Featured Longreader: Aaron Gell, executive editor at the New York Observer. See his story picks from the Observer, plus more on his longreads page.
(via longreads)
Hiring! Betabeat, social reporters, commercial mortgages
I’ve gotten a lot of questions about hiring at the Observer and what I’m looking for, so here goes:
I have a few slots I need to fill immediately and some that can wait a few months till we do a national roll-out. But here are the immediate needs:
BETABEAT REPORTERS
I have a couple of slots available for Betabeat. I’m looking for scoop-driven reporters who are comfortable working in both long and short form. I’ll take someone who hasn’t been covering tech if they can demonstrate interest in and knowledge of the subject area, but would prefer to get people who are already sourced up on the beat. Specific holes: I’d like some who’s good with the financing side (potentially someone who’s covered venture capital, can parse a term sheet, etc.) and someone who’s good with finding Observer-y angles on big national tech stories.
Post count requirements aren’t aggressive (4 posts a day) but as with any beat, you get sourced up faster the more news you break and small items can turn into big developing stories pretty easily. Tech coverage these days tends to be fluffy, if not outright cheerleader-y, and Betabeat doesn’t work that way. When we started, I had a tech entrepreneur complain to me that because Betabeat wasn’t afraid to be negative that it “wasn’t being supportive of the industry.” I told him that Betabeat didn’t exist to support the industry; it existed to cover it. But it says something about the state of tech coverage generally that his expectation was we only write things that would benefit our subjects. Because much of the industry isn’t accustomed to being written about in terms that are anything less than glowing (and by glowing, i mean practically radioactive), some people don’t even know how to interact normally with journalists.
I think as the beat gets more competitive, this will change. But we’re on the ground floor. Which is an exciting place to be.
SOCIAL REPORTERS
I need someone who’s obsessed with New York high society and can ID any socialite in a 20 mile radius. This person would be responsible for some events coverage, but also needs to be able to break news daily. (If Ron Perelman gets another divorce, you have the court documents. If there’s infighting on the board of the Century Club, you know who to call to get the dirt.)
You also need to be the kind of person who wants to cover the party more than they want to attend it. You need a thick skin and you must be unafraid to ask people uncomfortable questions and be able to tolerate getting periodically screamed at on the phone by various publicists. (If you’re doing your job correctly, this will happen with some regularity. If this is actually your idea of fun, you’d probably enjoy it here. )
When I was at New York magazine working on Intelligencer, I went to an after party for a Miramax premiere and saw Harvey Weinstein put an Observer reporter in a headlock and threaten to kick his ass. I’m not saying this will happen to you, but I’m not saying it won’t, either.
On the upside, it’s your job to make badly-behaved power elites squirm and that can be very enjoyable. You also get to learn how to do longer narrative stories in a style that’s witty and smart—and you never have to apologize for being insider-y.
Interested? Send a resume, clips and some story ideas to me at espiers AT observer dot com.
I also have more positions opening up in a few weeks and I’ll update then.
COMMERCIAL MORTGAGE REPORTER for Commercial Observer (the Observer’s real estate trade). The description:
The Observer Media Group is seeking a full-time staff reporter for a new monthly magazine focusing on New York’s commercial mortgage industry, note sales and other financial instruments associated with real estate. A background in business/finance as well as a working knowledge of the real estate industry will boost the chances for a successful candidate. Duties will include reporting both feature-length articles and breaking news items on the mortgage brokerage industry as well as writing on note sales. Recent graduates or early career professionals will be considered, but must be able to demonstrate knowledge of the commercial mortgage industry. Benefits include health insurance.
For this one, send resume and cover letter to Jotham Sederstrom, who’s the editor-in-chief of Commercial Observer. Jsederstrom AT observer dot com.
Wherein the Times, Reuters and Slate discover The Big Adderall Shortage, seven months after Foster wrote about it. (Maybe no one had the attention span to notice till now?)
Randomly: a few of my favorite Observer pieces from this year, in no particular order:
A Twee Grows in Brooklyn: the Portlandification of the increasingly bourgeois borough by Adrianne Jeffries
Almost Amis by Christian Lorentzen
Peter Braunstein Still Has Issues by Aaron Gell
Pony Up, Haters: How 4Chan Gave Birth to the Bronies by Una LaMarche
The Situation and the Story: Press Corp Parties While White House Makes History by Foster Kamer and Kat Stoeffel
Regarding Harry: One Reporter’s Hellish Life As a Young Wizard Lookalike by Michael H. Miller
Rapture for Radicals: Hipster Prophet Leads May 21st Faithful to Ninth Avenue Food Festival by Dana Vachon
Isn’t He Rich? Rich Hilfiger’s Rap Career Poised to Take Off by Dan Duray
Been dying to let that cat out of the bag for a while now.
In Bama for Christmas (which, more about that here) and Ma Spiers informs me that last week she killed a small rattlesnake in the house. She insists that this was a one-time thing, and assures me that there is no snake infestation generally. IN THE HOUSE.
Last year when I came home, the youngest baby Spiersbro (pictured here) had trapped a chipmunk. It was also declared a one-time thing; there was no chipmunk infestation in the house. Nonetheless, Ma Spiers notes that maybe there is a more generalized vermin problem.
This seems like it could present some entertaining possibilities. I’m hoping to find a spider monkey under my pillow later.
The New York Observer, in a bid to go national, will expand its editorial department
That’s the plan. (Part of it, anyway.)
This week’s issue of the Observer was the last of 2011 and I think it was a great one. There are several pieces I loved—Dana’s wrap-up, of course, with a fantastic cover illustration by the insanely talented Fred Harper—but also several other standouts:
- Kat Stoeffel’s “Meet Marie Calloway” on the bizarre Internet love triangle du jour (with the obligatory Tao Lin involvement).
- Michael Miller’s profile of novelist Helen Dewitt and her publishing troubles, depression and periodic disappearances.
- Drew Grant wrote her first profile for the NYO, a nice sketch of Aviva Drescher, who we’re sure—absolutely sure!—isn’t possibly, can’t be, the newest addition to the Real Housewives of New York. No, really!
- Emily Witt’s piece on Quarterly.com and how people use consumption to shape identity, for better or worse.
- David Freedlander went to Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem to gawk at the hordes of European tourists who shop up there hoping for a glimpse of a real old timey gospel experience, much to the chagrin of many of the locals.
- Hunter Walker profiled New York’s first transgendered City Council candidate, Mel Wymore.
- Nitasha Tiku got the goods on what happened with Stanford’s supposedly in-the-bag bid for a new tech campus here.
