...as written by one of my professors. Not even kidding.
Lurie, a precocious Albany-based editor and regular Facebook correspondent, was one of a very few New York City residents who in early spring 2008 knew that surprise-governor David Paterson’s surname had only one “t” letter in it. Lurie also knew just how profane an environment the state capital could be. Said Lurie: “Every third word I heard in Albany was the f word.” This shocked Lurie’s Craft II professor, who until that moment had not realized journalists cursed. Said Lurie: “The guy had an odd way of looking at things sometimes.”
Lurie was an accomplished student of business while at CUNY J and continued to achieve great things within the world of economics and finance after she left. Much to the surprise of those who knew her, Lurie in midlife took a break from heavy-duty business reporting and in early 2025 moved to Iowa where she joined with classmate Fritzie Andrade to open a successful salon that brought together artists and readers of 10-K financial reports.
Lurie is also remembered as Professor Wayne Svoboda’s first—and, so it seems, only—friend on Facebook. Said Lurie: “Somebody had to do it. Otherwise the whole situation seemed so sad.”
Showing posts with label career. Show all posts
Showing posts with label career. Show all posts
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Monday, August 20, 2007
News at 11
So. This month marks a huge change in my life. I am moving to New York City and beginning graduate work at the City University of New York's new Graduate School of Journalism. When I began the tedious grad-school application process, I knew that I would apply to NYU and Columbia. I didn't intend on applying anywhere else, but then I read a New York Times article about this new journalism school that had just opened that was a part of CUNY, and it sounded terrific, so I decided to apply there as well.
After the essays, tests, interviews, etc., I got accepted at both NYU and CUNY and waitlisted at Columbia. The reason I chose CUNY--for anyone who's wondering, as I have had a lot of people express their surprise at my selection of CUNY over NYU--is because after I spent a lot of time researching all three programs, I came to the conclusion that the CUNY program is the most progressive, interactive, and attractive of the three. The (completely Mac-based) facility is amazing--it's housed in two stories of the old Herald Tribune building in Times Square, and the new New York Times headquarters are being built directly next door. I fell head over heels for the program, and I love that it's public education, and it has a terrific faculty--professors who have worked (and in a lot of cases, like most adjunct profs, still do work) at CNN, Rolling Stone, Newsday, the New York Times, Atlantic Monthly, Forbes, etc. These people have won Emmys, Pulitzers and the like, and I'm so excited to start learning from them.
Nate (one of my very best friends who's moving with me to NYC) and I got an awesome 4-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn and we are moving in on 8/30. I am already in the city because my orientation starts tomorrow. Today I was at the school to let the techies there install all this awesome new software on my computer. (Seriously, we got hooked up.)
I was very sad to leave Metroland, but the time had come. I was feeling a bit burnt out, and I was dealing with some difficult circumstances. But I love the paper and hope that they get a new website going and make the changes they have talked about recently.
That is the update for now. Plenty more to come. Wish me luck!
After the essays, tests, interviews, etc., I got accepted at both NYU and CUNY and waitlisted at Columbia. The reason I chose CUNY--for anyone who's wondering, as I have had a lot of people express their surprise at my selection of CUNY over NYU--is because after I spent a lot of time researching all three programs, I came to the conclusion that the CUNY program is the most progressive, interactive, and attractive of the three. The (completely Mac-based) facility is amazing--it's housed in two stories of the old Herald Tribune building in Times Square, and the new New York Times headquarters are being built directly next door. I fell head over heels for the program, and I love that it's public education, and it has a terrific faculty--professors who have worked (and in a lot of cases, like most adjunct profs, still do work) at CNN, Rolling Stone, Newsday, the New York Times, Atlantic Monthly, Forbes, etc. These people have won Emmys, Pulitzers and the like, and I'm so excited to start learning from them.
Nate (one of my very best friends who's moving with me to NYC) and I got an awesome 4-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn and we are moving in on 8/30. I am already in the city because my orientation starts tomorrow. Today I was at the school to let the techies there install all this awesome new software on my computer. (Seriously, we got hooked up.)
I was very sad to leave Metroland, but the time had come. I was feeling a bit burnt out, and I was dealing with some difficult circumstances. But I love the paper and hope that they get a new website going and make the changes they have talked about recently.
That is the update for now. Plenty more to come. Wish me luck!
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Talk at SUNY Cobleskill
In September, I was invited to give a talk to communication students at SUNY Cobleskill on Nov. 8 about the reasons I got into the journalism/editing business. I am not one for public speaking, but I thought it would be a good experience, and I was flattered that they asked me. And I thought that the students could maybe benefit a little hearing from someone who's been in the business for a while who's kind of close to their age(s). Though I didn't use notes during my talk, I did write down a bunch of stuff earlier in the day (thank-you to my awesome boyfriend for helping me with an outline)--a kind of rough draft--to remind myself of things I wanted to touch on or make points about. I was asked to talk about three things: My academic/professional background; what a typical day at work is like for me; and what I like and dislike about my job. For anyone who's interested, here's what I wrote, and mostly what I talked about.
Hi, my name is Kate. I am a Senior Associate Editor at Metroland, an alternative newsweekly paper serving the Capital Region of New York and Western Massachusetts with a circulation of 40,000.
I’m very lucky in that I’ve practically always known what I’ve wanted to do for a living. I was in junior high school when I decided that I wanted to go into journalism. Many things contributed to my decision. I knew that my strengths, academically, were in reading, writing and English. I knew that I wanted to have a job where I felt that I was contributing to the community, but at the same time, where I would feel personally fulfilled in going to work and in believing that the work I did mattered.
So, I was able to focus my studies and my extra-curricular activities in the direction of my goal, which was to go to college for--and have a career in--journalism. In high school, I was very involved with the school newspaper, writing stories, and learning the basic process of editing a piece for the purposes of publishing. I briefly became a student reporter for the Southern Tier’s daily newspaper, the Press and Sun Bulletin. For my first two years of college, I went to Lock Haven University in central Pennsylvania. There, my major was Mass Communication with a concentration in Journalism. I excelled in my Journalism classes and could pretty much care less about my general-studies classes. I became the copy editor for the college newspaper and worked late nights making sure the paper was as grammatically correct and typo-free as I could make it.
After two years at Lock Haven, I transferred to UAlbany. I didn’t do much research about the school, so I didn’t know that it wasn’t possible to take journalism as a major. I got my degree in Rhetoric Communication with a minor in Women’s Studies. After college, I wasn’t in a hurry to find a “real” job, so I worked as a waitress for a year, which I did throughout college as well. At the café where I worked, we got Metroland delivered every Thursday, and I started reading it, and quickly fell in love with it. I liked that it was an independent newspaper and that its coverage of local politics (and its spin on issues) was different than the mainstream media. I met my current boss—the owner of Metroland—while I was working at the café. I told him that I wanted to work for Metroland, and I applied for a job. There were no positions available at the time, but I was determined to get a job at the paper, so I was content to continue working at the café while I pursued a job there. This lasted for about a year.
Finally, in March of 2002, I started temping at the paper when they needed extra help. That eventually turned into a fulltime position when I was hired as an editorial assistant. Over the course of the four and a half years I’ve been at Metroland, I’ve been promoted four times and, needless to say, I’ve taken on more responsibility.
A Typical Day
Metroland is a small, independent company, and therefore, we have a very small staff and we work in a very relaxed atmosphere. There are four departments at the paper: Production, Editorial, Administrative, and Sales. Each department kind of follows their own set of unspoken rules. There are six of us in the editorial department, not including my boss. We have very flexible schedules—we can come in late, leave early, work late, or work on weekends—whatever works best for us. A typical day for me would be getting at the office between 9:30 and 10 in the morning and leaving between 5 and 6 in the evening. My job varies day-to-day. Since we work on a weekly schedule, I usually take care of different things on each day of the week. Our production day is Wednesday, so Thursday is pretty much the beginning of our week. Thursdays and Fridays are spent planning the next week’s issue—we have meetings, make calls, make sure larger stories are where they need to be, update schedules, and pick out what events we want to preview or review for the next week. Each editor makes sure that his or her sections are taken care of. For example, my main section is music. I contact my music writers, or they contact me, about what shows or stories they want to cover. If someone’s profiling a musician, I make sure there’s a photographer assigned to the story. Think of being an editor as kind of like being a producer. You are the person behind the scenes, making sure everything goes smoothly and the people who need to get in touch with each other do, or if you have a writer going to review a show, make sure that he has tickets waiting for him at the door. And make sure there’s a photographer there to shoot the band, etc.
Mondays through Wednesdays are generally spent writing, editing, and basically producing the paper. I’d love to say that we make our deadlines every week, but we rarely do. I have yet to come across an editorial staff that’s really good about making deadlines. Wednesdays are usually pretty stressful, trying to make our 5 o’clock deadline, but I got to leave early today, so I was happy to leave the other editors with the work.
What I Love/Hate About the Job
I am extremely lucky, because I love my job. I really do. I like maintaining good relationships with my writers, I like that I work in a relaxed office with very smart people, I like that I believe in the product that we put out, and I like the freedom I have in terms of schedule and creativity. There are some fabulous perks—sometimes I get to travel for work. I get to meet really cool people. I get to work with people I admire and respect. What I don’t like? Deadlines. Having to conform to other people’s schedules. Dealing with difficult people. And sometimes, I don’t like the lack of structure.
Hi, my name is Kate. I am a Senior Associate Editor at Metroland, an alternative newsweekly paper serving the Capital Region of New York and Western Massachusetts with a circulation of 40,000.
I’m very lucky in that I’ve practically always known what I’ve wanted to do for a living. I was in junior high school when I decided that I wanted to go into journalism. Many things contributed to my decision. I knew that my strengths, academically, were in reading, writing and English. I knew that I wanted to have a job where I felt that I was contributing to the community, but at the same time, where I would feel personally fulfilled in going to work and in believing that the work I did mattered.
So, I was able to focus my studies and my extra-curricular activities in the direction of my goal, which was to go to college for--and have a career in--journalism. In high school, I was very involved with the school newspaper, writing stories, and learning the basic process of editing a piece for the purposes of publishing. I briefly became a student reporter for the Southern Tier’s daily newspaper, the Press and Sun Bulletin. For my first two years of college, I went to Lock Haven University in central Pennsylvania. There, my major was Mass Communication with a concentration in Journalism. I excelled in my Journalism classes and could pretty much care less about my general-studies classes. I became the copy editor for the college newspaper and worked late nights making sure the paper was as grammatically correct and typo-free as I could make it.
After two years at Lock Haven, I transferred to UAlbany. I didn’t do much research about the school, so I didn’t know that it wasn’t possible to take journalism as a major. I got my degree in Rhetoric Communication with a minor in Women’s Studies. After college, I wasn’t in a hurry to find a “real” job, so I worked as a waitress for a year, which I did throughout college as well. At the café where I worked, we got Metroland delivered every Thursday, and I started reading it, and quickly fell in love with it. I liked that it was an independent newspaper and that its coverage of local politics (and its spin on issues) was different than the mainstream media. I met my current boss—the owner of Metroland—while I was working at the café. I told him that I wanted to work for Metroland, and I applied for a job. There were no positions available at the time, but I was determined to get a job at the paper, so I was content to continue working at the café while I pursued a job there. This lasted for about a year.
Finally, in March of 2002, I started temping at the paper when they needed extra help. That eventually turned into a fulltime position when I was hired as an editorial assistant. Over the course of the four and a half years I’ve been at Metroland, I’ve been promoted four times and, needless to say, I’ve taken on more responsibility.
A Typical Day
Metroland is a small, independent company, and therefore, we have a very small staff and we work in a very relaxed atmosphere. There are four departments at the paper: Production, Editorial, Administrative, and Sales. Each department kind of follows their own set of unspoken rules. There are six of us in the editorial department, not including my boss. We have very flexible schedules—we can come in late, leave early, work late, or work on weekends—whatever works best for us. A typical day for me would be getting at the office between 9:30 and 10 in the morning and leaving between 5 and 6 in the evening. My job varies day-to-day. Since we work on a weekly schedule, I usually take care of different things on each day of the week. Our production day is Wednesday, so Thursday is pretty much the beginning of our week. Thursdays and Fridays are spent planning the next week’s issue—we have meetings, make calls, make sure larger stories are where they need to be, update schedules, and pick out what events we want to preview or review for the next week. Each editor makes sure that his or her sections are taken care of. For example, my main section is music. I contact my music writers, or they contact me, about what shows or stories they want to cover. If someone’s profiling a musician, I make sure there’s a photographer assigned to the story. Think of being an editor as kind of like being a producer. You are the person behind the scenes, making sure everything goes smoothly and the people who need to get in touch with each other do, or if you have a writer going to review a show, make sure that he has tickets waiting for him at the door. And make sure there’s a photographer there to shoot the band, etc.
Mondays through Wednesdays are generally spent writing, editing, and basically producing the paper. I’d love to say that we make our deadlines every week, but we rarely do. I have yet to come across an editorial staff that’s really good about making deadlines. Wednesdays are usually pretty stressful, trying to make our 5 o’clock deadline, but I got to leave early today, so I was happy to leave the other editors with the work.
What I Love/Hate About the Job
I am extremely lucky, because I love my job. I really do. I like maintaining good relationships with my writers, I like that I work in a relaxed office with very smart people, I like that I believe in the product that we put out, and I like the freedom I have in terms of schedule and creativity. There are some fabulous perks—sometimes I get to travel for work. I get to meet really cool people. I get to work with people I admire and respect. What I don’t like? Deadlines. Having to conform to other people’s schedules. Dealing with difficult people. And sometimes, I don’t like the lack of structure.
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Flowers in My Hair
I'm heading to San Francisco today for a Web Publishing Conference. I'll be sure to take pics of all the alt-weekly cats to post here when I get back (I'm sure y'all didn't get enough of it from my pics of Little Rock). I'll be back on Monday. Til then. . .
Monday, February 21, 2005
I Want Jennifer Gonnerman's Career
Listening to a debut EP from a local guy and sipping my coffee, resenting that I have to work at the restaurant tonight. The DC conference was really inspiring. I am halfway through a book whose author conducted a seminar about "Giving a Voice to the Voiceless." Her name is Jennifer Gonnerman and I am just so intrigued by her dedication to her work. She works for the Village Voice and she's written for the New York Times Magazine and other distinguished publications. The book is called Life on the Outside--it tells the story of Elaine Bartlett, who served 16 years for a first-time offense under the stifling Rockefeller drug laws. It's an interesting read, and I can't imagine the amount of research that went into it. I am in awe.
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
Off to Washington, D.C.
. . . where they have great mojitos, trendy bars, and a certain man called Dubya. Some of the paper's staff (including me) are off tomorrow morning to attend the AAN (Association of Alternative Newsweeklies) East conference. Lots of lectures, workshops, schmoozing and drinking to be had. Fun!
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