Spotlight: Journalism - Carving out a Niche in Health & Wellness

I recently got to speak with Rachel Pomerance, Health and Wellness editor at US News & World Report.  Rachel has had an extensive career in journalism as well as working for a short stint in Public Relations.  We got to speak at length about how all her experiences have built up to her position today - in her job search, she had responded to a listing for one position, but was able to negotiate for additional responsibilities to make the job more personally fulfilling.  Read on to learn what Rachel has to say about working in an environment that engages employees' varied talents and skills, coming up with story concepts, and ultimately how she escaped the grind of daily reporting to reach a happy place in her career.

Rachel Pomerance

ES: Hi Rachel, thanks for speaking with me.  To start off, can you tell me your official title and company?

RP: Editor of Health and Wellness at US News & World Report.

ES: How long have you been there?

RP: Just about five months.

ES: From our previous conversations, it sounds like you’re loving it.  Let’s talk a little about what you were doing prior to this that got you to where you are now. 

RP: Well, after being a reporter for the Atlanta Journal Constitution, I started working with my mom in her PR business.  Her biggest client is here – the Washington Auto Show.  So I was actually doing work with her and that initially brought me here, but then I decided to get back into journalism.  I love D.C., so I was excited to get to come back here.  I worked with my mom for about three years.  It was her own business and she had her main client for about 30 years. 

I was working at the Atlanta Journal Constitution and when I decided to start working with my mom, the newspaper business was going down the tubes.  I actually wrote the most popular feature on the website, which believe it or not was about home design.  I didn't have any particular expertise in that, but I got put on that and it was the most read story every week, more read than sports even.  Isn't that wild? 

In any case, the point is that I was working there part time, and they had laid off part-timers, and I felt like if I could be good enough that I could be on this beat but I could still worry about getting laid off, I felt like the industry was so tough and I was so insecure.  The way that that business was changing, I thought: just let me work with my mom and have our own business with that independence to go after all kinds of cool clients.  I’ll just write independently on a blog, or creatively or whatever, and at least have ownership of what I’m doing. 

And it was really cool to get to work with my mom for a while, and learn from her.  She has a lot of grit and really raw savvy about how things work.  She’s worked in the auto industry with all these men and she’s been the only woman in a lot of situations.

ES: It sounds like it was a wonderful experience.  Tell me more about how you got from there to your current position.

RP: It was amazing to work with my mom and try to drum up business but that was the hardest thing I have ever, ever done, trying to drum up business.  It was just absolutely the toughest thing I have ever done…  Which is a big part of the reason why I wanted to get back to this field, and with my current job I was able to kind of carve out something that was more than the sum of its parts. 

It’s kind of a multidimensional position.  It’s writing and editing, and there’s kind of some project management in there too, and also marketing.  So I think that’s sort of the secret to why I like it so much.  I have that ability to kind of do a lot of different things and bring a lot of skills to bear. 

The reason why I was interested in taking this position was, first, that I wanted to get back into writing.    To me, there’s something very essential about writing, so I wanted to be doing it, but I didn’t want to only be doing it. 

So that’s a hard thing to figure out because typically, as journalists, you’re not really mixing…  The roles have been traditionally pretty well defined.  There’s editors, there’s writers, and there are PR people and never should all these things meet.  They're sort of very siloed, and that’s sort of been a badge of honor in the, particularly the newspaper world.  So this has been really a different opportunity. 

ES: So it’s pretty unconventional, what you’re doing.

RP: Yeah, and part of it is because this company, early on, went all online.  They do put out these big rankings, so they have several magazines a year with the rankings and they have some editorial in there, but they went mostly online very early and the business is incredibly robust – they’re doing very well. 

Their rivals, like Newsweek have been really struggling.   [Here's a Washington Post opinion piece on this issue in regards to the model US News has set for Newsweek's recent leap to online-only.]  I know that because I was at the Atlanta Journal Constitution and it was abysmal and people here [in D.C.] at the Washington Post will tell you that too.

The sort of secret to [U.S. News’] success I’d say, even though I’ve only been there five months, is that they’ve diversified so much.  They have this rankings business…  There’re a lot of different products they put out.  I’m still learning about all the products.  There are some really smart business decisions that people have made, and it’s a very entrepreneurial environment and they’re willing to let people try different things.  If you have this skill, sure, we’ll try to find a way for you to use it. 

That’s so necessary, especially in the New Media world, and the New Business world in general – a real focus on being flexible and nimble.

So, I was interested in using the marketing experience and they were very receptive to helping me craft a position that would really work for me and make me happy.  And also, my bosses are very into checking in, making sure I’m happy and doing what I want. 

And that’s very opposite of the newspaper world, where people are like, “Oh, we’re so happy we have a job, we’re so happy we have a job.”  It’s kind of like, you’ll take whatever.  It almost reminds me of when you’re in a bad relationship, and you’re just taking the crumbs, just holding on, instead of demanding more.  I don’t know if I’d say “demanding more” in the work sphere, but I’d say “asking for more”, or even “trying for more.” 

If I was younger, I don’t know if I would have ever thought of the things I did now that I’m more a mid-career professional with lots of different experience and values.  And kind of presenting that and really valuing that takes a little bit of experience and being around the block a little bit to kind of see that and say, “This is what I want.  Can you meet me?”

ES: It takes a lot of experience and confidence and self-knowledge to know what you like and ask for it.

RP: I think it really takes a lot of experience, to know what you even like doing.  But I also knew that with writing, even though I love writing, I knew I’d get really burnt out and it gets to be kind of a slog when you’re just writing and reporting and writing and reporting – it’s kind of a slog, and gets to be a really hard grind.  So A) I felt like I had different skills that I wanted to hone and develop, but B) I knew that almost as a protective measure, that if I was only doing the writing, I would get burnt out. 

So I was really glad I was able to do some writing, also do some editing.  We have this blog we've created and I've been a big part of that, figuring out who the contributors would be and recruiting them, and thinking about the logo and design and the typeface.  All these things I learned from working with my mom in PR.  It was a ton of fun to get to work on that. 

I don’t know.  I feel so lucky that I get to pretty much pick what I want to write about and have this variety.  And the company’s growing – they’re hiring, they’re growing.  IT’s really something, especially in this industry.  But again, there’s a theme here – in the same way that I’m finding more contentment with a variety of skills – I think it benefits the company to have sort of a diversified portfolio.

ES: Yeah, I actually didn't realize that the company had these special issue products and an online presence with more frequently updated content. 

RP: I know, I don’t think I did either until I started learning more about it.  And now they’re getting into the events business too.  We had a huge thing in Dallas.  You've heard of STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering and Math.   We had a big conference with lots of sponsors and that’s a pretty profitable business.  It’s smart – they’re really smart with a lot of the partnering. 

ES: So did they start their rankings business with the college rankings and then expand into other rankings?

RP: Yeah, there are almost unlimited things that can be ranked.  I sort of feel like the college thing was the beginning, but Hospitals is almost as big now.  For better or for worse, people don’t really know about the scope of what they’re doing. 

ES: They’re just kind of under the radar, which is really interesting.

RP: Yeah, we’re really under the radar, it’s true.

ES: So this Health and Wellness area that you’re leading, is that just an area that they hadn’t had a big presence in and they hired you to kind of flesh it out?

RP: Yes – they had health rankings but the health editorial is somewhat newer.  There’s a senior Health editor, and then there’s me and two others.  We’re a small team.  It’s a good group.  There are more ideas than there are people to do everything. 

ES: Well, new ideas always come along.  It’s probably better to have more ideas than less – too many ideas is probably better.   How do you come up with your ideas? 

RP: I feel like I come up with story ideas constantly.  You know when you’re thinking about it, you get into a rhythm of thinking like that.  And kind of just seeing what’s on people’s minds.  What I’m thinking about, my friends are probably thinking about, and someone else is probably thinking about. 

Like I’m curious to look into the genetic testing and for example with breast cancer month, I was thinking of doing a story on the genetic testing trend.  Is it worth it to get tested for certain cancers?  Does it just cause stress and worry, or what does it give you and who should get it.  And if you know that your family member has this, that, or the other, do you still need to get the genetic testing? 

And just sort of what’s interesting.  Today I was just thinking about my boyfriend’s kids and his daughter was saying that in school they were asking them about what they would do if they were president, or who they’d vote for for president.  And she said that she wants to vote for Obama because her best friend told her that the other one isn't going to let girls do certain things.  So my boyfriend wanted to know what sorts of things.  She said she didn't know but it’s what her friend said. 

And they had to come up with platforms if they were going to be president.  She’s seven.  And she said if she were president, she would make everyone dress up like a princess all the time, and everyone has to be nice to each other.  So I’m thinking maybe we should put out something on our Twitter like, “if you were president for a day, what would you do?”  That’s just one idea as an example. 

I try not to make distinctions about what my friends would talk about and what we would talk about – it’s all the same.  Especially having the experience of being in journalism and seeing a lot of the changes happening in the industry, then being in P.R., and then coming back to journalism – I sort of have a bit of a shift in the way I look at things.  I think that a lot of journalists have a very detached view.  They’re objective reporters and they’re sort of detached.  And in some ways, that’s good, but I think it’s so much more effective to connect more than to disconnect, if that makes sense.

And especially in the old journalism world, there was such an elitism and arrogance, and maybe that’s been beaten down and beaten out of them.  I don’t know.  So I had the experience of being the observer, and then being in marketing basically in the PR world, and then coming back to journalism, I’m much more service oriented and more reflecting what people are talking about and seeing it as the same conversation.  Sorry to go on a tangent there.

So many times when you’re of something, you see it differently.  And when I was in PR, I’d go to these events and people would ask if I was covering them as a writer, and I remember being so relieved not to be reporting – just to kind of be experiencing it with everybody.  I hope I wasn't arrogant or anything, but I think you are sort of taught to remove yourself.  

Luckily now, I’m not doing hard journalism.  My interview with StacyLondon is about as touchy-feely as it can get.  So it’s not about blowing some big story.  It’s about connecting.  I can do it from that removed perspective but it doesn't really do it for me, and I don’t particularly shine at it either.

ES: I know, I feel like in reading your work, what comes across is your personality, and not in an overbearing way, but just sharing in the reader’s reaction.  It makes it relatable.

RP: I don’t say I put myself in there, but I don’t not put myself in there either.  It’s just me, and I don’t assume a different stance.

ES: You’re not being cold and objective, you’re interacting with your subjects.

RP: It has to work with the story of course, but I kind of knew that I wanted to write like this, so this works.

ES: It makes it very relatable to the reader – it makes it feel like you’re talking to a friend and it’s enjoyable.

RP: Oh good, I’m so glad.

ES: Aside from Stacy London, what have been some of the fun interviews or stories that you've done?  What have you really enjoyed?

RP: I just feel like the things I come up with that I’m really excited about always end up being the best.  It’s hard to get excited about certain stories – like “Tips for Beating the Flu” – it’s hard to get passionate about them, but you have to do them.  But for example, like, finding a way to employ my perch to get to people who I’m really interested in – and it’s not just about me, just people that I think have a lot to offer  and say… 

So, Stacy London was really interesting.  Right before her, I interviewed Gretchen Rubin about her new book, “Happier at Home.”  I loved her first book and I was really excited to get to talk to her because I think these are the things we all kind of think about.

ES: Do you tend to get a lot of contact from PR people and lots of press releases?

RP: More and more, now that people kind of know I exist.  Some of them are great, some are not.

ES: Are there any stories where you were surprised to take something away that you weren't expecting to learn?

RP: Gosh, I feel like every story.  That’s reporting.  You learn a lot.  Health is really a new territory for me, so so much of it is new.  Learning about infectious disease and for example, with this Meningitis outbreak going on right now with the steroid shots I got to talk to Dr. Roizen.   I’m learning so much about science, which is interesting because it’s a new subject for me professionally.