Trenton Bureau Chief for Bloomberg News.
What do you do in your current position?
I manage an office on press row in the Statehouse, which covers the governor, the legislature, and other issues of national interest.
What is your favorite and least favorite part of your job?
I have been with Bloomberg for 17 years, since 1997. What I love about my job is that there is rarely a dull moment. What I don’t always love is that it’s never finished at the end of the day. There is always news breaking, there is always a story to be written. There is always room for improvement.
What past positions have you held before your current job?
My first job was here in the Statehouse, while I was a junior at The College of New Jersey — back then it was called Trenton State College. I started college as an accounting major because I was good at math, but my true passion was writing. I took a journalism 101 class taught by Dr. Cole, and I really just felt like I had found my calling. I wanted to tell good stories. So I switched to major in journalism.
I continued my internship until I graduated in 1995, with a bachelor’s in journalism. Then I went to work as a reporter-intern on the business desk of The Asbury Park Press. A reporter-intern was a step up from just an intern, but not a full-blown reporter. A couple of months later, The Asbury Park Press‘s sister paper, The Home News Tribune, offered me a job as a full-time reporter covering municipal government and schools.
I was with the Home News Tribune until 1997, when I got a job gathering energy-trading data and writing daily market commentaries for Bloomberg. I moved over to the news department early in 1998, writing stories about nuclear plant outages. Then I started writing about energy companies. I became an editor in 2000, and Trenton bureau chief in 2005.
What are some important skills that you use in your job that you learned while at TCNJ? What skills did you acquire from internships/jobs?
Be prepared. Research the person, the subject. Know your beat, inside and out. The more prepared you are for an interview, the better it will be. You will ask better questions, and the person your interview will give you better answers. If you know news is coming, anticipate possible outcomes and prepare for them.
Another important skill: Listen. Observe. Watch how the interviewee responds to certain questions. Ask good follow-up questions. See how others react to his answers. Get details, color. Make your story stand out from the rest.
What advice do you have for current journalism students who aspire to be future journalists?
My advice for aspiring journalists. Tell a compelling, unique story, in as few words as possible. Don’t litter it with adjectives and big words. Tell readers only what they need to know. Fact check, fact check, fact check. Rewrite, rewrite, rewrite. Make it sing. Inspire change. Don’t write what someone tells you to write. Tell the real story.