Category: My Medill Story

By Arudi Masinjila  (BSJ21)

Malika Bilal had always known that she wanted to be a journalist. As a child, she would cut and paste pictures from magazines to make her own for the readership of her younger sister. “I don’t know if I knew what journalism was, but I definitely knew this field of writing and producing was something I wanted to do,” she recalls.

Born into a family with a documentarian father and an elder sister in broadcast, the field was not foreign to her. When the time came to apply to college, Northwestern University was her first-choice school. With its journalism program and proximity to home, it felt like a perfect fit, despite people’s reservations about it.

“At the time there weren’t a lot of places that offered a journalism undergrad program so people didn’t really understand how you could go to a school and get a journalism degree afterwards. It was like, ‘you’ll go to school for something and then you’ll go to graduate school for journalism.’ I already know I want to be a journalist. Why would I waste that time?” says Bilal. “I knew that I wanted to go there then it became everything I wanted it to be.”

While at Medill, Bilal was on the newspaper track, in line with her ambition to work for the Chicago Tribune or Chicago Sun Times. “I’m from Chicago so those are my two hometown papers and it just made sense,” she says. Though she was sure that she wanted to do newspaper, she also dabbled in other mediums as an intern at Northwestern News Network, the school’s student-run broadcast station, and reporter for the alumni magazine.

But when she graduated in 2006, her certainty turned into doubt in the face of an impending recession that made it difficult to find a job. “I’m freaking out because I’m thinking, I’ve just spent so much of my parents’ money on a journalism degree, I probably should’ve become a doctor because then there’s a guaranteed path to what’s next. And here I am, I can’t find a job,” Bilal recalls. She eventually found a paid radio broadcasting internship in Washington D.C. with Voice of America. Despite it not being exactly what her heart was set on initially, she credits it as one of the best decisions she’s ever made. It introduced her to the world of international news and was a steppingstone towards other opportunities in the field. “I loved [it] so much and then that led me to a job on a website, so doing online journalism, but also international news. It was like a domino effect and just spiraled from there,” she says.

Bilal’s next major career move came three years later, when a friend from her junior year study abroad program in Cairo encouraged her to apply for a job at the then relatively new Al Jazeera English station headquartered in Doha, Qatar. “I had been watching the headlines since they opened; I knew that I wanted to work there. That was my dream job so as soon as he messaged, I was like, ‘this is a sign,’” she says.

She applied and got the job and after many months of visa processing and paperwork, moved to Doha as an online producer. But the decision to move was not an easy one, as her initial excitement at pursuing her dream job was temporarily dampened by some of her peers’ skepticism about her relocation. “I got so much feedback from people like, ‘you’re gonna move across the world? How are you gonna get married? Are you gonna find someone over there? You’re really ruining your chances. This is the time you should be looking for a husband, this is not good for you.’ And that really scared me,” Bilal says. Deciding to not let this deter, she took up the opportunity.

She was promoted to assistant editor within a year, and later moved from web to broadcast as co-host and producer of “The Stream,” a daily panel-style program on current events. She considers this one of her career milestones, not just because she began hosting a show much earlier than she expected, but also because she was the first person at the channel to wear a hijab on screen. She had anticipated this would arouse some controversy, though it turned out not to.

“I was so nervous cause I’m thinking, ‘maybe one boss didn’t notice that someone gave me a job and they’re going to come in and say no we don’t want her on air’ or they’re going to get lots of feedback from people saying, ‘why do you have this girl in a scarf presenting the news? She’s biased or we don’t want her,’” she says. “But none of that ever happened so I think that was the biggest milestone. It’s hard to top that one.”

Aside from providing a platform for discussion, the show also offered a chance for citizens to hold people in power accountable. “My favorite stories are when we gave people a chance to speak to their elected representatives and have their say when they would be no other platform and no other way for them to do that,” she says.

After an eight and a half year run at “The Stream”, she switched mediums again and now hosts “The Take,” a news podcast, from Washington D.C. “I’ve now worked in every single medium that there is in journalism, which is great, I love it!” says Bilal.

Arudi Masinjila is a rising senior at Medill. She is passionate about using journalism for positive social change.

By Kelly Brockmeier (IMC19)

My mom used to tell me, “you can’t feed the neighborhood.” I was born a helper. I have a heart for the underdog, the disadvantaged, the lost—you get it. I’m still an idealist in many ways. I was also the kid that asked “why,” a LOT. I was destined to be a journalist, and boy was I good at it.

In my late 20s, I inadvertently landed an Executive Producer role. I never set out to be in management, it just happened. And not long after, I advanced to Assistant News Director. If you’ve worked in news you understand the job IS your life. The hours are grueling, and the pay can be really poor but that’s not why you sign up for this. It’s a calling.

In 2004, my news career suddenly ended. I didn’t know it was ending forever but it did.

Long story short, my boss told me it was either me or him. Brutal right? That’s the news business. My sudden unemployment opened a door to consider all my possibilities and I did just that. Somehow despite being fearful of doctors and needles and healthcare in general, I found myself smack dab in the middle of an academic medical center. My news skills translated nicely in the PR world and then eventually into a marketing leadership role. My secret sauce? The ability to identify and tell great stories across mediums, platforms and positions.

In 2015, I began interviewing for C-suite roles and most called for an advanced degree, something I did not have and honestly did not want. I was not keen on going back to school to check a box. I investigated lots of MBA programs and knew it was not the right fit. I even met with various universities. I had all but given up when one night I was served an online ad from Medill IMC. I knew about Northwestern as a journalist, it was a top program in the country. Additionally, my brother-in-law had played football at NU. He died suddenly in 2012 and there was an emotional tie to the university thanks to Coach Fitzgerald and his incredible staff and team who honored Leon Brockmeier by wearing his initials on their helmet that season. Without much thought as to how I would pay for this degree, I hastily applied as I sat on the couch one evening. I remember telling my husband what I had done, he sincerely thought I was joking.

As I waited for word on whether I had been accepted, I recalled the University President speaking at a pep rally during a bowl game in Jacksonville, Fla.,in January 2013. He talked about the academic prowess of NU. My brother-in-law often reminded us that his bachelor’s degree from NU was equivalent to his wife’s master’s degree from Florida State University. As we sat and heard Morty Schapiro list off stats on the student body we suddenly realized Leon hadn’t just been bragging—it was legitimate. I had hoped that maybe someday my son might go to NU to honor his uncle, but NEVER did I think it would be me. In 2013, I had zero aspirations to go back to school and even if I had, NU did not seem attainable.

Fast forward to 2016 and I get an acceptance letter. My NU journey began at age 45! To date it’s the largest single investment of time and money I have ever spent on myself and it was worth every penny. In the summer of 2019, I walked across the same football field my brother-in-law called home with his cardiac Cats. This time the heart attack was all mine as I donned the purple and officially graduated from NU with a master’s in Integrated Marketing Communications. It’s equivalent to a Ph.D. in some books! I still pinch myself, but the pictures prove it happened—I did it!

Immediately after my last class ended at NU in San Francisco, I took a job with Wounded Warrior Project as their national Director of PR & Social Media. My new chapter is well underway and I’m doing what I do best—telling meaningful stories and helping those most in need. The cool kids call that #winning, or so I’m told.

Learn more about my career journey by visiting www.kellybrockmeier.com.

SURGE is a feature-length documentary about the record number of first-time female candidates who ran, won and upended politics in the historic 2018 midterm elections. It will be released on Amazon Prime on September 1 and will premiere on Showtime’s new channel SHOxBET on September 8 @ 9pm ET and available on VOD platforms including Amazon and iTunes on October 21.

Watch the trailer.
surgethemovie.com

Can you talk a little about your Medill experience and how your time at Northwestern helped prepare you for your career?

I’m fairly sure I never got an A in any of my Medill classes. I would actually love to look at an old transcript and confirm that bit of my academic history at Northwestern. But I think because Medill was so small, rigorous and competitive and because I was not one of those exceptional standout students or particularly beloved by my professors, I became even more scrappy, ambitious and determined to prove myself outside of the classroom. Crazy enough, I landed my first job as a Capitol Hill press secretary before I had even officially graduated from Northwestern.  I had enough credits to finish a quarter early and I was worried about taking on more college loans, so I got the press secretary job spring quarter of my senior year. It was an incredible time to be in Washington, DC – a few months after Bill Clinton was elected into his first term. I can proudly say that I was the youngest and lowest paid press secretary on Capitol Hill in 1993.

When was it when you realized that you were ready to weave your experience into a book and can you briefly talk about how writing a book differed from the content creation you’d done before?

I’ve written two books – “How She Really Does It: Secrets of Successful Stay at Work Moms” (Da Capo Press, 2003) and “Fearless and Free—How Smart Women Pivot and Relaunch their Careers” (Harper Collins, 2017) The expression that you write what you know couldn’t be more true. Both of my books were inspired by what I was personally and professionally experiencing at those times. I wrote my first book after I had my first child and I was struggling with how to continue with a high-octane career while also being a fully present and engaged new mom. “Fearless and Free” comes from a very personal place. I had lost my job in 2014. Traditional journalism and media, where I had spent my career working was on life support. I was over 40 and felt like if I didn’t get a job at one of the bright and shiny media startups in New York City sometime soon, I would become a dinosaur. I was afraid of becoming irrelevant.  It also became clear that for many jobs in my industries – media and news – I was too expensive. These industries can hire young and cheap talent. It was after one particularly depressing interview when a bearded Millennial was turned off by that Capitol Hill experience, the job that used to open doors for me, when I realized I needed to switch things up. I needed to re-craft my pitch, hone my story, lean into my skillset but probably learn something new. I also understood that I might need to take a step backwards before I can move forward again.

The SURGE project is three years in the making.  Can you summarize how you got involved in the documentary and how the team came together?

The origin story of SURGE really begins with Hillary Clinton. I had worked with a group called Filmmakers for Hillary right before the 2016 election. My friend Tanya had founded the group. For months, after the first Women’s March in January 2017 there were dozens of stories about women announcing that they were running for office. Many of these women had never imagined that they would run, but now they felt compelled to take the leap.  I reached out to Tanya and told her that I wanted to do a documentary about these first-time female candidates who were running in uphill battles. Coincidentally, Hannah Rosenzweig, who had also been part of Filmmakers for Hillary, had also reached out to Tanya about the same idea. Three years later, Hannah and I just finished directing and producing SURGE. It’s my debut as a film director and producer.  A little footnote – but really important to us was that we only hired female cinematographers to shoot SURGE. This was extremely challenging in places like Texas, Indiana and even Illinois where we were filming. Women make up only about 10 percent of film DPs (directors of photography) and they are largely based on the coasts, but we were so committed to shooting with only women that we jumped through all sorts of hoops to make it happen and to locate talented, local camera women. We are incredibly proud to say that the film was literally shot through a female lens.

How did you select the candidates you chose to follow? 

To find characters for SURGE, we started by casting a wide net. We knew we wanted to follow only first-time candidates – women who were running for office for the first time. But we also wanted to make sure we had diversity among the women we followed, geographically and racially and also in their personal backgrounds. Our first shoot was at the bi-partisan Women’s Campaign School at Yale during their week-long boot camp training in June of 2017. At first, we thought the film would be the story of both Democratic and Republican women running in 2018. But rather quickly, we saw that the surge was on the Democratic side. The story of the 2018 midterms and the hundreds of local and state races that year would be about a blue wave of women running and winning.

What do you want viewers to take away from the film? 

I want viewers to feel empowered and inspired by the film. SURGE is not only a story about women running for office but it’s the story of women getting behind women running for office. It’s about grassroots activism. It’s about taking a risk and not waiting your turn or to be asked. It’s about saving our democracy. It’s about the power of elections to create real change – and not just at the congressional level – but at the state and local level. I want girls and women to watch the film and see themselves as leaders in their communities. One of the themes of the film is that you may not win the first time. It’s important to remember that even Barack Obama lost his first race. Women often don’t like to take risks because they are afraid of failing and of not being perfect. This film blows up the idea of perfection and failure. Having the audacity to run and speak out, and to make a difference in your district and community — that is success.

Why is it so important to chronicle this momentous midterm election and how do you think it will help inform the coming election?

It’s important to chronicle the 2018 elections because it was a historic, barrier-breaking election. More women and women of color ran, won and upended politics than ever before. Like 1992, the 2018 election was also coined “The Year of the Woman.” But this phrase feels dismissive. Why do women only get a year? It’s important to dig into that and question whether the enormous energy and momentum surrounding this “pink wave” is sustainable. Getting women into the pipeline is critically important, so what do we need to do to make sure this isn’t just another blip on the radar. This is why a theme of the film and a question we asked nearly everyone we interviewed was whether this was a moment or a movement.

What are you most proud of in your career?

I am a modern multi-hyphenate – an author, writer, Emmy-Award winning TV producer, media relations executive, editor in chief of a website, Capitol Hill press secretary, and now filmmaker. I have had more pivots in my career than most but the through line to my career has been storytelling and women’s issues. Directing and producing SURGE has been the most challenging but most rewarding job I’ve ever had. I’ve worn more hats than I can remember. I’m not only the co-director and producer on the film but the booker, chief fundraiser, publicist, marketing executive and fulltime hustler. But most importantly, I’m incredibly proud of the film we’ve created and am in awe of the women who we followed who put so much on the line, all in the name of trying to save our democracy at a critical time in our history. It’s incredibly satisfying to feel that we’ve produced not just a time capsule of what was happening in America between 2016 and 2020 but that this film can live on and hopefully inspire girls and women to run for office and create more gender parity and diversity in politics.

Photo: Sachs (middle) pictured with Lauren Underwood (D-IL) (right) during her 2018 campaign and SURGE cinematographer Margaret Byrne (left).

Lauren Harris (BSJ18 + IMC Certificate) is an associate animator at NBC News. She recently sat down to talk with Medill IMC about her education, career and viral illustrations for Black Lives Matter and Juneteenth. Find her art on Instagram, @loharris_art.  Interviewer/editor: Katie Smith 

Can you tell us about your time at Medill and what you learned?

I took some great classes at IMC. One class that really stuck with me was a PR class with Ernest [Duplessis]. … His advice was [that] you should defer to the experts.

And the expert might not be a bigwig expert. If you’re marketing to someone young, the expert could be a teenager… So for me, when I’m working in different teamwork situations, even if I technically am in a leadership position, I think it’s important to look at the people around me, regardless of what their title is and understand what they’re bringing to the table and what they are an expert in. [And then], create room in the team for them to step up and have their voice heard as the expert in the situation.

Can you take us through your career journey from graduation to landing a full-time job at NBC?

After I graduated in 2018, I ended up being a page in the NBC page program, which is a career development program, best known for its prominence in “30 Rock,” the show with Kenneth the Page. 

[The page program] helped me come out of my shell, and it helped me learn how to present myself, speak up for myself and network. … I got to see “SNL” cast members and [rapper] Quest Love just trying to go get a drink of water and Lester Holt in line for a sandwich. All of that was so amazing to see it as a young person. 

After the Page Program, I ended up moving into a position at NBC News, which was actually created for me. I am an associate animator on the digital team. Currently, I work across a variety of platforms in the NBC portfolio. I’ve had graphics published in Today and NBCNews.com, but I primarily [work for] NBC News Now, which is their 24-hour news streaming service and Stay Tuned, a Snapchat-based show for Gen Z-ers. 

What does your job look like day-to-day?

Some days I’m just working on the show itself, making sure that we have all the graphics we need to explain a difficult topic. And then occasionally there’s the special project that comes in. 

One recent project that I worked on was an animated video called “COVID Confessions.”  Early on in the pandemic, I teamed up with a couple of other animators on the team to visualize and animate the written “confessions” of folks who shared their experiences during COVID lockdown with NBC News. It was up to us as the graphics team to sit down and tell those stories in a creative way. That was my first feature piece, and it seemed to resonate with a lot of people.

How did you decide how and what you were going to communicate in terms of #BlackLivesMatter?

Regardless of whether or not I’m a journalist, like I’m still a Black woman, and the conversation surrounding the Black Lives Matter movement relates to my personhood and my human rights. So, for me, one way to process was to draw and to kind of get my feelings out there. And when I was making the art that I made (only a couple of pieces were explicitly aligned with Black Lives Matter), I was doing it more so for my own personal coping. I was not creating [the art] with the intention of seeing it go viral. 

I’ve seen so many people react so strongly. One of the pieces I made was called Justice. Someone made Oreo cookie fan art. They opened up the cookie and carved into the frosting to recreate my art. And I was like, “Wow.”

I felt kind of nervous when I started getting traction because I didn’t want to compromise my career in any way. My work colleagues and managers [are] super supportive of everything that’s going on with my work.

What was your Instagram presence like before your protest art went viral? How did you get started as an artist?

I was very into digital art in middle school. I bought my first Wacom tablet with my own money. I was so committed that before I had [the tablet] I was trying to draw with a mouse. And my dad got me a little Photoshop license. When I was younger, I was a part of DeviantArt.com, which is an online art community from like the early 2000s. Then when I went to college, [my art] just kind of fell off. I was just trying not to get distracted and fail out. 

In January 2020, I decided I’m just going to buy an iPad and I’m going to draw. So then I made my little Instagram account because I realized that I tend to stick to things when I have the gratification of and being able to put it out there.

Then I was like, “Okay, now I want to step it up in February, and I want to challenge myself to draw every day.” So I just made up “29 Queens,” which was a project for Black History Month. I basically drew a picture of a different Black woman every day of February: entertainers, scientists, artists, politicians, whoever I found inspiring. 

Interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Amanda Salhoot (IMC11) is the current vice president of business development and partnerships at Chill Anywhere, a meditation app that combats the current mental health crisis. Amanda has previously worked at Chicago Ideas, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and Performics.

Since graduating from IMC, you’ve worked in marketing communications (marcom) for both nonprofit and for-profit companies. How does your approach differ, if at all, between working for a children’s hospital and for a digital marcom company, for example?

I became a full-time IMC graduate student after working for about 10 years. My background was in marketing, specifically in the magazine publishing industry. In addition to my full-time work, I was very active philanthropically serving on boards and volunteering for organizations focused on empowering women and children. While I enjoyed magazine publishing, the philanthropic work was what made my heart sing. I went to IMC with the objectives of merging my professional and philanthropic experience and then working for a nonprofit or social impact organization upon graduation. Plus, marketing had evolved since I studied it in undergrad — digital media, analytics and consumer behavior — so this was my opportunity to really immerse myself and sharpen my marketing skills. 

I’ve found that while the mission and the “customer” of a children’s hospital foundation and a digital marcom company may be different, each organization must put the customer at the center of what they do to be successful. For Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago Foundation, I developed donor-centered marketing strategies to advance a spectrum of fundraising initiatives through individual giving, corporate cause marketing campaigns, foundational grants and fundraising events. During my interim role at Performics, I was internally focused and developed employee engagement strategies for colleagues in offices around the world. 

What are some of the essential skills you took away from IMC and how have you used them in your career to date?

In addition to instilling in me a customer-centric viewpoint, IMC really helped me become much more driven by both qualitative and quantitative data. I now turn to data and consumer insights when developing marketing strategies and measuring the success of initiatives. While not every initiative will be a wild success, there are still insights to be gleaned that can then help shape the next thing you do.

Also, from an organizational management perspective, it is essential to set data-driven goals for your team to ensure that we are all working towards similar objectives and to measure progress along the way. It is fun to look back during a quarterly or annual review to celebrate what individuals and the team as a whole have accomplished.

Lastly, IMC strengthened my ability to work with cross-functional teams. Having the chance to collaborate with people who have different areas of expertise helps strengthen you as a marketer and also takes your work to a higher level.

During your time at Chicago Ideas, how did that organization’s concept evolve and what did you enjoy most about being part of a platform for open discussion and change?

Chicago Ideas was developed to make ideas accessible by democratizing them. For $15, you could go to the Harris Theater to see Hillary and Chelsea Clinton speak, see a DJ set with Questlove or get an exclusive tour of EY’s forensics lab. While stage programs and in-person experiences were the foundation of Chicago Ideas, we realized that content and going into the community had the power to reach even more people to inspire and activate change. For content, we invested in a content team and technology to make it possible to create videos, develop a podcast and really leverage the power of social media. For community, we had always had a youth program that engaged high school students from under-resourced communities.

In 2018, we grew the community engagement team and made a commitment to Chicago Ideas becoming a platform for the entire city. We did this by not only featuring diverse voices in our stage programs, but by having organizations throughout the city host events, by committing to having 25% of our audience come from low socioeconomic neighborhoods and by creating content about organizations and people throughout the city. In 2019 alone, Chicago Ideas partnered with over 140 nonprofit organizations.

One of my favorite initiatives the team worked on was called The 77 Project, a storytelling and media project in which we created a unique piece of content on an organization or individual in each of Chicago’s 77 neighborhoods. As the head of corporate and individual fundraising, I was able to connect with the country’s most forward-thinking organizations and individuals across industries. Together we would develop mutually beneficial custom partnerships that advanced their specific business objectives while supporting Chicago Ideas’ mission as a nonprofit. 

Can you talk a little about your new job at Chill Anywhere and why this technology is so relevant right now?

Chill, a modern meditation studio across the street from the Merchandise Mart in downtown Chicago, was founded three years ago by Kellogg alum Laura Sage. We wanted to create a space of respite where busy professionals could go for a quick chair massage, a meditation or yoga class or to take a workshop to deepen their practice. Pretty quickly, businesses started to approach us to help with their employee wellness initiatives ranging from a single private session to a whole mindfulness curriculum. Since then we have worked with over 300 organizations ranging from global consumer packaged goods companies to law firms and universities, developing sessions exploring themes such as stress and anxiety management, mindful leadership and collaboration, and rest and relationships. 

Given that most of our partners are global and have employees around the world, we started to livestream the sessions. This then inspired us to create our app, Chill Anywhere, which we started to develop at the beginning of 2019. Chill Anywhere allows us to extend our mission by helping even more people “live less stressed, more mindful lives.” Users will find a growing library of over 400 on-demand meditation and yoga sessions, daily livestreamed classes and a journal to reflect on their practice and track personal goals.

For employers, Chill Anywhere is a scalable resource to help with the current employee mental health crisis. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, most employers (66%) identified mental health as the top clinical priority to address by 2021, according to the Willis Towers Watson 24th Annual Best Practices in Health Care Employer Survey. This level of employer focus was driven by the rising prevalence of mental health conditions prior to the pandemic — around three in 10 employees suffer from severe stress, anxiety or depression, according to the 2019/2020 Global Benefits Attitudes Survey. As expected, further research collected during the pandemic indicates a worsening state of mental health among workers: over 9 in 10 employees (92%) now report some level of anxiety, with 55% indicating a moderate or high degree of anxiety. While counseling is a good reactive intervention, most organizations still don’t have a plan to proactively address mental wellbeing. The technology and online community of Chill Anywhere is a cost-effective and scalable resource for employers. 

What are some of the goals for the company/app?

COVID-19 forced us to close our physical studio and allowed us to fast-track the development of Chill Anywhere, which we always planned to be our sole business focus. While we have experienced great growth in our first three years, fundraising remains our top goal. We are currently in our next round of fundraising and plan to use those funds for technology product enhancements, marketing expansion and partnership development in specific corporate verticals.

Our other main focus is growing our user base through business development. Mindfulness and meditation, expected to be a $2 billion market by 2022, and corporate wellness, expected to be a $66 billion market by 2022, are converging. We believe that Chill Anywhere is positioned to be a leading vertical solution for that intersection. With three years of in-person studio experience and three years of in-person corporate programming, Chill Anywhere has the ideal foundation for bringing mindfulness and meditation to the corporate wellness market. B2B competitors can’t strike the balance of consumer brand and institutional solution, while B2C competitors are attempting to scale consumer meditation mobile apps into an enterprise space. With the pandemic being an uncertain time resulting in stress for organizations and individuals, we feel that the work we are doing is more important than ever. We are committed to helping as many people as possible. 

What advice do you have for IMC students about to graduate in December? Any hints for success?

My biggest piece of advice is to grow and cultivate your network. It will be your most valuable resource. I have secured all of my postgraduate roles through my network, three having ties to IMC. Right after graduation I had an interim role with Performics where many of their senior leaders were IMC alums. My next role at Lurie Children’s came to fruition because I was having an informational coffee with an IMC alum who worked for Feeding America. While there was not a current role at Feeding America, she asked me if there were other roles or organizations that I was interested in. I mentioned that I saw a marketing role with Lurie Children’s Foundation. She knew someone on the team and sent over my resume, and I had an interview a week later. Lastly, a former IMC faculty member, Dan Gruber, invited me to a small Chicago Ideas book club discussion he facilitated back in 2012 where I met Bonnie, a Chicago Ideas staff member. After the event Bonnie and I had coffee and stayed in touch. In 2017, when the perfect role at Chicago Ideas came up, I reached out to Bonnie who then submitted my resume.

While I know entering the job market in the midst of a pandemic may be scary, lean on your network. Your connections will be your biggest supporters and will likely play an important role in each step of your professional journey.

By Jude Cramer (BSJ23)

Casey Newton (BSJ02) is a leading voice in tech journalism and a finalist for the 2020 Ellie Award for Reporting. He’s best known for writing daily newsletter The Interface for The Verge since 2017. Now he’s stepping out on his own, releasing a new newsletter, Platformer, on Substack. I talked with him about his Medill experience, how he fell in love with tech journalism and what the future holds for his career.

How did your education and your experience at Northwestern help prepare you for your career?

There were sort of two phases of me getting into journalism at college. I’d been the editor of my high school paper, and then liked it enough that when I asked my guidance counselor where I should go to college, she said, “Well, if you want to be a journalist, you should go to Medill.” And that was basically it for me. So I visited the school, I loved it, applied, got in and showed up to campus.

All my friends who worked at The Daily Northwestern talked about it as this all-consuming cult. And I thought, “Well, I don’t know if I’m ready to join a cult, I kind of want to enjoy college a little.” So I didn’t start working at The Daily until I was a sophomore, but I completely fell in love with it. I mean, the people who were working there at the time were just the best, most patient teachers. And I really feel like most of the journalism education that I got that I still use to this day, I learned from the other editors at The Daily who would sit down next to me when I, you know, wrote my terrible story about some event, and would just go through it line by line and fix it and teach me that way. So I had a great experience at Medill and Northwestern generally, but it was really The Daily that was at the center of it for me.

Now you’re a pretty prolific tech journalist. What led to your interest in tech journalism? Was that always your intended field?

My first job was covering state and local politics, and I kind of bounced around. I worked for a couple of newspapers. I was hopping from beat to beat. I worked in Arizona for like six and a half years. And then a couple of my friends moved to San Francisco and I visited, and it was just a love at first sight thing where I felt like, “Oh, this is where I should have been the whole time. This is the greatest city in the world.” And so my initial interest had actually just been moving to San Francisco. I spent about two years looking for a job here. 

While I was here, I stopped in and saw some old friends who were working at the San Francisco Chronicle, two of whom had been my former editors in Arizona. Two months after that, one of the editors at the Chronicle called me and said, “Hey, have you ever thought about being a tech reporter?” And I was like, “No, but what would that be?” And he said, “Well, you know, you just move here and write all about Apple and Google and Facebook and whatever seems interesting.” I was like, “That sounds like the greatest job in the world. Like, can I do that?” So they hired me to do it, and it really was the best thing that ever happened to me.

Wow, it’s really amazing how that just fell into your lap almost, and then changed the trajectory of your whole career.

It’s honestly terrifying! I’m more impressed with people who are very intentional about their careers. But this was definitely a happy accident.

So you started at The Verge in 2013, and while there you started a daily tech newsletter, The Interface. Now you’re leaving The Verge to produce your own newsletter with Substack — what influenced your decision to make that move?

I loved doing the newsletter. I wanted to figure out if there was a way where I could do it forever, and it seemed like the best way to do that was to just totally control my own destiny. I felt like the thing I was doing was valuable. People would email me sometimes saying, “I can’t believe this is free. I wish I could pay for this.” And at some point, I thought, “Maybe I should let them.” 

And how is Platformer different from The Interface? How is it the same?

Right now, it looks almost identical to The Interface in content. Each day, I’m still bringing you a column about today’s biggest news and platforms, and I’m bringing you the best links about that subject from the best journalists in the world. And I think that format is going to endure for a while. 

Where I hope that I can start to separate it from The Interface is that there’s just going to be more original reporting in it. In the past, if I had a scoop, I would just put that on The Verge and then the newsletter would be a separate thing. Now, the newsletter itself could be the scoop. 

The hope is that over time Platformer starts to grow in people’s imaginations as, hopefully, the smartest site on the internet about platforms in particular and, you know, maybe a few other things along the way.

Do you have anything to say to your fellow Medill alumni?

I just have so much admiration for people who have stayed in journalism. Journalism is a really hard business to stay in. It tends to attract the most idealistic people that I’ve ever met. And unfortunately, once folks leave college, you’re just met with the cold realities of it being an extremely difficult business where the business models are very shaky, and where your fate is often controlled by a private equity firm, or, you know, someone with no editorial values. And it sucks! And so people leave. And so as a result, we don’t have nearly enough watchdogs for our democracy. And so the cool thing about having gone to a journalism school where there are so many great alumni and so many great students there now is just being part of a community of people who believe in that as an ideal and something worth fighting for.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

As Deputy Digital Director for Joe Biden, Humphrey has successfully directed a mostly grassroots-based online fundraising program.

by Julia Richardson, BSJ23
Graphic by Carly Schulman

At 28 years old, Clarke Humphrey (Medill ’14) is leading the charge on ads, emails, texting and store fundraising for former Vice President Joe Biden’s presidential campaign. As Biden’s deputy digital director, Humphrey is running a historically successful fundraising program fueled by grassroots support.

After she graduated from Northwestern, Humphrey worked as a production assistant at the Democratic National Committee, where she contributed to the DNC online fundraising efforts for the midterm elections. In 2016, she joined then-Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign as digital director for North Carolina.

Humphrey went on to oversee the DNC’s ads program for the 2018 election cycle and worked for Bully Pulpit Interactive, a political ad agency in Washington, D.C., before becoming the DNC’s primary online director. In June, she landed her current position as deputy digital director, a job she describes as “reactive.”

“I would say throughout days, they don’t really look the same, so you are basically dealing with whatever is happening in the world at the time,” Humphrey said. “What I have envisioned my role to be is kind of just doing what I call blocking and tackling, so the folks on my team have the space to run effective programming.”

Leading up to the 2020 election, Humphrey focused on making sure there is enough money to run the Biden campaign’s ads. She also negotiates for resources that her team may need and organizes emails from significant signers, such as former President Barack Obama. She said the campaign has raised a large amount of money in the last few months, allowing for more TV ads and campaign efforts in battleground states.

Although working amid the uncertainties of a global pandemic has been difficult, Humphrey says one of the most rewarding parts of her job is grassroots fundraising.

“This campaign is primarily funded by people who are giving us donations of $200 or less, and that is the program that I oversee,” she said. “Just being in a position where literally millions of people are giving their hard-earned dollars to own a part of this campaign, and power the work that needs to be done. That, to me, is what makes this work really fulfilling.”

Lauren Williams, Humphrey’s friend and former colleague at the DNC, said Humphrey’s ability to build a strong fundraising team while maintaining good relationships is an “underrated skill,” and that she has a unique way of connecting with both supporters and people she works with.

“She takes her work incredibly seriously, but does not take herself too seriously,” Williams said. “All while coming across not as a very stuffy spokesperson, but she comes across as a real person with a bright personality and a sense of humor.”

Shelby Cole, former digital director for vice presidential nominee U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), said Humphrey has especially succeeded at running an ethical fundraising program with messages grounded in truth and reality.

“She, I think, really believes strongly in treating supporters like human beings and not ATM machines,” Cole said. “So, having watched her step into this role and run this program at this scale, as a Black woman to do it, too… I don’t think anyone has ever done what she’s done.”

Although Humphrey is what Cole describes as “the best in the industry,” she did not always plan to work in politics. She said she had envisioned herself as a magazine writer and only considered campaign work once graduation was approaching and it came time for her to apply for jobs.

However, Medill Dean Charles Whitaker, who taught Humphrey and worked with her in NU’s chapter of the National Association of Black Journalists, said her career path did not come as a surprise to him.

“She was always a really strong leader, someone who… I could tell was going to go into politics because she was good at assembling people and rallying them around a cause,” Whitaker said. “(Her position) is a great intersection of things she is good at and is passionate about.”

Humphrey said that her work has allowed her to learn a lot about herself and that she enjoys working in the political space. But she said she hopes to diversify the space going forward, as it still may be difficult for those without money or connections to become involved.

“That affects the work that we’re able to produce,” she said. “We are talking to so many different and diverse groups of people, and the people doing that work should reflect the basic folks that we are trying to talk to, and so one thing that I have learned about myself is that I’m very passionate about getting the space to a place where that actually is true.”

Published Nov. 2, 2020 in the Daily Northwestern

The Medill graduate is now a D.C. city hall reporter for The Washington Post, where he has reported on Black Lives Matter protests and local politics.

By Alex Perry (BSJ24)

Washington Post city hall reporter Fenit Nirappil entered Northwestern with an affinity for writing and left with an interdisciplinary experience that set him up for success.

After graduating, Nirappil interned at the Associated Press’ San Francisco Bureau. After a short stint at The Oregonian, he returned to the Associated Press. He then completed the American University and The Washington Post’s master’s program, where he interned at the Post while getting his master’s in journalism and public affairs.

Now a D.C. city hall reporter for the Post, Nirappil has reported on Black Lives Matter protests and local politics.

While at Medill, Nirappil balanced law and journalism, competing on the mock trial team and writing for “The Protest,” an independent run student publication. During his senior year, he planned on taking the LSAT during Spring Quarter and found an internship for post-graduation.

“I was very deliberate in not doing The Daily while I was at Northwestern,” Nirappil said. “I’m a big believer that your extracurriculars should be outside of your main curriculum.”

Nirappil recalled enterprise reporting in the Ravenswood neighborhood of Chicago during his sophomore year and his ability to report on environments like lesbian bars and wild animal expositions through the projects offered. During his junior year, he participated in the South Africa Journalism Residency program and the Medill Innocence Project.

Medill Prof. Douglas Foster, a faculty advisor for the South Africa program, remembered Nirappil as a humble student who was always open to learning from his peers and the communities he reported on.

“There’s a kind of quality of soft-spoken earnestness,” Foster said. “From the beginning, he was serious about the limitations of journalism and the possibilities in journalism.”

Foster also recalled Nirappil’s tendency to support his classmates instead of competing with them. To Foster, Nirappil was a team builder. When a classmate scooped Nirappil, he would “learn something from it” and apply it to his next piece.

Former classmate Sarah Eberspacher (Medill ‘12) said Nirappil was authentically friendly and open to reaching out to classmates outside of Medill. Eberspacher has known Nirappil since they lived on the same floor of 1835 Hinman and remembers thinking of him as a sociable and confident person.

“I think he takes a lot of pleasure in surrounding himself with a variety of people and learning different perspectives,” Eberspacher said.

This article was originally published in the Daily Northwestern on Nov. 19.

Email: alexperry20@u.northwestern.edu
Twitter: @WhoIsAlexPerry

Graphic by Angeli Mittal