I’ve spoken about my comparatively brief tenure as Managing Editor of MTV News Online a few times, most recently here, upon learning of the sad demise of the entire department earlier this year.
If you were reading this blog in real time when I was working there (from January of 2006 until about July of 2007 …. I told you it was brief), you might have noticed a tenacious undercurrent of stress woven through those entries. On the one hand, landing that job was a true gift – one that rescued me from the sinking continent of print journalism and out of the too-comfortable confines of TIME Magazine (where I’d spent the previous 12 years), depositing me onto the veritable flight deck of a bold digital enterprise unencunbered by the comparatively staid standards of some of the stodgy stalwarts I’d previously worked at. MTV News was a high-energy, no-roadmaps working environment where fresh ideas were encouraged and embraced. All you had to do, more often than not, was speak up above the din and make a convincing argument for your concept.
At the time, I was scrambling to simply keep up, adapt to the new model (overnight, after over a decade at TIME’s news desk, my concept of “breaking news” changed from “Israeli Prime Minister Assassinated” to “Lenny Kravitz Shaves Off Dreadlocks!”), assimilate with the vibe and wrangle a feisty cabal of upstart editorial characters who were all filled with piss n’ vinegar, so to speak. At the same time, Peggy had only just given birth to our second child, Oliver, and dichotomies between the demands of the workplace and the responsibilities on the home front had me flying on fumes, for much of the time.
I ended up losing my grip shortly after the infectiously enthusiasitc gentleman who’d hired me was unthinkably cut loose, but such is the nature of working in the cutthroat world of New York City media. To this day, however, I do feel that I fell short in distinguishing myself, at MTV News, as a voice with something to say, and I’ve tried to apply the lesson from that experience in every situation I’ve been in since. No one’s going to just hand you an opportunity without you demonstrating that you’re the right person for it. Show up. Be vocal. Get in there and put your invidual stamp on it. Play a part.
Anyway, this bittersweet paean is really just a preamble for me to evangelize a great new subset series of my fellow former colleague, Ben Wagner’s Friends & Neighbors podcast called – wait for it – You Hear It First, spotlighting some of our mutual MTV News veterans from that era who really defined themselves in their respective roles. If you were ever a fan of “The Week in Rock” or ever wanted to know how this remarkable, multifaceted endeavor came together, it’s a really rewarding slice of “insider baseball.” I'm still very proud to call many of these people my friends.
Check out all the episodes by clicking right here. Tell'em Flaming Pablum sent ya.
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