Some kids learn how to play basketball at the local playground. Young Donna Brazile got her first taste of winning political hardball there instead. The New Orleans native was just a fresh-faced 9-year-old when she held a city council candidate’s feet to the fire for promising to build some swings and a slide in her neighborhood.

Since that intoxicating victory, she’s sealed a place in history as the first African-American campaign manager to direct a major presidential bid when she led Al Gore’s push for the Oval Office in 2000. Recently, the Washingtonian named the veteran grassroots organizer and Democratic strategy sharpshooter — whose double-sided calling card is her sharp wit and her sharp tongue — one of the 100 Most Powerful Women in the country. These days, Brazile is probably best known for her work in another highly politicized arena, cable television news. As an in-demand commentator for the big networks, Brazile says she knows the impact her words can have on those headed to the voting booth and relishes the chance to be held accountable. “Politics is a rough and tumble business,” she says. “It’s not for the faint-hearted.”

Name: Donna Brazile
Position: Political strategist, syndicated newspaper columnist, TV commentator, adjunct professor at Georgetown University, and managing director of Brazile & Associates LLC, a Washington, D.C.-based grassroots advocacy firm
Resume: Volunteered for the Carter-Mondale presidential campaigns in 1976 and 1980 as a teenager. One year later, while still an undergrad student at LSU, led successful movement to make Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday a national holiday. Upon graduation, Coretta Scott King asked Brazile to organize the 20th anniversary commemoration of her late husband’s historic March on Washington. Worked on Rev. Jesse Jackson’s presidential campaign in 1984. Contributed to scrolling list of bids for political office in her more than 30-year career. Serves as political commentator for CNN, ABC and NPR. Published bestselling first book, Cooking with Grease, in 2004.
Birthdate: December 15
Hometown: New Orleans, La.
Education: Degree in political science from Louisiana State University; awarded honorary doctorate degrees from her alma mater and Xavier University
Marital status: Single
First section of the Sunday Times: Opinions or editorials
Favorite TV show: Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer, Good Morning America and This Week with Christiane Amanpour. She’s also an ESPN Sports and Syfy Channel junkie on weekends.
Guilty pleasure: Popcorn and gardening
Last book read: Pops by Terry Teachout. “I read David Baldacci for long flights and all things Zane for pleasure reading.”
Twitter handle: @donnabrazile

You’ve worked on every presidential campaign since 1976. That’s a lot of years and a lot of politics. Which campaign do you think the press had the most influence on? How do you think the press played a part in the Gore campaign?

Every cycle is different. The nature of how the media has covered the presidential campaigns has shifted from the ones I worked on early in the 1980s when we were still faxing information to reporters to today when you can basically tweet out your messages by the minute. I felt that there was a lot of scrutiny in the 2000 campaign, largely because we had the greatest period of economic recovery during the Clinton/Gore years. The media was influenced by some of the changes in the undercurrent of American politics, where they thought that the American people, while being in a relatively peaceful period, wanted something different, wanted some change, and therefore I believe the media gave a lot of what I call “free press coverage” to then-governor George Bush. But by and large, I believe the media plays a large role in determining how people think and feel about elections.

In this midterm election season, the media have taken flack for focusing too heavily on fringe groups, i.e., the Koran burning or anything the Tea Party does. What’s your take on those stories and the political coverage this year in general? Is there a story you feel is not being told?

If you rely on the media for your information, to educate yourself about the candidates and what issues are facing the country, then you get just part of the equation. I think it’s important that we as citizens of this democracy take the responsibility to get as much information as possible before we go into the voting booth. I think it’s important in a democracy such as ours that we have multiple sources to get news and information and utilize the media only if we want to get a different opinion.

A lot of politicians are moving over to television permanently. Eliot Spitzer has a new show on CNN, Sarah Palin on Fox. Do you think a politician having a constant presence on TV helps or hurts a political career?

Well, TV looks for experts. They look for people who bring a certain point of view. They look for people who know the process, and so it’s natural that they recruit from the political world. Public service, after all, is the most visible form of leadership in our society, so it’s natural that they go and find former politicians, former campaign strategists and in some cases, former business executives to serve as analysts and hosts for various TV programs.

You’ve been a contributor on CNN, ABC News, and NPR. Have you ever regretted something that you’ve said, or has something you said ever been misconstrued?

Oh absolutely. There’s no question when you’re on TV — for example, on Sunday mornings when I’m on This Week — you get graded based on the truthfulness of what you say. I find that to be a challenge, but it helps me put together the very best research before going on a Sunday show. I try to do my research, I try to understand my facts, I try to read the legislation before I comment on it. Does it make me work harder? Yes, because you can utilize talking points, but they’re not the meat and bones of what you try to tell the viewers.

What was it and how did you handle the fallout?

Politics is a rough and tumble business. It’s not for the faint-hearted. I’ve got bruises and cuts from being in the political arena. But by and large, I understand how to navigate the process. Yeah, from time to time I make mistakes, but I try to work through my issues by learning from others, by not repeating the same mistake twice, and by going out there everyday to do the best job possible.

Cable news is often accused of pitting analysts and commentators against each other, encouraging them to be loud, angry, or engage in heated debates. Do you think that’s a fair accusation?

I wrote a column a couple of months ago in The Washington Post, saying that the one thing I would get rid of in the world would be hyper-partisan political pundits because I think they add more heat than light to the political debate. They don’t provide critical analysis for issues like healthcare, where it’s important to inform the public about what’s at stake and how it impacts their lives — and not just disagree basically because your party doesn’t like it.

As a frequent on-air commentator, how do you get your point of view across without attacking other guests?

I have a simple rule: when I’m on TV, I’m not talking to just my anchor or my colleague on my right. I’m talking to America. I look into the lens and in my head, I’m talking to somebody in Nebraska. Why Nebraska? Why the Cornhusker State? I have no idea. But it feels like it’s a good place to talk to people.

What’s one subject that you’re passionate about that you haven’t been able to really dive into yet? How will you do it? Book, documentary, speaking tour?

I want to write my second book. At some point, I’m just going to have to push myself away from the political table and take time out to write it. I want to continue what I started when I wrote my first book. I ended that by saying one day we would see a minority female in the White House. Now that has come to pass, so I want to look at the future of American politics. Where do we go after this period of political turmoil and uncertainty? I’m looking at that and giving people an overview of what has happened over the last five years in American politics, some of the broad changes I see on the political landscape. And there’s another book I’ve been anxious to write, and that’s post-racial America. I want to talk about how we set out to get the country on the right path and here we are today, even further divided than we were before. So I have a lot of other ideas, but as they say in the movies: just wait.

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Janelle Harris is a freelance writer in Washington, D.C. She documents her editorial adventures at www.thewriteordiechick.com.

It takes a visionary to sculpt an entire publication into something that thousands, maybe even millions of people want to read from one month, week or day to the next. And stepping into the institution that is Essence, a mag with roots running 40 years deep and a readership of multi-generational Black women, is like being a new host for Amateur Night at the legendary Apollo Theater. Think not? Note the major fracas surrounding its hiring of a white fashion director this past summer.

Still, Emil Wilbekin, a two-time Webby honoree and the man who once helmed Vibe and Giant, stays focused on moving the Essence machine in a digital direction, marrying the overall vision for the brand with his own multifaceted background in fashion and entertainment. So far, so good: more than a million monthly visitors flock to Essence.com now under his tutelage. We spoke with the multimedia man about his latest muse and what it takes to make a great journalist.

Name: Emil Wilbekin
Position: Managing editor, Essence.com
Resume: Founding editor at Vibe magazine, climbing ranks from style editor, fashion director and ultimately, editor-in-chief from 1999-2004 before transitioning to VP of brand development for Vibe Ventures. Became head honcho of Vibe.com and Vibe TV, and executive produced the Vibe Awards. Served as consultant on projects like Lebron James’s official website and blog. Switched gears to become VP of brand development for Marc Ecko clothing line. Contributed to the company’s magazine, Complex, as well as reporting and writing for AOL Black Voices and the Huffington Post. Named editor-in-chief of Giant and re-launched award-winning website for now-defunct mag. Stepped into current managing editor position at Essence.com in 2009.
Birthdate: September 16
Hometown: Cincinnati, OH
Education: Undergrad degree in mass media from Hampton University and a master’s in journalism from Columbia University
Marital status: Single
First section of the Sunday Times: Style
Favorite TV show: Glee
Guilty pleasure: Real Housewives of Atlanta
Last book read: Easy Riders, Raging Bulls by Peter Biskind
Twitter handle: @emilwilbekin

As a man who’s at the helm of a brand that speaks intimately to the lives and experiences of women, how are you able to relate to the content and, more importantly, make sure it’s relevant to your readers? Have you ever missed the mark?
You immerse yourself in the subject matter but you also listen to the audience. I listen to the amazing women in my life and in this office, and I really listen to the comments on social media and the site. They’re the best resource and research that I could ever have, because the audience is very vocal. So, they tell you what they like and don’t like. The beauty of digital is that you can change things very quickly, so if I have questions I’ll usually toss them up on Facebook to see what the audience thinks about things. I’ve definitely missed the mark, though, and I think that’s just a part of life.

What have you done to increase Essence.com’s readership since you came on board? Is it encroaching on Essence‘s print numbers?
We very much view Essence.com as an extension of Essence magazine, and we hope to provide a solution for the Essence reader in a digital format. If she reads the magazine every month, what would she read every day? So it’s complementary, the website and the magazine, and I think that it’s challenging sometimes because the magazine is a 40-year-old brand and we’re creating that younger, faster, daily digital destination. To increase traffic on Essence.com, we’ve done a combination of producing more relevant content, covering news that’s topical and using social media to help drive engagement from Facebook, Twitter to bit.ly. We’ve also done some partnerships with other sites like CNN and People.com. Those things have helped to grow the audience.

Your decision to include a lesbian couple in the Bridal Bliss section was a first for Essence.com. Why was this particular issue the right time to incorporate a gay wedding into the feature?
Essence magazine has had a history of covering LGBT topics, but it was a first for Essence.com. I think it was the right time to cover this story, because, that particular week, there were so many LGBT topics in the news, from gay marriage to gays in the military to bullying to a homophobic attack on gay men and gangs in the Bronx. In the governor’s race, there was talk about gay culture and homosexuality. It was an appropriate story in that sense, because we concentrate on love and weddings every Wednesday and it fit perfectly into that. It was also topical to the discussion about gay marriage. Like any editor, I’m always looking for really good stories. But I didn’t go after this story; the story came to me.

What do you pull from your skill set that’s made you successful in both fashion and media for so many years? What specific challenges have you faced as an openly gay Black man working in those worlds?
I think the skill sets are very similar for fashion and journalism in that, for me, it’s all about journalism, reporting, and discovery, and how do you create conversations and move culture. I think they’re both about change and news and visuals and multi-culture. They work really well together. But I’ve actually been very fortunate that my sexual orientation has not been a challenge in the workplace. If anything, it seems to be an asset because I’ve been honored by many civic organizations for being an openly gay man in media. I haven’t been judged by that. I’ve been judged on the basis of my work.

Now that you’ve conquered both fashion and journalism, what would you add to make yourself a triple threat?
I’m a great dancer. No, I’m just kidding. Well, I haven’t written a book yet and I haven’t finished a screenplay yet. I think those would make me a triple threat. I work on them when I can but when you’re running a website, it’s challenging to do any other kind of writing.

Have Giant‘s and Vibe‘s struggles to stay afloat surprised you at all? As a former insider, what lessons did you learn there, and what do you think their legacies are?

It was surprising to me that Vibe had to struggle. Giant was very niche and independent, so I kind of knew that that was going to be challenging. I think we’re living in a very interesting time in terms of media; so I think it’s hard to stay relevant, stay afloat. The lessons I’ve learned is that you always have to be thinking ahead. You have to be learning about new technology, new platforms and really be in tune with how people are communicating. You just have to be ahead of the curve, which is part of the reason why I decided to work in digital because I wanted to be able to be versatile in my journalism.

I think Vibe‘s legacy will be that it covered hip-hop in its golden era. When hip-hop was at its zenith, Vibe chronicled the ups and downs and in betweens of hip-hop and urban culture. Giant‘s legacy is that it really took urban culture and made it multicultural and edgy and kind of rock and roll. My eulogy would be: Giant was a giant, but sometimes big ideas come in small packages.

What do think is missing in Black media? Describe one magazine or website that has yet to be written that you think needs to be a part of the canon.
It would be nice to have more: more magazines, more websites, more television networks. I think that sometimes we live in a “crabs in a barrel” syndrome in that we think we can only have one Black magazine and one Black website and one Black TV network. But Black people — and African-Americans specifically — are very diverse. It would be great to have more to cover the vastness of African-Americans and Black people around the world. I still wonder, specifically in the age of Obama, why we don’t have a Black Vanity Fair.

What are three mistakes you made along the way that you would warn journalism students to be mindful of?
I would encourage them to be very versatile in terms of their journalism skills, so print, digital, television. They should be well versed in everything. I would tell them not to drink the Kool-Aid, and I would tell them to start writing their books early in their careers, be they paper or digital.

Essence was once the only media outlet targeting Black women, but today entertainment blogs have built a huge following by focusing on that audience, particularly by serving up gossip. How does Essence.com position itself in the face of that competition?
We are the authority on Black women in the digital landscape, and we have a history of great journalism, so we don’t do gossip. What we do is topical and relevant. We have access to celebrities that we leverage and resources as a part of Time Warner. Then we have the heritage and brand weight of Essence to lean on, 40 years of authority on Black beauty and hair. We know that Black women have grown up with us and their mothers have grown up with us, so they feel that this is a community for them. I think that that’s something that we have that’s different from the other sites.

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Janelle Harris is a freelance writer in Washington, D.C. She documents her editorial adventures at www.thewriteordiechick.com.

The marriage between Debra Lee and Black Entertainment Television has been a professional mash-up of two standouts. On one side, one of the few African-American women to head a multi-million dollar media brand; on the other, the first Black cable network and the first Black company to be traded on the New York Stock Exchange. Yet, like most high profile partnerships, the union was beleaguered with baggage aplenty. The 30-year-old network has been publicly mollywhopped for its stereotypical representation of Black folks, (particularly women), a lineup too reliant on music programming, and “selling out” after it was purchased by Viacom in 2001.

But Lee isn’t trying to rerun that drama-filled past. For the past five years, she and her team have diligently rolled out a new plan set to change the dynamic of the network’s content, adding original programming and solution-based reality shows to deliver a more well-rounded portrayal of Black America to its 89 million viewing households. Factor in the rebranding of BETJ as Centric, a new channel targeting the 25-54 crowd, and the acquisition of the legendary Soul Train brand to round out Lee’s buildup of new offerings. On the heels of BET’s acclaimed special Black Girls Rock, the recent Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame inductee talks frankly about Black TV, the Obama administration and why reality shows aren’t always pretty.

Name: Debra Lee
Position: Chairwoman and CEO, BET Networks
Resume: Served as law clerk to the late Honorable Barrington Parker of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. Spent five years as corporate attorney with D.C. law firm Steptoe & Johnson. Joined Black Entertainment Television (BET) in 1986 as general counsel and vice president of legal affairs, assuming additional responsibilities and titles including publisher of BET’s magazine division, president and chief operating officer, until she was named chairwoman and chief executive officer in 2005.
Birthdate: August 8
Hometown: Greensboro, NC
Education: Bachelor’s degree in political science from Brown University, a master’s from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government and a JD from Harvard Law School.
Marital status: Divorced
First section of the Sunday Times: Style
Favorite TV show: Two and a Half Men
Guilty pleasure: Shopping
Last book read: “I can’t admit to the last book that I read.” [laughs]
Twitter handle: “I don’t Twitter. I have a hard enough time keeping up with email. I figure if I want to be in touch with people, I’m in touch with them already.”
You’ve said that you wanted to create a brand identity for BET using original programming, but the network has launched a heavy rotation of reality shows as part of its regular lineup. How do you think these shows reflect on BET? Do you have any plans for original scripted shows?

Well, there are two types of reality shows. There are observational reality shows and then there’s the competitive kind, whether it’s a singing competition or whatever. We’ve done both kinds. The observational ones can vary according to who you’re focusing on — we try to focus on positive people. We have Family Crews, which is like a modern-day Cosby Show, very family oriented. But then we have Tiny & Toya, who may have issues personally or in their family, but we kind of help them and make that part of the show. We want to make sure that we show real life through reality shows and real life is not always positive. But if it’s not positive, we try to help the stars get to a place where they can solve their problems, like on the Keyshia Cole show. Frankie [Cole’s mother] had some drug issues that we helped her work with. So it can be tricky because sometimes on reality shows, the ones that do the best are the train wrecks and we try to stay away from that as we build our new brand strategy, where we’re trying to inspire and motivate folks. But there are issues in real life and you have to deal with those if you’re following someone 24 hours a day.

In terms of scripted shows, we’re bringing back The Game, which everyone is very excited about. And then we have another show that we’re doing with Queen Latifah’s production company called Let’s Stay Together, which is about two sisters and their romantic relationships and their relationship with each other. Then there’s a third that I just greenlit called Read Between the Lines with Tracee Ellis Ross and Malcolm-Jamal Warner. There’s already been a lot of buzz about all of them. So we’re still going to continue doing reality but we are moving heavily into the scripted area. There is a lot of talent in Black Hollywood — producers, directors and actors — who want to work and it’s something that our audience has been asking for for a long time.

Your original plan was to take your background in law and work in the White House. If you were a part of the Obama administration, what capacity would you like to be working with him?
My original plan wasn’t necessarily to get to the White House, but go into government. Unfortunately, when I started practicing law in Washington, Ronald Reagan won and I didn’t want to go into a Republican administration. Republicans stayed in office for 12 years. So during that time, I stayed at a law firm for five years, got tired of doing that and eventually went in-house to BET as general counsel and I’ve been having so much fun at BET for the past 25 years that I haven’t thought about leaving.

But if I was a little bit younger, I would’ve jumped at the chance to go into this administration, though I think from my position at BET, I’ve been very helpful to the President. We’re able to do a lot by encouraging our audience to get out and vote, so I’m very proud of what we accomplished during his campaign. I kind of like the vantage point I have. I’m in Washington; I run the biggest Black media company in existence; I have the most well-known brand. So, I think I can be most helpful from this perspective and vantage point than I could by working in the White House.

BET has come under fire for its negative representations of Black women. You recently participated in a two-day summit that laid these issues on the line. Why did you initiate this discussion? What do you think is fair or unfair about those accusations?

A lot of that criticism was brought about by hip-hop videos and the problems people were having with the images in them. We’re not as much into music videos as we used to be — we only have one or two shows left as we get more into original programming. I’ve been working very hard to change people’s impression of BET and it’s working. There’s no criticism of BET that I know of right now in terms of our images of women. I mean, how can you watch Black Girls Rock, which got over three million viewers, and see all of those young women in the audience and the women we honored from Ruby Dee to KeKe Palmer to Raven Symone and say that we’re not showing positive images of Black women? The ratings for BET are going up. We had our best year ever in 2009 and 2010 was better, so it’s hard to say that people aren’t watching because they’re not getting what they want.

Now the reason that I had that Leading Women Defined Conference is that I wanted Black women to be able to come together and talk about other issues, including education, healthcare, and how we go green as a community. My thought was to invite the 100 most powerful Black women I know to Washington so they could interact with the powerful Black women we have in this administration, including Valerie Jarrett and Melody Barnes. We had a panel on images of Black women. That’s something we should continue to talk about, but we have other issues. We can’t ignore the healthcare reform, what’s happening in our community with HIV and AIDS or the mental health issues that our young people — and mature folks — are dealing with. This is a time to make our voices heard.

What plans do you have to rebuild your news offerings?
We’re doing more news on BET.com, because that’s where young people today want to get their news. They don’t want to wait for an 11 PM news show anymore. I was talking to my 17-year-old daughter and I told her we’re bringing back news and she said, ‘Why would you have news on BET? Everyone gets their news online.’ So we have to keep up with this generation and give them the news where they get it first, whether that’s mobile, online or on their iPads, and then hopefully give them a deeper perspective with Ed Gordon’s weekly show. So we’re heavily into news, more so than any other Black network, and always have been because when something happens in our community, our audience wants to be able to come to BET first and get our perspective and voice their own perspective.

When Bob Johnson retired and turned the reigns over to you in 2005, you had already played a major part in taking BET from a small company to a billion dollar operation. Were you watching him like, ‘I’ll do this, this and this differently when I’m CEO?’
When I became CEO after Bob left, I had to ask myself what did I want my legacy to be. A couple of years after I took over, we went over the branding strategy because we were starting to have competition in the Black programming space, and we really needed to better define who we were and what we were going to do and what we weren’t going to do. So I didn’t walk into the role knowing what I wanted to accomplish. I knew some things, but I also wanted to learn from our focus groups, learn from our audience and take my experience from the past 20 years at BET and decide the next area that I wanted to go into. It’s an evolving thing.

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Janelle Harris is a freelance writer in Washington, D.C. She documents her editorial adventures at www.thewriteordiechick.com.

Now celebrating his 12th anniversary in the industry, entertainment news guru Jawn Murray enjoys notoriety as one of the most recognizable experts on Black Hollywood — but please don’t confuse his inside reporting with the dreaded “G” word. “I guess I technically am in the gossip industry, but I really hate that term,” he explains, “because for one, I studied journalism and, for two, ‘gossip’ has such a negative connotation to it.”

Fresh off of a successful stint as a columnist for AOL Black Voices, Murray reluctantly penned his last column for the site after becoming less than thrilled by new creative restrictions imposed by the Huffington regime. With that turbulence behind him — some are already speculating that Arianna and her crew will dump Black Voices altogether — Murray is pushing on with his radio gig on the Tom Joyner Morning Show and excited about new possibilities ahead. Here, the self-proclaimed one-man machine talks blogging, business, and his Nancy Grace regret.

Name: Jawn Murray
Position: Celebrity journalist
Resume: Launched career while still an undergrad at Norfolk State University (go Spartans!), penning an entertainment and lifestyle column for EURweb.com. Served as entertainment news reporter to eponymous radio shows for Doug Banks, Bo Griffin and Rolonda Watts. Recruited by AOL Black Voices in 2004 to pen the “BV Buzz” column that ultimately helped drive 75 percent of the site’s traffic to the entertainment news section. Former entertainment go-to guy for the now-defunct Star Jones Show on TruTV. Regularly appears on CNN, MSNBC, VH1, BET and TV One and currently featured on the nationally syndicated Tom Joyner Morning Show. Penned stories for New York Daily News, OK!, Uptown and In Touch. Named one of the “30 on the Rise” by Ebony and recognized as one of “40 Power Players Under 40” by NAACP.
Birthday: April 21
Hometown: Warrenton, VA
Education: Studied journalism at Norfolk State University
Marital status: Single
Media idol: Oprah Winfrey and “anybody who’s ever really worked in entertainment news”
Favorite TV show: The Game
Guilty pleasure: Watching professional wrestling
Last book read: “I just started Star Jones’ Satan’s Sisters. Before that, I read Kirk Franklin’s The Blueprint.”
Twitter handle: @jawnmurray

So, when you were an undergrad at Norfolk State, were you the man with all the juicy gossip on campus?
When I was in school, I left for a year to intern at a radio station in Washington, DC called WPGC. Around that time, the Internet was really taking off, so I developed an online newsletter because I had worked with Michele Wright, the midday host there, helping to produce content for her entertainment news segment. And so that’s kind of how I got bit by the bug. So I set out to be a one-man Access Hollywood, so to speak. When I went back to school, it was funny because artists would come to town to perform, and people were surprised that they gravitated to me the way that they did. But they didn’t necessarily recognize that I had this year to kind of build these industry relationships even while I was in school.

You’ve held down multiple high-profile gigs. How does each new venture come into place? Do you go out and pitch yourself or do companies generally come to you?
I had been writing a number one column for EURweb.com called “Jawn’s Juice,” and at that time, they were probably the most prominent urban entertainment portal on the Web. We were reaching lots of people. So when AOL acquired Black Voices, they originally approached Karu F. Daniels about coming on as an entertainment columnist. But when he heard the description, he thought I was better suited for the opportunity and he actually recommended me for it. What was funny was that a year later, Karu joined the company in a different capacity and became my boss.

Tom [Joyner] and his team had invited me to come on his Tom Joyner Morning Show cruise as a personality for three years. And so there was an incident with Bobby Brown that ultimately led to him getting separated from Whitney Houston and I went on the show — I believe it was in September 2006 — just as a subject matter expert just to talk about their split. Tom liked the way I did entertainment news in a very talking-to-my-friend kind of way, and I made everybody on the show laugh. They literally made me an offer to join the show that same day.

Are you choosing to keep your focus on the Black community or do you have plans to broaden your interests into, say, an Extra and Entertainment Tonight?
I eat, sleep and breathe Black entertainment, but I also love going on shows like Jane Velez-Mitchell, Joy Behar on HLN and talking about Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera or Charlie Sheen. I really have to credit Star Jones, because when she had her show on Court TV, I was the entertainment and pop culture contributor, and she encouraged me to do stories that were outside of my regular subject matter. Her whole thing was, ‘I talk to you on a personal level and we talk about everything entertainment, so I want you to convey that on my show,’ which made me an overall better talent. Black entertainment is my focus, but I’m not limited to it.

In 2010, you tweeted “all those militant-nappy headed #angryblack women who didn’t think Tyler Perry was worthy of doing For Colored Girls can kick rocks.” The people were not amused. What did you learn from that experience?
In retrospect, I probably would not have tweeted it. It was a bad joke; anyone who knows me, anyone who’s heard me on the radio, anyone who’s followed my work knows that I have a snarky, sarcastic, sometimes dry sense of humor. For years, I had been the one on the phone helping my high-profile friends like Sherri Shepard when her whole “is the Earth round or flat” quote was taken out of context. So, while I’ve become comfortable being a visible media personality, I never realized the impact and the reach I had until I was on the receiving end of the treatment I got last fall. I learned one, that there are more eyes on me than I recognized, and two, when those amounts of people are watching what you say and do, you have to be conscientious. Some of the irreverent things you would say in private with your friends don’t work on the social media platform.

Working in the entertainment business can make you a target for retaliation from celebs who are — shall we say, resistant? — to being a topic of discussion. What’s a story you regretted covering?
I only have one regret. I was on the episode of Nancy Grace that did like this whole tabloid-y ambush on [singer] Fantasia when she was going through the situation with the extramarital affair. Going into the show, I reached out to her manager to get a statement that captured her voice. Unfortunately, by the time I got to the studio, he had released the statement to TMZ and CNN and to the AP, so Nancy Grace’s show wouldn’t let me read it on air. The only thing that I was able to say was that I, like all the rest of her fans and people following her career, wanted to believe the best in her. But I did not know that show was going to run these packages that were really damaging. In retrospect, I would not have wanted to do that episode, especially knowing the impact that it ultimately had on her and her saying that it contributed to her wanting to kill herself. I don’t feel directly responsible because I did everything I needed to do as a journalist to be fair and balanced, but the show became such a negative situation.

There have been some celebrity feuds — anybody who does anything in entertainment will tell you that celebrities are the most sensitive, insecure people you’re going to deal with. And more times than none, they get mad when you tell the truth about them. I had some celebrity wives or ex-wives get mad at me. I’ve had a comedian get mad at my impersonation of her on the radio. I had a very public and notorious feud with [singer] Brandy, and it’s funny because she and I have never met in person. It literally went from her mother wanting to be my manager to them trying to get me fired from all of my jobs. I initially reported a story on the radio that they vehemently denied, but Brandy ultimately disclosed it was true in a Sister 2 Sister magazine cover story a year later. So that’s the type of foolishness that we deal with.

What, in your opinion, is the difference between entertainment journalism and entertainment blogging? Is there any difference at all?
Blogging has made entertainment journalists the good guys. I mean, we’re like the Sunday school teachers because of the salacious, scandalous, inflammatory websites — I mean, they’re like the Jerry Springer Shows of entertainment news portals. I have issues with the way some people handle the whole blogging platform because anybody who’s intentionally mean-spirited is just problematic for me. But on the good side of it, they’ve made celebrities gravitate to folk like me because they know people respect our voice and we can help them clean up a lot of the mess that’s made online.

What advice would you give to other journos looking to branch out the same way you have?
Create your own audience and find your voice, because that is what makes you unique. Don’t aim to be like anybody: The reason Ryan Seacrest is Ryan Seacrest is because he’s Ryan Seacrest. So, while you may like aspects of why he is successful, find out how to be the best you that you can be. That’ll make you stand out in the crowd. Don’t do or say anything about anybody that you wouldn’t want done to yourself. Maintain integrity and study the industry. Knowing the business, knowing who you are and building authentic relationships that can grow organically can take you far.

NEXT >>

Janelle Harris is a freelance writer in Washington, D.C. She documents her editorial adventures at www.thewriteordiechick.com.

It’s not good enough to just have a space online these days — everyone and their grandmother have one of those. It’s how you work your Facebook page or mommy blog or political discussion board that makes all the difference. A mere two years out of Stanford with her Phi Beta Kappa credentials a-blazin’, Megan Berry is helping folks maximize their media marketing swagger at Klout, a company that measures social media users’ influence across networks.

Setting the standard for moving and shaking in the digital space is one of the things she loves. “You’re able to break new ground. Right now, best practices are being discovered, whereas in traditional marketing, those best practices are pretty much set,” offers Berry, who will be helping people increase their shareability at this month’s Socialize West conference. “Community management is really important for business, and finding top advocates and helping them evangelize a brand are becoming really key for every company.”

Mere status updates are so passé. It’s time to move on to social media strategy.

Name: Megan Berry
Resume: Completed two internships at Palo Alto Software and one at Nombray before being hired as social media and marketing evangelist at Mobclix in 2009. Joined Klout in April 2010 as marketing manager, where she’s honing specialties in social media, blogging and influencer marketing. Blogger for Brazen Careerist, Part Time Perfectionist and The Huffington Post.
Birthdate: April 13th
Hometown: Eugene, OR
Education: Bachelor’s degree in poli sci from Stanford University. Graduated Phi Beta Kappa.
Marital status: Single
Media idol: “Does Marissa Mayer count?”
Favorite TV show: Modern Family
Guilty pleasure: TV
Last book read: Bossypants by Tina Fey
Twitter handle: @meganberry

How has marketing in the online space shifted over the last five years and how do you expect it to change in the next five?
I think the biggest shift that’s been happening, even more than the past five years, is the importance of individual influencers and how we trust our friends and connections as opposed to mass media and ads. So, marketers have been focused on blogger outreach campaigns — we do our own at Klout, as well — but overall you see an emphasis on the individual and community-building as opposed to mass messages.

Were you a computer marketing geek at Stanford?
I had my own website when I was 11, and I did programming in high school. But, then when I got to Stanford I became a little more liberal arts-ish. I studied political science there and took all sorts of communications classes. I got more on the people side of technology as opposed to the programming side.

A lot of folks embrace the communications component of marketing but can’t seem to get a grip on the business side. Where’s the disconnect and how can they fix it?
I think it’s important to back up everything you’re doing with metrics. In the end, your marketing is to serve a purpose, which is to get more users and to get more money. You have to make sure that your efforts are backing up to those numbers. Certainly, the tools out there to measure are often imperfect, but you can get really good gauges to help you understand if your campaigns are taking you in the right direction. Things we look at is how many times Klout is mentioned in social networks and on blogs and in PR, as well as looking at how much traffic our site gets from those social media networks and really understanding where people are coming from, what’s driving our registration and the re-generation from our campaigns, as well.

We know that the new Plus K feature is a great way for folks to build up their reputations as experts on particular subjects. How did you position yourself as a marketing aficionada?
Certainly through social media platforms, but something that helped me was that I guest listed on Mashable and Huffington Post and other outlets similar to that on social media strategies and tactics. And that helped get my name out there in that field.

What inspired you to build a website at the tender age of 11? Did you parents even understand what you were doing?
Well, I was lucky that my dad was always very big into tech so he helped me with it. But it was a place where you could adopt virtual pets, and I also wrote book reviews. I think I was just interested by the ability to put something out there that people across the globe could see, which now people are so used to that it doesn’t seem novel. But, at the time, it was pretty trippy. It stayed up until I was about 16, and then I decided that that website wasn’t cool anymore.

You were Klout’s second employee, and now you advise other startups. What did you learn firsthand that you impart as business wisdom?
You have to focus on the people and the individuals and build advocates who can then endorse your brand for you. It’s become a cliché now, but content is king. You really want to get great content that people want to share and engage with in a way that is positive on all sides. Not just send people ads, but really get them excited about what you’re doing. Focus on topics of influence. We look at people who care about wine or people who are influential about technology — and those tend to have demos that come with them — but we’re more interested in what they’re talking about, what they’re sharing, what they’re engaged in.

You’re a blogger yourself, so you know how huge the opportunities are. But plenty of people are struggling to figure out how to market their site. How can they set themselves apart in the social media and online marketing space?
I think the important thing is when you’re writing, when you’re talking to people, when you’re engaging, try to put the focus as much as possible on other people. How you can help them, what they’re doing that’s great, what you want to learn from them. Really make it about them and their actions, and people really appreciate that. You’ll start to be known as someone who helps out and offers helpful advice. In general, blogging is about focusing on the audience. If you’re writing for a mom blog and you’re talking about your own kid, you need to talk about them in a way that other moms can relate to, like how does this matter to them? There are exceptions. There are people who can write autobiographies and people who are really fascinated by them. But, in general, I think there are a limited number of people who are skillful enough writers to really do that.

What’s the greatest lesson you’ve learned about yourself since you started on this career path? How has it impacted your career?
That’s a tricky one. I think I’ve learned to roll with the punches. I had been the type of person who liked to have things fully planned out and scheduled and liked everything in its place. But very quickly, as you get on with media management and social media marketing, you realize that you have to roll with the punches and things are not going to go as planned. You need to adapt very quickly, and that’s something I learned on the job.

A lot of people have heard about Klout but aren’t on board yet. Can you give us the quick pitch on why people should sign up?
We measure people’s influence online. And we believe everyone has influence, so anyone can sign up with Klout. You can find out your influence on up to 12 social networks including Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. I think in this day and age we’re increasingly talking about personal brand and how your social media presence matters for getting a job and impacts various aspects of your life, and you should at least stay on top of it and understand what it means and how you can leverage it.

What’s one thing you’ll be sharing at the Socialize conference?
I think, in general, when people ask about influence and how to increase it, it’s about creating really great content that other people want to share and engage with. Then, it’s about finding other people who are passionate about the same things and connecting with them.

NEXT >> So What Do You Do, Clara Shih, Founder and CEO of Hearsay Social?

Janelle Harris is a freelance writer in Washington, D.C. She documents her editorial adventures at www.thewriteordiechick.com.

Like scandals and socialites, mechanics and checkbooks, runs and pantyhose, freelancers and editors just go together. OK. Maybe they’re not one of the first (or second or third) famous duos to come to mind but, for the most part, they rely on one another to create editorial magic for a world of readers, both online and in print.

At some point, a writer is going to run up against an editor who hops on her last nerve and dangles on it in American Gladiator-like fashion — but the agitation goes both ways. Betwixt the assigning of new stories and adjusting their serial comma-ed simple series for the umpteenth time, editors have their own list of likes and dislikes that can get you flooded with assignments or blackballed. In an effort to help you sell more (and irritate less), we asked several of them for their biggest pet peeves about freelance writers. Brace yourself.

1. They don__?t get the basics right.

There are some editors who have developed a reputation for being dragons of nitpickiness, and they have earned their rightful places in editorial infamy. There are others who just ask that their names be spelled right or, at the very least, the name of their publication is correct. So it understandably irks them when one or both of those faux pas are laid at their doorstep by freelancers expecting to get in their good graces — and get assigned a story. Fail and fail some more.

2. They get lazy.

Everyone makes a little oopsie now and then — heck, if they didn’t, editors would be out of jobs. Yet, getting sloppy by not proofing your work before submitting or tossing out 500 words when you know the column runs at 750 is not a good way to keep the assignments rolling in. Rebecca Dolgin, executive editor of XO Group Inc., which produces uber popular pubs like The Knot, The Nest and WeddingChannel.com, has two pet peeves that fall squarely under that category: “Not providing back up for their stories and forgetting to invoice,” she says. Getting repeat business from an editor means that, once upon a time, they liked your work. Mucking it up with laziness when you’re clearly capable of better is a surefire way to get added to an editor’s “do not call” list.

3. They pull the ol’ pitch-and-stalk.

Stalking doesn’t work well in relationships, and it won’t endear you to an editor, either. “I tell people how I communicate best, so do not do drive-bys at work. Freelancers think that because they sent a pitch, it’s an automatic ‘in’ like ‘I sent my pitch. I don’t understand why you haven’t responded,'” says Tanisha Sykes, senior editor of personal finance and careers at Essence, who’s actually had freelancers lure her downstairs by claiming to have a package for her just to find out the status of their pitch. (Cue screeching horror movie music.) That’s clearly not the way. “I have a lot of pitches that come across my desk. Maybe that particular one is just not a good pitch for us right now,” she says, adding, “I think people need to go back to mediabistro.com and really look at how editors want them to pitch.”

4. They miss deadlines and don’t give a heads up (or a damn).

You can get on an editor’s bad side faster than a Kardashian marriage can fail by not delivering a piece as promised. “Be honest,” says Michele Zipp, senior editor of The Stir, a blog on Cafemom.com, named one of the 50 best websites by TIME. She has a simple, not at all outlandish expectation of writers. “It’s okay if you can’t get to an assignment, but just be truthful about it and don__?t make up an excuse.”

The entire business of pumping out editorial content runs on production schedules, and the last thing editors want to do with their long hours is hunt down a story. It’s just another thing to schlep onto their to-do list and doesn’t make the individual at the other end of the story any more popular for it.

5. They waste everybody’s time with irrelevant pitches.

Hitting on the exact right formula that makes a pitch sing — and sell — takes research and perseverance and sometimes just lots of trial and error (emphasis on error). Editors hate it when the story ideas they get just flat out don’t have anything to do with their publication. Dolgin lists it as one of her top three irks about freelancers.

Just as bad, adds Sykes, are writers who think that previous experience with the mag precludes them from pitching. “If we’ve developed a good rapport, they think a one-sentence pitch is comprehensive,” and that’s not right, she says. “People should never mistake having a relationship with an editor for doing your due diligence when it comes to a pitch.”

6. They publicly bite the hand that feeds them (or, in this case, fed).

It’s amazing the many ways we can shoot ourselves in the foot in just 140 characters or less, and freelancers are far from immune to the impetuousness of social media. It__?s ever so easy to take to Twitter or Facebook and sock it to an editor who ripped your story to shreds or shot down your 50th pitch for the 50th time. But if it gets back to the editor at the end of the 140-character assault, you can kiss that gig and probably a dozen others buh-bye. (If you already hit ‘send,’ there are some graceful ways to recover from a public faux pas.) So, think before you Tweet, and respect the relationships you worked so hard to form. Knowing when to use “less than” and “fewer than” is cool, but your success as a freelancer also hinges on the intangible: likeability.

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

Janelle Harris is a freelance writer in Washington, D.C. She documents her editorial adventures at www.thewriteordiechick.com.

So you wanna be a journalist?

Welcome to the craft, but wave toodle-loo to standard work hours. Deadlines will rule your world, a by-any-means-necessary attitude will drive your assignments, and you’ll likely talk to editors more frequently than your chat with dear ol’ mom. Brace yourself for an obsession with itty bitty details like word choice — what would happen if you were just crazy enough to use “vermillion” instead of “crimson?” — and oh, one more thing: you have to pick a niche to build your skills around. Then again, maybe not.

Seasoned journalists have, for the longest time, advised industry newbies and media fortune-seekers to find a beat that focuses their career aspirations in one particular area. Music and sports aficionado Nelson George offered this bit of wisdom to recent J-school graduates:

“Become a specialist. If you’re a good enough writer, sure, you can write about everything. But I do think to become a well-known force, you have to be known for being an expert — being very versed in economics, being very versed in health, being very versed in music, being very versed in sports. People are looking for people who seem to know a lot about something. That’s why blogs are so interesting, why some websites and TV shows, too. So I think having an area of specialization or expertise is very important.”

Heart & Soul executive editor Kendra Lee agrees. True, there’s no hard and fast rule when it comes to shaping your entire career on a single area of specialty, she says. But she still thinks it’s a wise thing to consider. Writers can’t afford to be one-trick ponies in this economy. (Don’t we all know?) With so many other opportunities looming as offshoots of an editorial career — television appearances, speaking engagements, book projects — having a niche establishes journalists as instant experts because they know a subject inside and out.

Lee shaped her own career around black women’s health and is one in a very small body of specialists in that area. “I covered entertainment, including sports and a little bit of health, for a number of years. One day, I woke up and realized I didn’t care which celebrity was dating which athlete, or which teams were headed toward the playoffs, or who had new music dropping,” she remembers. “I wanted to cover something meaningful, and I’d also dealt with a serious illness and had to bone up on my health knowledge to know what questions to ask doctors. So, I shifted my focus to health, specifically women’s health.”

She counts herself among roughly five or six female journalists in the country who are considered experts in the area of black women’s health. Being one in that very small, but very in-demand, number has given her a steady stream of work and a reputation as an authority in the field. “Picking a niche helps down the road, especially if it’s a subject that isn’t overloaded with writers. A media outlet might have all the entertainment reporters it needs, but few or no business writers,” she explains. “It’s also good to be a go-to writer on a topic. If your niche is women’s health, for example, you become an expert of sorts on the subject. That can come in handy on future projects, like books or CNN specials.”

Still, many writers struggle with a fear of commitment, worrying that by limiting themselves to one or two subject areas they’ll miss out on a wealth of general assignment or broader spectrum work — and the paychecks that go along with them. Fret not, says Nicholas Lemann, dean of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Thanks to the boom of blogs and online outlets, much of the field is being reconfigured anyway, he says. “A big part of the future of journalism is niche online publications and trying to deal with a complicated subject in depth for people who are especially interested in it. That’s part of the future of journalism — being able to really understand and discuss topics. The real question, he asks, “is this going to be a world where people pick one topic, one beat, and stay on it for life? Or is it a world where being on a beat, being an expert is important, but people will switch from topic to topic?”

What Lemann has seen, however, are students picking areas of study that they’re passionately interested in, even if, according to Lemann, they’re not the most in-demand. “Journalists are not the world__?s most practical people, so the areas where most jobs are are not always the areas that get the most applications,” he says.

You don’t have to give up on other interests in the name of being a subject guru. Find a way to make them intersect, advises Sherri Thomas, founder of Career Coaching 360, who helps clients around the world score their dream positions. “You’re going to be in higher demand if you have a niche. Every newspaper, every online magazine, they have two or three key areas that distinguish them from other media outlets. You want to be able to say, ‘I know your audience. I live it. I breathe it everyday. I am your person,'” she adds. “Once you show them you have expertise in this area, you want to say, ‘oh, by the way, I have these other key areas of expertise.’ By doing that, you’re showing them you also have other skills so they can tap into.”

Being a specialist hasn’t stalled Lee’s other passions. “Though I cover health, that hasn’t stopped me from doing the occasional relationship article, or travel story, or entertainment piece, or even sports feature,” she says. “You have to decide how much you can carry on your plate, however. I only do something non-health related if I know I’ll have enough time to do the appropriate reporting, because my contacts in those other fields aren’t as beefy as my health rolodex.” For general assignment journalists or writers who’ve established a name in one area and want to pare down, carving out a beat doesn’t limit career possibilities. In fact, it can open them up.

Tips for picking a niche:
1. Do your homework. If you know how to report, you can cover anything. You can switch from being a general assignment reporter to an education or science or fashion reporter.
2. Increase your network. If you’re an established journalist making a switch to a more specialized field, build up contacts in your new subject matter and let old contacts know you’re shifting your focus.

3. Stack your clips. Pitch stories in your specialty to outlets you have existing relationships with or new outlets with a need for that type of content to build up a portfolio in your new subject areas.

4. Specialize, even within your niche. Rather than billing yourself as a food critic, for example, narrow it down even more to a particular type of food like Brazilian or Italian. 5. Follow your passion. Don’t choose a beat just because it’s trendy or in high demand. This is an opportunity to shape an expertise around a subject — or handful of subjects — that genuinely matter to you.

NEXT >> The Real Deal on Writing For ‘Content Farms’

Janelle Harris is a freelance writer in Washington, D.C. She documents her editorial adventures at www.thewriteordiechick.com.

It’s hard to please everybody. So, imagine taking the helm of a magazine with a 65-year history and legions of readers — and critics — who want to see its glory days be a thing of its present, not its past. With the tastes of millions to consider, you better say something good.

That was the gauntlet laid in front of Amy DuBois Barnett when she accepted the job of editor-in-chief at Ebony, which was limping from lagging circulation and advertising. The former EIC of Teen People became the first African-American woman to head a mainstream pub when she took that brand from ho-hum to hot. She sprinkled similar magic over Ebony, redesigning it and making it one of the 25 fastest-growing consumer magazines. Barnett, who’s also one of the 50 most beautiful Chicagoans, talked to us about her journey, satisfying readers and how to reinvent a legend.

Name: Amy DuBois Barnett
Position: Editor-in-chief of Ebony
Resume: Worked in finance and as an assistant buyer at Lord & Taylor before breaking into journalism as a freelancer for Fashion Almanac while studying in Columbia University’s MFA program. Made major impact as EIC of Black girl bible Honey as well as Teen People, and served as lifestyle editor at Essence and deputy editor-in-chief at Harper’s Bazaar before starting own consulting business, Polymath Media. Published Get Yours!: How to Have Everything You Ever Dreamed of and More in 2008. Became EIC of Ebony in June 2010.
Birthday: September 5
Hometown: New York City
Education: Bachelor’s degree in political science and French from Brown University. Studied writing and literature at University College in Dublin. MFA in creative writing from Columbia University
Marital status: Divorced
Media idol: John H. Johnson
Favorite TV show: Gossip Girl
Guilty pleasure: See above
Last book read: Pym by Mat Johnson
Twitter handle: @amydbarnett

Chicago’s not as big a publishing capitol as New York. How does Johnson Publications’ location affect the types of stories you cover?
I think it was really important for me to be located in Chicago to run Ebony, because I think that the mistake that a lot of editors-in-chief make is to get too New York-centric in our coverage and our perspective. It’s really great to be able to more accurately portray the aesthetics and concerns and overarching perspectives of the people that I’m really trying to talk to, particularly for the audience that Ebony is targeting.

You had quite an interesting, albeit indirect, path to journalism. How did each experience make you a better editor and magazine aficionada?
Being a journalist and certainly working in the magazine world, I think it’s incredibly important to have a diverse set of experiences before you really focus on the profession, because everything that you do informs who you are as an editor and broadens your perspective and horizons and makes you a better journalist. I always tell people who want to go straight from college into journalism school or into working for a newspaper or magazine or website, just stop. Take a minute and go do something else, because you’re going to be a better journalist and certainly a better magazine editor after you do that. I mean right now, because I’ve been able to work in the fashion industry and the finance industry, lived on three continents, traveled all over the world, had a broad range of experiences — that makes me a very solid journalist with a broad perspective and a true ability to empathize with different target demographics.

Ebony has been long criticized for being out of touch with issues and trends in the Black community. How do you tackle the challenge of making it relevant to contemporary tastes but still staying true to the Ebony that we’ve known and obviously appreciated for so many years?
Well, that was my mandate when I took over. Ebony is obviously an iconic brand — it’s the oldest and largest magazine targeting African-Americans — but I was tasked with trying to figure out how to make it resonate and relevant to the next generation of readers. It’s really a matter of respecting everything that it has meant to our community for the past 65 years while at the same time incorporating the aesthetics, concerns and issues relative to them. So right now, when I picture who I’m speaking to, I think about a reader who’s in their early to mid 30s. I think not only about the demographic of them being African-American or located in the big city, but I also think about the psychographic of them being very goal-oriented, urban, interested, engaged, stylish individuals who want to have fun, want to be involved in their community, want to know what’s happening in the Black world, are involved with what’s happening with the world at large, like to travel, like to have experiences, at the same time like to go home for Thanksgiving. That’s the real psychographic profile that I’ve got in my head about who I’m talking to with the new Ebony.

The mag has also taken flack for its “fluff pieces” on Black celebs and leaders. Do you plan to challenge the subjects you cover more?
I don’t think anybody can look at the Ebony of the past year and a half and accuse it of being fluffy or superficial. I’ve been very proud of some of the packages that we’ve done on Detroit and on Black men and on education and multiracial culture in America, to name a few examples. We’ve been very clear about our mission of informing and empowering the African-American community, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive from a broad range of pacemakers and pundits alike. Everybody from Roland Martin to Al Sharpton have been very complimentary about where the magazine has been going recently, and we plan on continuing in that direction.

You also published a recent all-comedy and all-music issue, themes that honestly look more Vibe than Ebony. Is that a conscious decision to target readers of other mags? Who would you say your competitors are now?
First of all, I would say that I don’t think we’ve executed any packages that have been themed or derivative on any level. There’s no other media brand in the African-American community that does what Ebony does, which is to put out a real profound mix of political and social issues, as well as entertainment and culture, as well as relevant and cool styles. It’s a mixture that I think represented a real void in a way that the African-American community was being spoken to. So, I think Ebony is doing something that’s very unique. I’m focused on speaking to my target demographic, and I certainly welcome any consumers of any media who would like to become a member of the Ebony family. Obviously, we welcome anybody aboard.

Any negative feedback from Ebony‘s older, “legacy” readers?
The positive response to the redesign is so overwhelming. It’s so gratifying. It’s been incredible, the numbers of people who’ve written in, called in, told me on the street how much they love what’s happening at Ebony and how they’re so pleased and so proud. I was expecting a lot more resistance to be honest. Every now and then, we’ll get an email or a letter from a real old-timer saying, “Can you please increase the font size? I can’t read it.” But there’s nothing I can really do about that. Other than those, the response has been really positive.

So you don’t consider anyone a direct competitor?
Ebony is a very unique brand. I don’t think there’s any other media brand that’s speaking to our community in the particular way that we are. So I think that unique voice, perspective and content sets us apart.

The mag also hired former White House social secretary Desiree Rogers as CEO. What influence/direction has she had over the editorial content?
Desiree has been very supportive of my vision, and I feel very fortunate to have a boss who’s given the level of autonomy that I’ve received.

A lot of young, Black women still cherish the memories of Honey. I still have all of my old issues. What’s Honey‘s legacy in the Black magazine canon?
Ahh, I miss my Honey. That was such a special magazine and such a special experience. I don’t think anything could have duplicated what that magazine meant for young, Black women in the early 90s. I think that for all of us who were working there, we were basically creating a magazine for us and by us. And I think that it was received in that way, and it just created a community of women that had never really had anything that spoke to us and united us from our perspective before. And nothing really has since. I’m proud of the fact that the brand still exists online, of course, but I run into people everyday who miss Honey the magazine. [Editor’s note: HoneyMag.com folded recently, as well.]

Younger readers are so distracted by celebrity gossip and sensationalized blogs. So, do you bend to that taste, or do you try to sell them on real, hardnosed journalism?
People are very supportive of the message that Ebony puts forth, and I think that the way to do it is to make sure that when you’re giving people information about what’s happening in their community, their government and their world in a more serious way, it just can’t be monolithic. It has to be that information in a compelling, resonant way coupled with the entertaining, cool information, so it doesn’t feel like you’re reading the Black version of Time. I think that what we’ve done is give people the information that they want — because they actually do want to know what’s going on in their government and community — but also do it within the context of a mix that’s entertaining, informative, inspiring and empowering.

NEXT >> So What Do You Do, Brandon Holley, Editor-in-Chief of Lucky?

Janelle Harris is a freelance writer in Washington, D.C. She documents her editorial adventures at www.thewriteordiechick.com.

When it’s time to dole out high fives and pats on the back for an article well done, the writer typically gets the accolades. Rarely does anyone ask, “Who edited that piece? They worked the hell out of that dangling modifier.”

And yet it’s the expertise of editors that makes stories the poignant examples of journalism that they become. So, it’s quite natural for a writer to want to venture to the other side to see what that life’s really like. In fact, it’s almost expected in some circles as a next-level progression for someone with a fascination with words. From the perspectives of three editors who write (or writers who edit, depending on who you ask), here’s how to know if you’re truly cut out for the job.

1. You’re comfortable being ringmaster of the whole circus.
As a writer, you’re master of your own domain, and you execute due diligence for each story: the research, the interview, the writing and, if necessary, the rewriting. Editing, on the other hand, requires a deft ability to manage multiple projects and personalities, the latter often being demanding, standoffish, insecure or just downright crazy.

Jayson Rodriguez earned daily newsroom experience as a senior writer for MTV News before assuming his current role as executive editor of monthly hip-hop glossy XXL. Today, he juggles photo shoots and celebrity management teams as much as he rallies freelancers.

“When you’re a writer, it’s a very singular experience, but here,” he compared, “I’m in touch with the art team; I’m in touch with the research department; I’m trying to make sure things can align on the front end as fast as they can so they have appropriate time on the back end. I’m thinking in terms of the whole product instead of just one story. In a lot of ways, it’s like you’re an ambassador of the process.”

Ebony contributing lifestyle editor Karen Good-Marable said the constant multitasking is what she loves most about the gig. “You have to use a different part of your brain to be an editor,” said Good-Marable, who was also a Vibe writer-at-large and Honey editor-at-large. “You’re managing sections, you’re managing words on a page, and you’re making it all make sense together in a larger framework. You’re almost like a curator.”

2. You’re a grammar czar and can spot a typo two football fields away.
Asking for a copy of Strunk & White for your birthday, correcting those love letters from your significant other, or offering to rewrite a panhandler’s sign won’t necessarily make you the life of the party or the belle of the next happy hour, but it darn sure is a hallmark of a fantastic editor. And if you can easily craft three ways to describe something as “fast” (speedy, quick, at a lightning pace), even better. But your technical wordplay shouldn’t just stop there; you should also be able to spot a gaping hole in a storyline and pick out the snafus that will make readers stop reading or click off the page.

Furthermore, a good editor has to keep the story on track and know when to push for more. It also helps to be a whiz at witty turns of phrases, the kind that make for great display copy, headlines, captions and deks. Since the editor is the last person to see the piece before it ships to the printer or gets published to the Web, there’s no one to pass these tasks off to. The spotlight (or consequences of any unfortunate errors) is all on you.

3. You have a writer’s sensibilities but an editor’s instincts.
Being heavy-handed and slash-happy with copy does not necessarily make an astute editor. Maintaining an appreciation for a writer’s perspective, on the other hand, does. “I think I’m pretty good about edits and critiques, because I know how personal the work is,” explained Kweli Wright, Juicy contributing editor who cut her teeth at a local paper in her native Staten Island before landing at the Village Voice.

“I try to challenge what the writer has put down so it makes people feel the emotion of what they’ve written, but I also have the mind of an editor so I can pull at an intellectual and emotional angle of a story,” she said. She suggests anyone with an eye on the masthead sharpen his creativity. It’s not necessarily the first quality to come to mind when you think of the position, she said, but it’s a must when dealing with reams of text day in and day out.

4. You’re a lean, mean, idea machine.
It’s a known fact that writers hate pitching… so they don’t. That means that, as an editor, it’s your job to come up with winning ideas when others are (sorry, freelancers) too lazy to generate anything more than a lame “Hey, how about something on Derek Jeter?” query. Natural inquisitiveness goes a long way in developing an editorial calendar full of relevant, salable content ideas. So, if you know how to reinvigorate evergreen themes or can whip up a deliciously sticky slideshow based on just a tiny gem, you might make a fabulous editor. But if you’re the type of writer who balks at the thought of pitching and would rather kick back and wait for assignments, um, yeah, probably not.

5. You have a gift for finding the “so what?” in a story.
There are some writers, bless their hearts, with a knack for cutting to the chase and others with a tendency to be flowery and indulgent. (Guilty as charged.) A fantastic editor, says Good-Marable, can corral those renegade concepts and sentences. “Writers have a lot of different thoughts, or maybe we’re focusing on the wrong thing, but I think editors are the midwives. They’re guiding a writer and reminding them why they’re writing the story so they can pull the story out of them.”

“One of the things I can do really well is I can see a story in my mind before it’s written. When you’re writing, it’s all about getting the ideas out. It’s more emotional,” Wright offered. “When you’re editing, you have to think like a writer but also think like a reader and make sure that the beginning, middle, conclusion and quotes make sense to make the story come alive.”

You may think you’re destined for editing, because you can spot comma splices and sentence fragments — and indeed, that is important — but you also need to be able to pull out the important elements of a story so readers don’t end up feeling like they just squandered their last five or so minutes. Great editors think an extra level up from the writing.

Of course, straddling both worlds may be the formula for longevity in the industry. “I think it’s healthy to go from writer to editor, editor to writer because it keeps you sane,” Rodriguez joked. “Transitioning from one position to another doesn’t mean you forget where you came from. In fact, bringing those skills across the border will only make you a stronger editor.”

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Janelle Harris is a freelance writer in Washington, D.C. She documents her editorial adventures at www.thewriteordiechick.com.

It’s only fair. Back in November, we whipped up a collection of things that freelancers do to wrinkle the brows and prematurely gray the locks of their dutiful editors. After that revealing piece, we who labor on the other side of the assignments now understand a little bit better the do’s and don’ts of endearing ourselves to those on the mastheads.

But oh no, lovely editors, you don’t get off that easy. Because there’s a list of gripes and grievances freelancers have about you, as well, that, if addressed, could take working relationships to almost warm and fuzzy heights. And, if it doesn’t get quite that friendly, at least we’ll all be able to read our emails without rolling our eyes when certain names pop up. Here’s what bugs writers about their editors:

1. They go M.I.A.

It’s like an editorial one-night stand: Writer meets editor. Editor initially responds to writer, then falls off face of Earth. Writer spends valuable time chasing editor, wondering what happened. Whether it’s acknowledging a pitch, answering a question or confirming receipt of a submission, freelancers want responsiveness from our assignment-making colleagues.

“We know that editors are incredibly busy, but take the time to let freelancers know that you got their stuff,” suggests Apryl Motley, a Maryland-based communications consultant who specializes in association publications. “When we don’t hear from you, we figure it’s a done deal, and we’re on to the next assignment. Then, you email us all out of the blue with queries and requests for additional copy.” Which leads us to…

2. They can be laissez-faire with writers’ time.

Editors are in the sometimes precarious position of playing middle man between the writers who craft the stories and the higher-ups who institute a whole litany of behind-the-scenes expectations. So sometimes, in their job juggling, they can lose track of time — and pass that needs-to-be-done-in-the-eleventh-hour urgency on to their freelancers. Freelancer Lindsy Van Gelder ain’t feeling that. “Ideally, I would hand in a piece and the editor would give me a heads up of when it’s likely to be edited so I can make sure I have a day or two free if changes are needed, but this rarely happens,” says the veteran journalist, who’s penned pieces for highbrow outlets like The New York Times, Allure and O.

“I did a rush job for a magazine a few months ago, turning down other work to make my deadline. The editor then sat on my article for nearly two months and only got it back to me when I was booked for several weeks running with other projects.” There’s an old saying that can usually be spotted on signs around the desks of badgered secretaries, but it seems pretty appropriate here: A lack of planning on one part should not constitute an emergency on the other.

Meanwhile, another time related pet peeve Gelder has, she says, is what she calls “the idiocy of payment-per-word. I don’t think it takes greater talent to write a 3,000-word story than a 1,500-word story. If anything,” she says, “I’ve found economy of language a rarer skill among writers than diarrhea mouth. And of course, some stories require a lot more interviewing and research than others. What editors should be paying writers for,” she concludes, “is our time.” Cha-ching.

3. They expect freelancers to be too hands-on.

We pitch the stories, we write the stories, we proof the stories, and we pass them off. We may be able to round up some 300 dpi images to accompany our submissions. That__?s pretty much the extent of our part in an article’s editorial life cycle. Beyond that, things start getting very complicated.

“It’s not unreasonable to ask us to request photos or other artwork that might run with a story. However,” says Motley, who regularly contributes to blurb, the official blog of Association Media & Publishing, “once we’ve done that, it’s better for everyone involved — especially the frustrated art director or graphic designer — if we step out of the process and let editors work directly with the sources to get what’s needed.” Being the go-between for spec-heavy companion art can be time consuming and onerous for someone with only, like, the kindergarten basics about that part of the publication world.

4. They don’t grasp the frustration of chasing checks.

Payment for a submitted piece has gone into that check-sucking abyss in the great unknown. Perhaps an invoice wasn’t passed on to accounting, or it got lost in the shuffle once it got there. Whatever the discrepancy, our light bills and car notes hang in the balance until we’re able to get that crisp paper in the center of our hot little hands, and sometimes the editors who are living in the sweet oblivion of regular, biweekly salaries are less than empathetic about the urgency. They can get a little put out playing mediating between the folks who issue the payments and the anxious others waiting to receive them. But being a diligent gatekeeper keeps us happy, working and fed. And really, that’s all we ask.

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Janelle Harris is a freelance writer in Washington, D.C. She documents her editorial adventures at www.thewriteordiechick.com.