Articles

What challenged Andrea Pitzer to write what she calls her best work ever

What challenged Andrea Pitzer to write what she calls her best work ever

When she set out from Russian port of Murmansk on a 60-foot sailboat headed to Novaya Zemlya in August 2019, journalist Andrea Pitzer had few expectations. She hoped to visit…
September 10, 2020
Cheryl Katz
Introducing "The Pivot," in which journalists find their way through industry chaos

Introducing “The Pivot,” in which journalists find their way through industry chaos

The Pivot: A brief preludeOn an early afternoon in early March in Upper Manhattan, a dozen graduate students in Columbia Journalism School’s Arts and Culture seminar gathered their notebooks and…
September 9, 2020
Julia Shipley
7 Fatal Flaws of Story Pitches

7 Fatal Flaws of Story Pitches

How to identify common mistakes that get in the way of landing that big idea
September 3, 2020
Jacqui Banaszynski
Economic Hardship Reporting Project seeks story pitches that personalize poverty

Economic Hardship Reporting Project seeks story pitches that personalize poverty

"Mine your life," says managing director David Wallis; think about what you’re an expert in and share that story
September 2, 2020
Carly Stern
How reporting through time and place reveals character

How reporting through time and place reveals character

ESPN's Wright Thompson returns to an old subject — Michael Jordan — and finds a fresh story in the haunted soil of his history
August 28, 2020
Trevor Pyle
One cold case murder. Two narrative forms.

One cold case murder. Two narrative forms.

A magazine writer and a documentary filmmaker discuss how storytelling platforms shaped their coverage of the same cold case hate murder
August 26, 2020
Chip Scanlan
The power of a pronoun

The power of a pronoun

It would be folly to follow the thousands (millions?) of sentences that have been written since Tuesday (Aug. 11, 2020), when presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden announced that U.S.…
August 25, 2020
Jacqui Banaszynski
How a high school journalist geared up to cover protests in Portland, Oregon

How a high school journalist geared up to cover protests in Portland, Oregon

As federal law enforcement officers descended on Portland, Oregon, last month and clashed with protesters demanding an end to police brutality, Eddy Binford-Ross — who lives in Salem, about 45…
August 20, 2020
Lisa Grace Lednicer
Rewriting the "hero's journey" to fit a feminine narrative

Rewriting the “hero’s journey” to fit a feminine narrative

A writer on a hunt to understand classic story structure ponders politics, movies and her grandmother's life, and searches for a journey of their own
August 19, 2020
Madeline Bodin
Two veteran newswomen learn podcasting to retell the story of women's suffrage

Two veteran newswomen learn podcasting to retell the story of women’s suffrage

Award-winning journalists Ellen Goodman and Lynn Sherr take a deep and intimate dive into the history of the 19th Amendment in "She Votes!"
August 18, 2020
Katherine Lanpher