches.”

“Where and how often you place those keywords in your article is crucial.”

Many writers want their titles and headlines to be clever, but “clever” and “SEO-friendly” don’t often play well together. Jeff McRitchie, V.P. of marketing for MyBinding.com, recommends simply considering “what topics searchers are looking for and what keywords they’re using.” He added, “If your title is too creative, off the wall or clever, the article will be difficult to find in search results.”

Jonathan Rick, digital and social media director of Levick Strategic Communications, says you should try to strike a perfect balance between self-explanatory and catchy. “Instead of sacrificing one for the other, try blending creativity with keywords,” he said.

3. Do Some Body Work

After the headline and subheads, the next most important place for keyword placement is in the body of your article. While you want to avoid having your article hijacked by your own keywords, know that repetition indeed helps. Layla Masri, president of Bean Creative, recommends the following keyword location recipe: “Once in the main header, once in every sub-header, two times in the first paragraph, two to four more times throughout the document, and two to three times in links and image alt text on the page.”

Sounds like math, but Masri cautioned, “Remember you’re writing for people, not for search engines. Search engine optimization is an important marketing tool, but a page optimized for computers instead of readers can be painful to digest.”

Brian Patterson, a partner with MangoCo, an online reputation management firm, agrees there’s a limit to keyword usage. “Unnatural use of the keywords, over and over, are easily detected by the search engines as ‘keyword stuffing’ and could end up blacklisting your article,” he said.

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Francis Santos, search manager for Benchmark Email, says Google has an eye out for stuffers. “In the early days, cramming as many key phrases into an article or blog post actually improved your search rank — not anymore. An article stuffed with too many key phrases will not only hurt your rank, but make your writing seem awkward and forced, turning off readers and shrinking your audience.”

“Google is cracking down on all forms of SEO manipulation,” said Wolf. “It’s okay to optimize your content so search engines know what it’s about, but don’t even think about negatively affecting the user experience to please a search engine.”

4. Write Well

Good SEO won’t help the quality of your writing, but good writing can help your SEO. One tip covering both goals is staying on topic. Gennady Lager, director of search marketing for dealnews.com says the single most important aspect of writing for search engine optimization is to “write every article and page with a singular focused contextual intent.”

“If the content of the article strays across multiple topics, it will often dilute the ranking ability of that article for any particular keyword,” he said.

Kari DePhillips, owner of The Content Factory, an online PR company that specializes in Web content and social media, said in-depth articles often have more SEO value than shallower ones. “We’ve found that the standard 300-400 word post isn’t enough to catch the eye of search engines,” she said. DePhillips also said longer articles can take more keywords without sounding keyword-stuffed and are more likely to be shared through social media, which also increases SEO value.

Santos says, “At the end of the day, good writing always wins. If you write an interesting, fact-filled article of real substance, readers will happily pass it along to their friends, boosting your traffic. A well-written, popular article with tons of views will definitely rank well and can easily beat out an average, unremarkable article with the same key phrases.”

“You should never create a hyperlink out of a phrase like ‘click here’ in an article.”

5. Link Out (And In)

Links, both embedded in text and placed around or at the end of articles, can also make a difference. “The SEO success of an article is mostly based on its reach. The more links it attracts and the more social shares it receives, the better… Google relies heavily on this to determine rank,” said Marisa Brayman, director of Web and marketing for StadriEmblems.com.

Wolf says linking to your older content is a no-brainer. “Links are the most powerful way to get your content to rank higher. The more times you link back to an article you wrote previously, the better it will do in the search engines.”

But don’t blow the SEO potential of that link by using generic text. “Rather than using link text of ‘click here’ or ‘this article,’ use keywords,” said Patterson. “This text is one of the strongest factors in Google’s algorithm.”

“You should never create a hyperlink out of a phrase like ‘click here’ in an article. It has no value,” said Caitlin Bergmann, social media manager for interactive agency The Concept Farm. “You should link to something that has some meat to it, like ’20 Best Hair Tips for Blondes,’ something people could be searching for.”

All of these tips won’t make you a better writer, and good SEO doesn’t guarantee Google domination. But think for a moment about what got you to click on this very article ___- and learn to leverage that power of attraction for your own work.

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Joel Schwartzberg‘s keywords include writer, Internet executive, and author of “The 40-Year-Old Version,” a collection of personal essays