I recently decided that I want to pursue a career in journalism, so I decided to ask someone who knows a bit more about it.
Ellen Gabler is an investigative journalist who began working at the New York Times in 2017, covering health and medical issues. She also reports on sexual harrassment, according to her profile on the New York Times.
But her career goes far beyond the Times. It began not in 2017, but as she was graduating from Emory University in 2003.
“I didn't get interested in journalism, really, until I was about to graduate, and I was like, ‘Oh, shit, I need a job,’” Gabler said.
Gabler’s classmates in undergrad were ahead of her in their journalism aspirations, having undergone internships at Businessweek, Washington Post and Boston Globe, Gabler said.
She made it clear that being behind her classmates in undergrad did not hinder her career progression.
“There really is no one way to go about a journalism career, and that's a really important message because I definitely felt when I was graduating college that I was going to amount to nothing,” Gabler said.
The daunting fear of life after graduation hangs over every senior’s head during that last spring semester; it was a relief to hear that Gabler had been no different.
Gabler graduated from the business school at Emory and realized that marketing was not for her, so she chose writing instead.
“I'm just kind of a good writer and have always liked writing,” Gabler said. “Everything else just kind of seemed boring.”
After graduating, Gabler worked for a small newspaper in Minnesota called the Stillwater Gazette, before moving on to the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal.
She eventually enrolled in Columbia’s investigative journalism graduate program, and from there she wrote for The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel as an investigative journalist before getting hired by the New York Times in 2017.
Despite working at a renowned newspaper, Gabler emphasized how journalism is vital at any level. She spoke of the value of her time at the Stillwater Gazette, her first journalism job.
“Journalism is, even at the smallest levels - so even covering the Stillwater City Council - actually quite important,” she said. “I could see why the stuff I was doing could matter on a larger scale, and so that was kind of exciting to me.”
Covering local news and town events is rewarding, Gabler said. When comparing her work at the New York Times to her previous jobs, she said there is virtually no difference.
“It's journalism. It's exactly the same,” Gabler said. “The job I do now is the same job I did at my very first reporting job, which I think is cool.”
Journalism is reporting the truth, whether it be at The Stillwater Gazette, the New York Times, or The Charlotte Bridge. Telling stories that readers care about is a universal trait.
Gabler did note that there are very different ways to perform journalism now, as she referred to what some of her coworkers at the New York Times are doing.
“There's people here who were traditional newspaper reporters, and now they're working on The Daily, which is the podcast, or they're working on our TV show with Hulu,” Gabler said. “So there are a lot of different things you can do, really, truly more than ever before.”
She reflected on how she went to graduate school and even teaches a journalism course at Columbia, but stressed that graduate school is not necessarily essential for success in this field.
“The executive editor of the New York Times didn’t graduate from college,” Gabler pointed out.
Whether it be at the local or national level, writing about the news is an engaging career. It is good to know that as I go forward, there is no right path to follow, but many interesting ones.
One of Gabler’s bigger stories in Milwaukee can be accessed here.
