• Edition 35: About my listless summer

    Me vs. My Brand It’s been a rough few months. For me. For the world. For journalism. During my unanticipated sabbatical from writing to you, I have been thinking about reputation and leadership.  You see, things happened where my first thought was how it could affect my reputation and brand. Journalism, like many industries, is a…


  • Edition 33: I re-wrote this about 40 times

    It will all be OK. For most of my life, I’ve lived with depression that fluctuates from non-existent to crushing. Lately, it has been crushing.  I have written about self care before, but this time, as I was lying in a bed with no sheets on it, unable to eat or muster the energy to…


  • Edition 32: The first one via Mailchimp

    I really like…I’ve been thinking about compliments lately. They are some of the simplest things you can do to help improve someone’s feeling of self worth a work, but there’s inherent issues. What if someone doesn’t really deserve a compliment, but you have given everyone else one? When is a compliment insincere? Or kind of rude? …


  • Edition Thirty: Goals, not resolutions

    An announcement first. tl;dr: I’ve been sending this lovely semi-regular missive on Tinyletter for the past year, but for a variety of reasons, I’ve decided to move this newsletter to MailChimp. I’ve been thinking about this for awhile. Why MailChimp? First, it’s a platform I know, and my quick Google of other newsletter platforms doesn’t bring…


  • Edition Twenty Nine: The best part of my job is learning, constantly.

    These things I have learned. I try not to present myself as an expert. I’m far from it. And the whole purpose of this semi-regular newsletter is to have a space for myself and others (I’d love for guest writers!) to share what we’re learning as Middles. It’s about that time of year where we…


  • Edition Twenty Eight: I hate to disagree, but…

    How to disagree It should be easy to say “Hey, I don’t agree with that.” But, it’s not. Often disagreements come with emotional attachments, personal feelings that muck up a lot of things. But hey, we wouldn’t be good managers if we didn’t care, right? I’ve been trying to take this to heart: “Conversations often…


  • Edition Twenty Seven: What is failure?

    The Gothamist and DNAinfo sites were just abruptly shut down (Hire these people). I am so sorry to anyone affected, and if you need a coffee I’m there. I had been thinking about failure a lot even before today, and how it’s interpreted differently depending on where you are in the grieving process. I’m in…


  • Edition Twenty Six: The conversations in the hallway are the best.

    Conference like a pro I’m headed to the Online News Association gathering this week, and so are many of my friends. I’m actually talking Middles with Emma Carew Grovum, if you want to join! When you’re managing-ish, attending a conference is a little bit different. Some random bullet-pointed thoughts on Middles and conferencing. Attend sessions. The…


  • Edition Twenty Five: Grow up!

    The adultiest “I need adulting help,” they said. “I am not very good at adulting.” I admitted back, but I tried to help anyway. Here’s the thing, though. We all have to be adults and there’s this point, of which I’ve come to, where I realize I need to at least pretend to be the…


  • Edition Twenty Four: A task

    I’m on vacation this week, so in lieu of a regular newsletter, I give you a task. One of the best things someone ever did for me was after a hard week. They asked me to take a walk around the block with them and asked, “Hey, lots has happened this week. You doing allright?”…