MAJ Archives

A journalist's profile, stories and careers in the field of journalism. Know a journalist who should be profiled here? Send an e-mail to Janet E. Bardon.

Updated March 2004
Originally Posted May 11 , 2000
Holly Bennett
Editorial Director, Today's Parent Group

Let's be totally honest: I lucked into this career. Although, as my oldest son pointed out, a background in English, social science research and adult education is actually a pretty good fit with making parenting magazines, it certainly wasn't what I thought I was heading for.

To back up: I took an honours BA, joint majoring in English and Native Studies, and an M.Ed. in adult education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. At first I worked for a number of urban Native organizations, for a social science research company, and for a youth employment counseling agency. I wrote lots of funding proposals, survey questionnaires and program evaluation reports, and designed a couple of distance education courses. To this day, I have never been to j-school. And I actually got my first job from a small-town newspaper ad.

I did have a fabulous mentor — Fran Fearnley — who hired me despite my lack of qualifications on the basis of my non-journalism writing and editing skills and interest in birth/parenting issues. It didn't hurt that we also liked each other on sight. I started as assistant editor of Today's Parent and Great Expectations; in those days two of us turned out ten (admittedly small) issues a year. Because it was such a small team, I was involved from day one in all the editorial aspects of our magazines, from planning to proofreading. And from the minute I started inputting our first article (it was just about visible on the black and orange computer screen), I honestly had that “oh, yeah, this is what I'm supposed to be doing with my life” feeling.

So I'm not really in a position to advise journalism students on how best to prepare for their career. But I can say this: when we're hiring, we definitely look for more than the technical skills: people skills, teamwork, good judgment, a commitment to “get into” the subject matter — these are all important.

One of the questions on the cheat sheet provided by Media Link for this profile is: What do you consider the biggest challenge facing journalists today? Okay, I’ll bite. I think there are two.

One is a growing distrust on the part of the public and expert sources alike of the media's ability/desire to report completely and competently. The length restrictions and short deadlines of some media are admittedly challenging, but there's no excuse in magazines. My advice: learn to read and evaluate research studies, so you don't jump to conclusions about what they actually show. Take time to understand what your source is really trying to say/explain, don't just say “it's on the tape, so that's how it's going in.” If you're not sure, call back and double-check. Research the background enough so that, even if you're just giving the reader the bottom line, you can be confident in it because you know the larger picture.

The second challenge is, I think, more a powerful myth than a reality. It is the increasingly common assumption that “people don't read any more” (or don't read more than 1/2 page at a time, or don't read anything that isn't broken up into digestible bits.) I believe this is a self-fulfilling prophecy — if you keep giving readers ever-shorter and less demanding articles, you will shape their expectations and create an impatience with more in-depth reporting. Some magazines — Harpers, The New Yorker, and Saturday Night come to mind — are still bravely running long, text-dense features. Some of them are among the most wonderful writing in magazines today. If we don't believe people are willing to read, what on earth are we doing in this business?