Brian Braiker on Journalism

Brian Braiker is president and editor-in-chief of Brooklyn Magazine. He is an award-winning journalist who has written, reported, and edited for various national and local media outlets.

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Transcript

Roy Sharples: 0:06

Hello, I'm Roy Sharples, welcome to the unknown origins podcast. Why are you listening to this podcast? Are you seeking inspiration, and industry experts looking for insights on growing your career, I created the unknown origins podcast to provide access to insights and content from creators worldwide with inspirational conversations on storytelling, about art, architecture, design, entrepreneurship, fashion, film, music, and pop culture. Brian breaker is president and editor in chief of Brooklyn magazine. He is an award winning journalist who has written reporting and edited for various national and local media outlets. Hello, and welcome, Brian. So what inspired and attracted you to being a journalist in the first place?

Brian Braiker: 0:58

It's partially a fluke. Luck, circumstance, and it's partially growing up, I'll start growing up, I've always just enjoyed writing. And it's really, my only marketable skill is that I can string a couple sentences together, even though I maybe can't do it while I'm speaking. But when I sit down and write it, I can do it. And it is pleasurable to me. And I've always sort of enjoyed writing, I'm not good with numbers, I'm not good with strategy and all that stuff. I like telling a story. And I'm not good at fiction. So that leaves nonfiction and telling interesting stories and entertaining people has always been interesting to me. And I, like you know, there's the ego thing of being the first to tell someone something that's always fun. There's me like, Hey, I got, you know, the equal parts gossip, equal parts and enjoying telling a good story. That's just sort of how I'm innately wired as far as professionally, I actually went to graduate school, I never studied journalism. I studied literature in college. And in I went to graduate school for international affairs, which has its own weird story. And after grad school, I was in Washington, DC and tempting because I can bet you know, I hadn't really had any real world world work experience. I went straight to grad school after college. I was working for a temp agency in Washington, DC and actually put me in a lot of interesting places. One of them was the Washington Post, and I ended up at The Washington Post's marketing department. The Washington Post is big, obviously, nationally, and globally renowned newspaper, but it's also a an active member of the Washington DC community. So it organizes the Scripps Spelling Bee, and it's very involved in the community. The marketing department is very involved with that. So I found myself in the Washington Post, marketing department never having studied journalism, barely, you know, I liked obviously reading, you know, this is when slate was just coming out salon was just coming out, there was a new form of online. Narrative journalism, that was really interesting. And I saw people in the newsroom, I saw, you know, I'd see Ben Bradley walking around, I'd see Katharine Graham and Don Graham, I would see Howard Kurtz there, you know, Tony, Kornheiser, all these people who were in the newsroom in the bullpen, and you would see their names in the newspaper the next day, and there was excitement to it. And there was the, you know, I would see Bob Woodward show up from time to time. So there was this amazing heritage and legacy and impactful journalism being done every day. And I wanted to be a part of it. And so there was an there was an opening in the Metro section, very, very junior jombay, essentially data entry for the early internet, you know, calendars and current event and, you know, community events in local markets in Maryland and Virginia. So as I applied for the job, and they're like, you have a master's in international affairs, this is about as local as it can get, and you're not a reporter, you're literally entering, you know, events to the database. And I said, Well, I want to, I want to sit in this room and figure it out. And that was my first job job. And from there, I started freelancing stories and contributing to the newspaper and they wouldn't hire me as a full time writer and sort of a reporter until I had several more years experience somewhere else. So it was time at a certain point to move on. Which I did, but you know, it was a bug bit me and it's sort of the peel to that way I'm, like I said, wired early on. And it just felt, right. And I, you know, and the first time you see your byline in the newspaper, and that is really exciting. And the first time you're sitting on a bus and you look over someone's shoulder, and they're reading the newspaper, and they're reading your story, it's very exciting. It's an intoxicating feeling, of course, you know, it's not all about yourself.

Roy Sharples: 5:23

Yeah, having an impact on how the news of the day can be communicated and influence people's lives by creating awareness and empathy, having empathy, and encouraging people and communities to take positive action.

Brian Braiker: 5:37

That's exactly it. And I was never, you know, I was never like a really hard news beat reporter I did a little bit community, you know, when I moved, I moved to Boston after that. And I worked in a small town newspaper, and I was covering like zoning board meetings, town hall meetings, the real guts of civic government, and that was exciting. But I was never really, on the cop beat. I was never breaking scandals, or anything like that. But what I found the most rewarding over time was that you would tell people stories, and it's a way for them to feel heard. Yeah. And sometimes those stories, once they're out in the world do alter that person's alive for the better, they get their their story out, and they get the help they need, or they get the connections that they needed, or whatever problem the story was about gets solved. And that's probably the most rewarding aspect of it. It's not necessarily breaking news, or like being the first to say, you know, what, whatever it's, it's, you know, especially what I'm doing now, which is community lifestyle journalism, it's hardly, you know, Pulitzer winning stuff, but you are writing about people, real people living real lives and telling their stories, hopefully, that find an audience and leave the world a little better, or leave someone's world a little better. That's the goal.

Roy Sharples: 6:55

What is your creative process? Brian, in terms of how do you make the invisible visible by dreaming up ideas in terms of new stories, new themes, new narratives, and then developing them into concepts and then bringing them to actual actualization through the written word.

Brian Braiker: 7:10

My creative processes, you know, now, it's, I wake up in the morning, and it's like, you know, if I, if I, if I can save shit, like up and running as a bullshit, I have a website that I need to update, I might have a newsletter that goes out twice a week, I got to fill it, though. There's the pure, like, anxiety of having this unfillable void of the internet, keep fed? But no, I mean, my credit process, you know, to the is, they're different? It depends. It depends on the story, it depends on the day depends on what's interesting. There, there are little things that are just, you know, there's whether there are other local outlets that are reporting on some sort of announcement or development or something, and then you, you just sort of pounce on that and aggregate it, and you give them credit, you link back to them and all that. But you know, that's very sort of rote, and not as creative, but then, you know, creatively in terms of telling stories, it's really just being a good listener. So I so it's a, you know, it's very strange for me to be on this end of the interview. And you know, if I sound like I'm squirming a little, it's because I am not used to being the one talking. I like listening and you can listen enough you meet enough people, you start connecting dots and thinking, you know, realizing there's a trend here, or this is a thing that that not a lot of people are talking about, but it exists, let's shine a light on it. Or just asking questions and going, you know, and going out being the social person and, you know, it happens all the time where I wasn't planning on being out at, you know, lunch, or at some event that I didn't particularly was not particularly dying to go do but then you meet people, you just always sort of keep yourself open, open to opportunities open to people open the conversations, and then you you start seeing patterns, and you start hearing things that other people aren't hearing and and that's where it starts.

Roy Sharples: 9:15

What are the key skills needed to survive and thrive as a journalist?

Brian Braiker: 9:21

You need thick skin. You need not to feed the trolls you need. You need to listen again like it does always come back to listening. It's as much as the job is telling stories. He can't tell a good story and unless you listen and you hear people and you have to admit when you're wrong. Integrity is so crucial you you there are too many people I that that are worried about being wrong or making a mistake or admitting that they're wrong and making a mistake and that sort of compromises the integrity. It's never fun to admit like oh, we we screwed this one. up, but sometimes you have to. So, you know, there's integrity, there's thick skin, there's listening. And there's a sense of humor. There are too many super earnest people in the world. And this is just, you know, life is just absurd. At its core, you have to remember that. And, you know, a certain amount of playfulness and empathy. Empathy is a big one.

Roy Sharples: 10:29

Based on your career today, Brian, what are your lessons learned in terms of the pitfalls to avoid, and the keys to success that you can share with existing, but also aspiring journalists?

Brian Braiker: 10:40

Yeah, I mean, one of the keys of success is just sticking around. I mean, the fact that I'm a, you just got to keep doing it, and you get better as you do it, unless you get jaded if you get jaded and bored, and then it's maybe time to move on. But perseverance is key, a pitfall to avoid is, is thinking that you're always right, or that you are some sort of ultimate authority, just because you have a platform, you always owe that platform and you owe your audience the most respect and, you know, you have to treat them smart and treat them as if they're smart, and you have to be smart in the way you treat them. So, you know, pitfalls are the fact that people don't really trust journalists, which is a shame. So that is incumbent on you to be all the more transparent and open and communicative from where you're coming from in terms of your agenda. And, you know, whether they admit it or not everyone has some kind of agenda. And I think that, that, especially with, you know, how bifurcated media has become and what sort of, you know, what a echo chamber it is, and the social media, really amplifying myths truths, it's become harder and harder to do the job. And it's also become less and less of a popular job, as I was saying. So those are, it's hard. And that goes back to having thick skin, you have to have thick skin, you have to stick around and you have to be transparent and and. And even then, people don't love you. So it's not a popularity contest, for sure. But those are the pitfalls in my opinion.

Roy Sharples: 12:33

We live in a consumer land, instantly gratified celebrity culture that fuels the world. Social media, mobility and the Internet, dominate our lives and social routine. People have an insatiable appetite for engagement and a curiosity for new experiences and, and content and information. But how can you best cut through the noise and communicate with audiences when they're being besieged with content journalism, has seen a rapid move to media by the masses by having countless contributions from non journalists. And I regularly read the social reviews and commentary rather than the story itself. Which begs the question, who's in control now and who actually is the journalist journalism is at its best when it provides accurate news by keeping people informed of what may be important to them in their their everyday lives and the ongoing events within their community within our society within the world. And helping us make the best possible decisions about are the things that we need to make decisions upon in our everyday lives. Also, it helps fuel democracy, and freedom of speech, which brings us on to the walk culture and cancel or call out culture, which can help drive accountability for actions, which is a great thing. However, on the downside of this, it can sometimes prevent the open exchange of opinions and getting to the truth of a matter and that its worst is where it enables criminal threats, bullying people to suicide and a mass invasion of privacy.

Brian Braiker: 14:21

You know, I avoid terms like canceled culture. I think that I think more and more people are being held accountable for their words and deeds and misdeeds. And I think that's a good thing. I think people should be you know, I don't believe people get canceled but I think that you know, if you did something that was horribly offensive, or you know, or or or illegal or whatever you should be held accountable. I do think you know, also a buzzword that is not not my favorite thing is the woke culture. I do think that there is a especially in the in the younger generations, there is a hype Her sensitivity there that is maybe a little worrisome. So it's like there's a there, there are two, two forces that work against each other one is that canceled culture is not a thing, it's really being held accountable for your actions. But on the other hand, there are people who are want everything to be held accountable for everything, you know, everything, you know, there's got to be some sort of, you know, there's, there's so much heat and very little, you know, there's a lot of noise and very, very a lot of noise, very little sort of real signal in between the two. This so I mean, the to your point is you come correct, you do your research, you'd be really do your reporting, you have your facts, you have your if you're making an argument, you make it persuasively I'm not in necessarily in the argument business, I'm in the telling a story, here's what happened, or here's what's this person's story is business. And, but yeah, I think, you know, who are you who am I to be that person, and so you have to be really aware of, you know, who you're reading and who's telling you the story and why they're telling you the story. And hopefully, that person more organization will tell you who they are and why they're writing the story. And they're transparent about where their backers are, who their backers are and what, you know, what their goal is. But I'm not in the persuasion business at all unless, you know, I'm in the ideally, again, I am and I start another word that gets tossed around a bit, a lot of storytelling, but you know, fundamentally, what we do is we publish stories. And hopefully, they entertain and inform, delight or frustrate, but they're, they're fact date based, in fact, and we can back that up, and and that's the end, we're representing as much of the borough in the city as we can from our admittedly, you know, limited vantage point, I am one person with one set of experiences, and I can't speak for everyone else. So you have to be hyper aware of, and that's where I think, quote, unquote, wokeness is interesting and good is that, you know, everyone has a different experience. Everyone has a different vantage point. Everyone has different, you know, orientation to the world and, and there, and I think it's good that there isn't just one gatekeeper anymore, there isn't just one Walter Cronkite or Edward R. Murrow. I think the democratization of media is, is on balance, good ability for people to respond to stories and comments on them, you know, as long as they're not, you know, being, you know, dicks VAT. And that's the, that's fine. I encouraged that sort of dialogue. And I've definitely received feedback from readers where it made me think, Okay, you're right, I have to incorporate this viewpoint more, or I have to, you know, think I didn't think about it from that angle. And other times, it's just like, they're there. There's a lot of vitriol in the comments to those not grounded in reality necessarily

Roy Sharples: 18:21

Tilting forward, Brian, what's your vision for the future of journalism? And where do you see the role of creativity play?

Brian Braiker: 18:30

Yeah, in the future for journalism? And I, you know, I barely understand the past. Few future of journalists Well, creativity. Well, it's interesting, because, you know, when you think of journalism, you don't necessarily think it's a creative enterprise. Because, you know, you're out there, you're, you know, Eric Adams gave a press conference, and you're reporting on it. And that's, you know, that's it. And but that's not it. Of course, you know, we're not just an ographers we have to be the creative creativity comes from Curiosity, from asking questions in the right questions with questions that no one else is asking. But in terms of, and I will say, where creativity comes into play and journalism is is is how you tell the story. It's, it's what you tell the story, the angle from which you tell the story, but also, you know, the proliferation of tools to tell that story is unparalleled. And it's exciting you can do into video, you can do a podcast, you can do you know be into VR, you can do but you know, but ultimately, and this is this is not to name drop, but it is kind of cool. I, you know, years and years and years ago, I interviewed Tom Brokaw, was a tumbler about it was Tom Brokaw. And he You know, we're talking about the Annals of the early days of the Internet and, and I think get a book out was it a broker or Kapil? Oh, this is so funny. I don't remember what anyway, I think was Tom Brokaw. And and he, he was like, you know, we're talking about online media, we're talking about print. And he said, you know, the most, most powerful message ever written was was carved into stone, it was the 10 commandments, like, it doesn't matter. It doesn't, it doesn't matter what the what the platform is, it's the, it's the message. So that's not going to change. And I think the future of journalism, you know, that's a lot, that's a really fancy expression. But I think that it boils down to the message, and it's not, you know, you can be creative and how you tell that you deliver that message and all that, but at the end of the day, it's pretty human. And it's pretty analog. And, and, you know, the truth shall set you free.

Roy Sharples: 21:03

The the written word has been a constant throughout time, but the vehicles in terms of how that message gets delivered. And through technology advancement has obviously changed. And it's helped deliver it in different kind of ways at scale.

Brian Braiker: 21:17

And that's interesting, because for a couple of years, and you know, the trend was for publishers, like the BuzzFeed 's of the world, to chase scale business insiders of the world, in the masses much bigger than audiences, you can you tell every story that's under the sun that you can use every list and, and, and you can't, you can't really do that, and they've all scaled back from that they've all stepped back from chasing that scale. Because at the end of the day, you know, you can't be all things to all people, you have to choose a lane. And and I think that what we're seeing is a return to audience connectivity. You know, if you want to get real into the nuts and bolts of the way journalism is playing out on the ground, I think it's it's, it's more of a direct link with your audience, knowing your audience, you're not telling every single news story, under the sun every day, you you are delivering something of value to your audience. Whether it's whether it's here, the best places to have brunch, or, you know, here's wires or city councilors, embezzling money from you know, it, but you're providing a service. And you to provide that service, you have to know your audience and to know your audience, you have to be known to your audience. So it's, it's transactional. In a way that I think is, is is more sort of explicit than it has been in the past.

Roy Sharples: 22:55

Your point is poignant about the focus, being on personalized content, and finding the unique value add in terms of the information for your specific audience, and what they need from you. And you then become their go to and that specific knowledge base and area of expert insight. So quality, accurate and consistent delivery of that will generate trust, and retain and grow your audience base

Brian Braiker: 23:22

That goes back and that comes back to integrity. And that comes back to saying, Okay, we were wrong, we screwed this up or transparency and you know, you're not going to cultivate that audience unless they can trust you. As we've seen, it's very hard to garner an audience trust these days.

Roy Sharples: 23:44

Do you want to learn more about how to create frontiers by unleashing the power of creativity? Then consider getting CREATIVITY WITHOUT FRONTIERS? How to make the invisible, visible by lighting the way into the future. It's available in print, digital and audio on all relevant book platforms. You have been listening to the Unknown Origins podcast, please follow us. subscribe, rate and review us for more information to unknownorigons.com. Thank you for listening