Bruce Wright
Managing Editor at NewsOne (iOne Digital)
What was your path to becoming an editor?
I worked my way up from a newsroom copy boy at the Washington Post to working on the New York Times' obituary section to being part of the Boston Globe's Pulitzer Prize-winning team covering the Boston Marathon bombing to being the assistant managing editor at Newsweek's International Business Times to now as the managing editor of NewsOne.com. It's been a fun and informative ride over the course of nearly 23 years.
How and when did you learn to write? Do you think writing can be taught?
I learned at a very young age to appreciate the art of writing from my father, a judge who would often type letters and poems. But I also fell in love with actual penmanship, so the thought of combining the two helped curate my passion for all levels of writing. It was only in college when I developed a fascination with the news and becoming a journalist.
I do think that writing can be taught, but teaching someone to love doing it may not be so easy. You can teach someone the best way to write a news story using the inverted pyramid story structure, for instance, and that is a pretty efficient recipe to present the facts whether the writing is disinterested or not. But you can't teach a writer his or her voice -- an equally important component to effective written communication -- you can only encourage it. It's up to the writer to develop that part on his or her own.
Who are your biggest inspirations within the space?
My biggest inspiration in the digital news space is the increasing number of emerging and established Black voices being amplified to help shape and guide the necessary public discourse taking place in the country. There is strength in numbers and I'm glad to be a part of the army of messengers committed to documenting and analyzing the state of the U.S. and the world from a news perspective.
If I had to identify people by name who I'm most inspired by, it would be folks on the front line of journalism fighting the good fight: Yamiche Alcindor, April Ryan, Kevin Merida, Aaron Morrison, Michael Harriot, Tiffany Cross and David Dennis Jr., for starters. But there are a good number of others, too.
What is your brand’s mission? Who are you seeking to impact?
NewsOne.com's brand mission is to provide coverage of current events from an unapologetically Black perspective for a nuanced look at the news cycle. We are looking to impact all audiences but are focusing on reaching the millennial generation of young adults the most since they are the future leaders.
What is the most challenging aspect of maintaining your particular brand’s voice?
To be completely honest, maintaining NewsOne's brand is not one of the many challenges of my job. Staying on-brand from a Black perspective when covering news stories is literally natural for me as an African American man. Our voice is heard loudly from the headline all the way down to the kicker, and that is something we are encouraged to amplify at NewsOne.com.
How has COVID affected your editorial strategy? What is something you’ve learned from this new normal?
Our editorial strategy is, in short, to either start a conversation or to get in on an existing conversation or to take that existing conversation in a brand new direction, all through a Black lens. COVID allowed NewsOne to do all three seamlessly, especially after data showed the disproportionate effect it is having on Black people, our primary audience. If this new normal has taught me anything, it's that people are hungrier than ever to consume information during a pandemic and important new civil rights era, and I'm committed to my duty to provide a steady stream of it.
What do you think will be the greater impact on journalism?
I think the greatest impact that can be had on journalism (at least right now) is the growing presence (though not growing fast enough) of multicultural voices telling stories that, taken together, paint a way more vivid and accurate depiction of the world journalists are charged with covering. In the era of so-called "fake news," we always have an obligation to be accurate and timely, so those virtues will never leave my vocation. But diversity can enhance the world's journalism in ways that other factors cannot.
What feedback have you gotten from your readers that is new/different than before?
The feedback has been pretty consistent, to be honest. "Fan" mail usually falls along two lines: People who applaud our work and detractors who try to fault it for focusing too much on Black lives (our very brand!). I try to engage with/respond to every reader who contacts me, and now with the increasing coverage of police killings of Black people, some of the folks who in the past dismissed our coverage as racist have begun to reach back out to admit their reactions were hasty. That type of awakening from readers is very rewarding and lets me know we're doing something right.
What are you currently reading?
I'm currently reading Open Season by Civil Rights Attorney Ben Crump. It's informed a good amount of our coverage of this important civil rights moment as he is increasingly a central figure in the movement for social and racial justice. I'm also revisiting some classics, like The Autobiography Of Malcolm X and Richard Wright's existential books like The Outsider and Uncle Tom's Children. I'm also making my way through the Harry Potter series with my children every night. Of course, I read a ton of news outlets daily, too.
How important is it to have mentors during this new journalistic landscape? Can you describe your ideal mentor relationship?
Mentors will always be important, especially in journalism. Unfortunately, I have not had as many as I would have liked and have had several bad experiences seeking them. Luckily, my cousin is a founding member of the National Association of Black Journalists, so I have her to lean on. As a result, I've made it a point to mentor and nurture younger journalists to give them opportunities to learn and grow in ways I did not.
My ideal mentoring relationship would consist of a seasoned journalist being willing and available to not just "talk shop" but also periodically collaborate in an effort to break down the walls between the profession's age divide. Black journalists especially need this type of relationship to survive in an environment where not many of their colleagues look like them or are open to nuanced story pitches they might have. Mentors can help you successfully navigate that and other pivotal moments in your career.
Knowing that news breaks on social media, whether it's a new government policy or the latest celeb pregnancy announcement, how does your team use social media to report on the story?
Social media is one of the most important tools that understaffed and under-resourced newsrooms have at their disposal. It can many times be the great equalizer and provides a number of options for covering a story, especially for reactions to the news. But we also use the news broken on social media as an opportunity to present the news in our brand's voice, and many times that means contextualizing it for our predominately Black audience. There are also no shortage of opinions on social media, some of which deserve to be amplified through ur coverage. To be sure, social media can be a gift as much as it can be a curse, but in journalistic standards the good definitely outweighs the bad.