A New York Times journalist visited Ohio University today to tell journalism students about his journey from college blogging to a New York City newsroom.
Brian Stelter, who reports on TV and digital media for The New York Times, came to the Ohio University campus on Monday to speak to journalism students.
Stelter attended Towson University in Maryland and said he managed to blog almost 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, while attending classes and working as the editor of his campus newspaper.
Stelter told The Post he would write any chance he could get, even during class.
“The more you write, the quicker you write,” he said. “Writing is about doing it, not talking about it.”
The media reporter founded the blog Cable Newser, now TVNewser, when he was 18 years old. The cable news blog took off and was purchased by Mediabistro.
Originally, the Television Critics Association wouldn’t accept Stelter’s membership request because he was a blogger.
“Back then, this just made me want to blog more,” he said. “I wanted to beat The New York Times at their own game. I wanted to be better than them, because they were the best.”
In 2007, The New York Times recruited Stelter as a staff writer for its business section.
“When The New York Times calls, it’s hard to say no,” he said.
On July 23, 2007, Stelter became a traditional print journalist at The New York Times.
Stelter actively uses his Twitter feed and has more than 82,000 followers. He said he usually tweets around 20 times per day.
“Twitter is a fantastic and almost flawless way to get news,” he said.
Today, Stelter spoke to several journalism classes at OU. During one of his presentations this morning, he encouraged students to tweet throughout his lecture using the hashtag #Stelter101.
Stelter said during the lecture that he uses the social media tool to tweet about karaoke, song lyrics and other topics that personally interest him.
“I am always on, whether I want to be or not,” he told The Post. “My job is always connected to my life.”
During the lecture, Stelter shared a story with OU students about getting in trouble on a date because he was tweeting in the bathroom.
"I do like being connected most of the time,” Stelter said. “But it’s nice to be disconnected.”
In the film Page One: Inside The New York Times, which features Stelter, a main theme is the declining newspaper sales throughout the country.
“The world would be a much worse place without The New York Times, but we are never going to live in a world without The New York Times,” he said.
“Print will die sometime, but not anytime soon.”
bc822010@ohiou.edu
