The Friday Reporter

Leigh Scheps' passion for her work shines through in everything she does.  Not only does this remarkable journalist cover human interest pieces for Inside Edition Digital, but she also spends her spare time covering Broadway and pitching her own "side hustle" coverage on her own behalf.  Walk alongside Leigh in this episode where this non-stop journo tells us about her early start, her career and...

Lillian Rizzo is a reporter for the Wall Street Journal.  She started her career covering bankruptcy and debt - despite having a limited knowledge in that issue space.  She credits that experience with her most favorite part of journalism -- the non-stop learning that happens while she's working hard at her job. Today, Lillian covers the cable media industry, which is also a busy and every changin...

Alayna Treene is Employee #17 at Axios -- before the publication had even formally been named -- and is now five and a half years into her tenure there.  She is the congressional reporter for Axios, the co-author of Axios Sneak Peek and covers both sides of Pennsylvania Avenue.  Her experience has given her opportunities to visit with some of the most senior members of House and Senate leadership,...

Week Four of Axios April brings us to a rich conversation with Axios Justice and Race Reporter Russell Contreras.  With a deep interest in history and a keen knack for writing, Russell realized early in his career that authenticity and connection to those he covers was of real value.  While the narrative today is focused on the issue of race and justice, it's more than just a trend for Axios.  The...

Niala Boodhoo is the host of Axios Today -- the podcast delivering you important news of the day in just ten minutes.  Much as is true of all things Axios, the podcast follows their Smart Brevity model. Niala launched the podcast in June 2020 during the height of the pandemic and came to the post after a long and esteemed career in print journalism, public radio and wire services.  Journalism has...

There I go again with a headline with more than five words -- but now that I've had a chance to visit with Axios Pro's Senior Editor, you can bet I'll do my best to be smarter about the podcast episode headlines.  With just a few weeks of remarkable content under its belt, Axios Pro is fast becoming the subscription you need to do your job well.  Today's conversation is with George Moriarty and wi...

During the earliest days of the pandemic many newsrooms had to shrink their reporting teams in order to stay viable in difficult economic times.  If not for some of those difficult times, Hope King might not be the superstar business reporter for Axios today -- but  judging from this conversation, Hope very much likes the way things have played out.  Hope King is happily enjoying a thriving career...

Tim Hermes is the president of Rev Rocket and a legend in the world of business to business media and events.  Tim shares his perspective on niche media and how to grow it well, while also offering his insights into how the media space has grown and evolved over the course of his career. While he often will say he's retired, his vision and insight continues to be sought after in this important med...

Jason Wagenheim is the President and Chief Revenue Officer for Bustle Digital Group, a remarkable lifestyle brand hosting news outlets like Bustle.com ; ScaryMommy.com , Gawker, W Magazine and a dozen others.  The pandemic brought challenges and obstacles that Jason and his team met with innovation, compelling content and strong networking -- and delivered them into 2022 with a robust outlook.  Ja...

Matt Lewis is a columnist for The Daily Beast, author of "Too Dumb to Fail," and host of the podcast "Matt Lewis and The News."Matt jumps into the conversation with Lisa revealing he once aspired to be a political operative, but quickly turned to covering politics as the blog community was emerging as an important news source.  Matt's point of view is always refreshing and insightful and he confes...

Breaking Defense's Valerie Insinna knew journalism would be a way to travel and see great things -- fast forward to today, she's covering the Pentagon and the Air Force for one of the best news outlets covering defense.  Her reporting has brought her to travel to remote parts of the globe, interview at the highest level of the defense world and even train for "what ifs" when riding in military air...

Tarini Parti is a White House reporter for the Wall Street Journal -- and while she shares the beat with a handful of colleagues, the work is intense and remarkable all at once. Tarini shares what it's like to cover a President and Vice President, the collaboration that goes with covering the biggest news of the day and how travel and reporting are keeping her going. Tune in to find out more about...

As a very young woman from Baltimore, Mary C. Curtis' journalism inspiration came from her lived experience.  Her family's involvement in the civil rights movement coupled with strong work ethic catapulted her into a widely successful career.  Today Mary is the host of CQ Roll Call's Equal Time podcast, an award-winning columnist, an NPR contributor and a senior facilitator for The OpEd Project --...

This week's episode guest is National Geographic Senior Animals Editor Christine Dell'Amore.  Celebrating 15 years with the organization, Christine has covered a wide range of issues and traveled to every continent on the globe, including a rare visit to the Antarctica and South Pole -- that resulted a book - South Pole -- that Lisa is adding the the Friday Reporter book shelf and looking forward...

John McArdle is the host and producer for Washington Journal on CSPAN -- a 3 hour show that airs 365 days a year and takes up to 60 calls every day.  What sets their show apart is how they take calls from all sides of the discussion happening on the show and inside of Washington, D.C.   While sometimes those calls that can be dicey, McArdle and his colleagues handle them with tremendous grace.  Jo...

Noah Bierman with the L.A. Times finds himself covering an historic vice president after covering an historic and busy previous White House.  His journalism career has brought him to many corners of the country while covering many interesting news beats.  His perspective on journalism, news of the day and Vice President Kamala Harris is super interesting.  We're so lucky to have caught him for thi...

Daniel Lippman is a reporter covering the White House and Washington, D.C. for Politico.  His unconventional way of arriving on the scene -- through the use of copy editing final stories and then contacting the journalists -- endeared him to hundreds of journalists in his early years.  It also introduced him to the highest level of media and secured him a great beat at one of the nation's best new...

Lisa visits today with Howard Mortman the communications director for C-SPAN.  Howard has a daily bird's eye view of the political process -- from the U.S. House to U.S. Senate to the Administration and all the ways industries aim to influence these bodies of government.  Howard highlights how C-SPAN's model really changed the way we view elected leaders in their day to day processes -- and influe...

The Hill Newspaper launched a great new brand called "Changing America'' just before March 2020 -- and before the world shut down.  Their reporting is focused in on positive news stories in a variety of policy areas and is truly offering inspiring insight when it is so desperately needed.  Brian shares perspective on how their "news adjacent" operating style is bringing inspiring pieces to their a...

This week's episode is with David Wildstein, editor and founder of the New Jersey Globe.  David talks with Lisa about his early days when he created an insider's must read publication 20 years ago -- PoliticsNJ -- that was truly a ground breaking and news making publication in New Jersey and across the country.  David's experience as a political operative and his knowledge of political history mak...

Joanne Levine is the Executive Producer at CQ Roll Call and was nominated from previous guest Shawn Zeller for whom Joanne is the producer of his podcast. Joanne has a full experience in the space of audio and is a content creator for the well known Hill publication CQ Roll Call.  She offers advice and thoughts on podcasting, content creation and the intimacy of audio media.  She is also an advoca...

On the eve of Giving Tuesday and the holiday season, join The Friday Reporter in making a contribution to a robust media operation -- created by the great Josh Kurtz.  Josh has nearly 35 years journalism experience, and with his experience he built Maryland Matters which is an online news outlet that covers state government and state politics.  As a non-profit news organization they rely on the su...

Today's guest is Oriana Pawlyk from Politico and was nominated by Marcus Weisgerber from Defense One (and also her spouse!).  Oriana covers commercial aviation for Politico at an interesting time for the industry.  The conversation examines all aspects of the economy that the industry touches -- and how Members of Congress have a clear perspective on the industry she covers. Her background was in...

This week's episode is with Founder and CEO of Punchbowl News -- Anna Palmer.  Formerly of  Politico (Playbook &  Influence), Roll Call and a half dozen other remarkable Washington D.C. news sources, Anna has launched a new news-breaking outlet in Punchbowl News with John Bresnahan, Jake Sherman and Rachel Schindler.  And in less than a year, they've make an indelible mark in the Capitol and Insid...

This is an extra fun episode with twin brothers -- Matthew Daly from the Associated Press and Brendan Daly a former reporter who is now in the public affairs space.  They come from a long line of reporters from their grandfather who started in 1916. The brothers offer a unique point of view about reporting, communications, covering Capitol Hill and - most importantly, perhaps - being the editors i...