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The Shoals of Youth
Adrienne and Gaston Represent A Special Breed Of Journalists; Their Clout Is Ample, But Their Life's Experiences Are Limited
By Dean Rotbart
Being young and talented is a mixed blessing.
Do you remember a time before you became good at what it is that you are good at now? Can you recall that sense of boundless opportunity tinged with bottomless insecurity that was the hallmark of being groomed for success?
Was there someone or a group of someones who eased your transition?
At major U.S. newspapers, magazines, television news programs and wire services today there are no fewer than 500, perhaps even 1,000 journalists, who have yet to matriculate from their 20s, yet are already charged with serious and substantial news responsibilities.
Gaston Ceron
Gaston Ceron, 29, covers the major U.S. stock exchanges and the online brokerage business for Dow Jones News Service. The news service prides itself on the timely delivery of news, so Gaston is under perpetual deadline pressure. His readership includes only the most influential investors around the globe. They literally have billions and billions of dollars exposed in the markets. One example of his influence: when he broke the news of weak earnings and layoffs at Ameritrade, the stock of the online broker fell 27% in a day.
Imagine what happens if Gaston is ever wrong!
Adrienne Carter
At age 24, Adrienne Carter is already an established editorial force at Money magazine. She played a key role in organizing and executing the magazine's Best Women Investors feature, which appeared in its MONEY FOR WOMEN special edition. She also was largely responsible for the magazine's Money 100 issue on the best mutual funds. Says one of her editors: "Adrienne has an instinctive editor's feel for stories and packaging, and shows remarkable financial sophistication for someone of her age."
For all her innate talents, however, Adrienne still must rely on others to describe for her the majority of adult life experiences, such as the financial impact of marriage, child-rearing, aging parents, retirement planning, etc.
To read the works of young journalists, such as Gaston and Adrienne, it is easy to forget that they were only children (14 and 9, respectively,) when the stock market crashed in October 1987.
It is also hard to remember that while during the day Gaston and Adrienne and their peers may wear the wardrobe and walk the walk of consummate professionals, at night they are still navigating the mysterious shoals of social life, independent living, family planning and financial foundation laying.Young journalists are a special breed.
For media relations strategists, they present special opportunities and risk.
Since 1987, when I founded TJFR, a newsletter focused on business and financial journalists, I have always kept a particularly close eye on those reporters and editors who were the most precocious. In July 1987, I first profiled 25 nationally influential journalists less than 25 years of age. And each year since, I've returned to the topic, eventually expanding the ceiling for qualification to journalists under 30 years of age.
At a special recognition reception and dinner to be held this week at The New York Stock Exchange, I have invited back the more than 150 young journalists who my staff and I profiled from 1987 through 2002. Those in my first "Class" of honorees are now teetering on their 40s.
Our youngest honoree at the NYSE dinner, from the Class of 2002, will be Maureen Tkacik, a 23-year staff reporter for the Wall Street Journal's Los Angeles bureau. Ms. Tkacik joined the Journal in June 2001, after working for Time magazine in Hong Kong. (A complete list of this year's honorees can be found at the bottom of this column.)
As a group, young journalists are more open to meeting and acquiring new sources. They are willing to devote evening hours and weekends to educational opportunities. They are less jaded about public relations people and they are more likely to be respectful to outsiders.
But young journalists also must learn from experience, and often the people and companies they write about become their unwitting teachers and victims. When young journalists goof up, as they inevitably will, it is their story subjects who typically foot the bill.
The clearest insight that I have garnered from watching the career paths of so many outstanding journalists is that the time to get to know them is when they are still new, fresh, idealistic and generally scared out of their wits.
While so many PR people chase today's most influential journalists, hoping for a blink of their attention, I always advice those who take my courses to chase tomorrow's influential journalists, those who are willing to give you the their full focus now.
Journalists are just like you and me. They do remember the anxieties of their first jobs and their first serious adult responsibilities. And they do bond with the mentors, sources and yes, even PR folks, who help them transform from plebe to veteran.
The time to get to know young journalists is BEFORE they're fully initialized. Sure you have to be a little patient. But invest your time and expertise on a young journalist now and before you know it, that friendship will begin paying extraordinary dividends. Among those journalists my staff and I spotted before they achieved broader recognition are:
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Kelli Arena, then 24 and an off-camera junior producer, now a Justice Department correspondent for CNN in Washington. |
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Maria Bartiromo, then 26 and a fresh on-air correspondent, currently host of CNBC's Market Week with Maria Bartiromo as well as anchor of Closing Bell with Maria Bartiromo. |
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Bryan Burrough, then 25 and a third-string securities industry reporter, he went on to coauthor the 1990 bestseller Barbarians at the Gate and is currently writing an HBO project for Robert DeNiro. |
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David Callaway, then 25 and a business reporter for the Boston Herald, now executive editor of CBS MarketWatch.com. |
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Jean Sherman Chatzky, then 28 and one among many staff writers at Smart Money, she is currently an author and star columnist for Money magazine and USA Weekend, as well as a regular contributor to NBC's Today show. |
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Jill Dutt, then 24 and editor of a securities industry trade magazine, now the assistant managing editor for business at The Washington Post. |
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David Faber, then 25 and editor of a trade newsletter, today CNBC's Wall Street correspondent and host of his own show, The Faber Report. |
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Steve Swartz, then 24 and a staff reporter for the Wall Street Journal, he went on to become founding editor and eventually president and CEO of SmartMoney magazine. |
Each of these young journalists, and dozens more like them, remind us that the youth of today quickly become the journalism leaders of tomorrow. Keep that in mind and you, too, will go far in your career.
Now it is my pleasure to introduce you to the TJFR Group 2002 Class of 30 Under 30. They are:
CARLYE ADLER, 27 -- Writer
Fortune Small Business - New York, NY
CESCA ANTONELLI, 24 -- Reporter
Bloomberg News - San Francisco, CA
ANDREW BALLS, 28 -- Financial Columnist
Financial Times - New York, NY
ALEX BERENSON, 28 -- Staff Writer
The New York Times - New York, NY
ADRIENNE CARTER, 23 -- Writer
Money - New York, NY
GASTON CERON. 28 -- Special Writer
Dow Jones News Service - Jersey City, NJ
AUGUST COLE, 27 -- Spot News Editor
CBS MarketWatch - Chicago, IL
IAN FRIED, 27 -- Staff Writer
CNET - San Francisco, CA
MICHAEL HOFMAN, 27 -- Senior Staff Writer
Inc. Magazine - Boston, MA
JIM HU, 27 -- Reporter
CNET - New York, NY
BRYSON HULL, 27 -- Correspondent
Reuters - Houston, TX
JEREMY KAHN, 27 -- Writer
Fortune - New York, NY
ROB KAISER, 29 -- Business Reporter
Chicago Tribune - Chicago, IL
ELEANOR LAISE, 24 -- Staff Writer
SmartMoney - New York, NY
JULIE LANDRY, 24 -- Writer
Red Herring - San Francisco, CA
HEATHER LANDY, 26 -- Reporter
Bloomberg News - New York, NY
BETTY LIU, 28 -- Atlanta Bureau Chief/Southeast U.S. Correspondent
Financial Times - Atlanta, GA
BETH MANTZ, 29 -- Reporter
Dow Jones News Service - Jersey City, NJ
TOMMY MCCALL, 29 -- Information Graphics Editor
Money - New York, NY
VICTORIA MURPHY, 23 -- Senior Reporter
Forbes - New York, NY
JOANNE PO, 28 -- Producer
CNBC - Fort Lee, NJ
KRISTIN ROBERTS, 26 -- Deputy Editor, Equities Breaking News
Reuters - New York, NY
MATTHEW ROSE, 29 -- Staff Reporter
The Wall Street Journal - New York, NY
DANIEL ROTH, 28 -- Senior Editor
Fortune - New York, NY
JUSTIN SCHACK, 29 -- Senior Writer
Institutional Investor - New York, NY
CHANA SCHOENBERGER, 24 -- Staff Writer
Forbes - New York, NY
DANIEL SORID, 24 -- Reporter
Reuters - New York, NY
ANDREW ROSS SORKIN, 24 -- M&A Reporter and Editor, e-newsletter DealBook
The New York Times - New York, NY
KIMBERLY STRASSEL, 29 -- Assistant Features Editor/Opinion Pages; "Scene and Heard" Columnist,
OpinionJournal.com - The Wall Street Journal - New York, NY
MAUREEN TKACIK, 23 -- Reporter Associate
The Wall Street Journal - Los Angeles, CA
Age listed is as of 12/31/01, the cut off date for this year's nominations.
May 6, 2002
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