Deez Interviews: Hasani Gittens on service journalism during a pandemic + how THE CITY is adjusting
Today’s interview is with Hasani Gittens, who’s deputy editor at THE CITY. We talked about his work day, how the year-old outlet is adjusting to pandemic coverage, and what drives his career-long commitment to local news. Enjoy!
What is your typical day-to-day like?
Working from home kind of turns your entire day into an "opportunity" to do some work if you're like me and have really bad boundaries, so I pretty much wake up looking at my phone, checking news, emails, etc. Check the stats on our stories, turn on NY1, keep one eye on whoever's having press conferences. From 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. or so I'm talking to my group reporters one on one over phone or sometimes just slack.
At 11, we have a meeting among the three editors — fellow deputy Alyssa Katz, EIC Jere Hester, and me — discussing what stories are brewing short-term and long-term, usually getting a handle on what will be our three or more stories for the next day's newsletter. That's how we think, the newsletter is our next day's paper — even though we're happy to publish any story as soon as we have it during the day.
After that I might have breakfast, and then I’ll have any number of meetings and other calls throughout the day with various people, sources, reporters, and some associated with some upcoming changes to our back end. At all times, I’m checking for news and looking for stories and usually editing stories that have either come in early or are on deck from a previous day. We have another editor's meeting at 4 p.m. with our photo editor Ben Fractenberg and engagement director Terry Parris Jr.
After that, more stories will be coming in for editing, fact checking, figuring out photos, copy editing, laying out. The work day often doesn't end until 9 or 10 p.m., 7 or 8 on a good day. As you know, sometimes a really urgent story can pop up out of nowhere at 7 p.m. and you just gotta do what you gotta do.
THE CITY has been publishing for a little over a year now. What has that year been like for you?
Before corona hit, I'd have said it's been a really great year and we've learned a lot about ourselves and really established a great core following and done some fantastic stories that have affected the people and policies of New York City in big and small ways.
Coming from a career mostly at super mainstream bigtime news outlets (NBC and the NY Post), seeing the feedback we were getting was extremely fulfilling: Never before have I heard so many people say stuff along the lines of, "My God, thank you for existing!" The vague idea of all this is what drew me to THE CITY in the first place I guess, also I knew I was going to be working with some of the best in the business.
Now, all I can say, humbly, is I couldn't be more proud of our entire team for stepping up into this scary moment in world history and doing incredibly impactful work. Also, I'm exhausted.
Has THE CITY’s approach to covering the pandemic changed your vision for the publication?
I don't think it's changed so much as galvanized our vision, or at least my vision for us. One of our many early mottos (even printed on the backs of our business cards) was "Listen. Dig. Deliver." Dig and deliver is pretty standard for journalists, but we're always trying harder to listen, to let The People tell us where the stories are.
In the coronavirus era, we've really expanded our efforts to get people to reach out to us. We put call-outs and google forms in every single story, and we've really tried to make all our stories — even the ones full of data and numbers and policy explanations — about people and communities and what matters to them.
Right now, it almost seems like all journalism is service journalism. Even if that service is giving some hope among the dread.
What are the specific challenges that you and your team have had to deal with in terms of tackling local news when everyone is supposed to be staying home?
It's obviously tough, since the lockdown, we've been very (well, even more) sensitive to reporters’ personal needs and concerns about going out or not going out. Absolutely no one is required to do anything they aren't comfortable with, and on the flip side, we try to make sure no one is going out and being a reckless vector.
We've really tried to work on our phone skills as much as possible, hitting up old sources, seeing how they're doing, and using things like the google forms and social media to get new sources. Our photo editor, Ben Fractenberg, has been doing heroic work going out to places and getting socially-distant photos of people, buildings, streets; it's an art in itself.
Finally, I'm struck by how you've spent most of your career covering metro New York, from your time at the Baruch College student paper to your copy kid days at the New York Post, to a career at NBC New York. What is it about local journalism — or maybe New York itself — that continues to drive you?
I mean, beyond my belief that local journalism matters most to "regular people," I'm a New Yorker through and through. Born in New York Hospital (back when NYPWMC was called that). My blood is blue and orange. I can't see any other way but to love this insane town, and want to make it better and to want to tell its stories.
Don’t forget to follow @hgitty and check out THE CITY’s coverage here!
Signal Boost:
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—Writing / Editing—
Claire Downs: Claire is a freelance writer with a new funny newsletter. Follow it at goingdowns.substack.com or contact her on Twitter for trend pieces, celebrity interviews and deep dives into internet subcultures
Maia Welbel: I am a freelance writer specializing in sustainability, plant-based eating, yoga, and wellness. available for copy and editorial/blog content. portfolio can be found at maiawelbel.com.
Nick Petruncio: I am an unemployed journalist looking for writing or editing work. I'm based in New Jersey near NYC. I worked for nine years for the Gannett Co. as a reporter and editor. My email address is npetruncio@hotmail.com.
Zoe Cooper: I've lost assignments due to the crisis, unfortunately. I write about art, design, and technology and am based in Berlin and NYC. Email is zoe@zoe-cooper.com
Bela Kirpalani: NYC-based sports journalist graduating from NYU with experience covering women's and men's soccer, basketball and other NCAA sports. I'm open to writing and editing gigs and have been published in SLAM, Uproxx, FanSided and more. My website is belakirpalani.com and you can email me at belakirpalani@gmail.com.