Deez Interviews: Meet The Atlantic editor helping to stake out the mag’s European presence
Happy Friday, Deezers! Today’s interview is with Yasmeen Serhan, one of The Atlantic’s youngest & brightest talents. After working as an editorial fellow for a year, she was one of a handful of reporters sent abroad to London to open up The Atlantic’s first ever European bureau, and we asked her all about it! Enjoy!
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The interviewee: Yasmeen Serhan (follow her @YasmeenSerhan!)
The gig: Assistant editor at The Atlantic
The hustle:
I spend the majority of my time writing/reporting and coordinating stories with my editors in DC (made possible by slack, which for better or worse is now my lifeblood). My beat is Europe, and therefore super broad, so the type of stories I pitch really depends on what’s happening in the world.
One day I could be interviewing a Russian dissident about Putin’s kleptocracy in London, and the next I could be writing about Trump and Macron’s bromance. But these days I’ve been focused on Brexit and finding interesting angles within it that I think could appeal to both a U.S. and U.K. audience.
When I’m not writing/reporting, I divide my time between curating the The Atlantic’s international homepage (which is the version of website our non-U.S. readers see), mind-numbing transcription, and scouring the internet for the best Merkel photos.
First, the obvious question: How did you go from working as an editorial fellow at The Atlantic to getting sent over the pond to help start up the magazine's European bureau?
Well, it all started with the burqini. Yes, I’m serious. No, I wasn’t wearing one.
One of the first long-term stories I did for The Atlantic was a scandal that erupted in France over the burqini (full-body swimwear sort of akin to a wetsuit), and whether it should be allowed on French beaches.
The story let me dive into topics I was already interested in — secularism in France, the country’s complicated relationship with its Muslim population, the French far-right, etc — but it also set a perfect foundation for me to start digging into the French election, which kicked off just a few months later.
It all really snowballed from there. After spending months on the French election, I moved to the Dutch election and soon after that started reporting on things happening in the U.K. and Germany (none of which, I should mention, would have been possible had it not been for my awesome editor Krishnadev Calamur, who really encouraged me to expand on European coverage). When the offer to move to the London bureau was extended, it was basically framed as an opportunity to continue my reporting about Europe for The Atlantic — only this time from Europe.
What has been the biggest difference between being a journalist in the U.S. vs. in the UK/Europe?
Things are less U.S.-focused here. I know that sounds painfully obvious, but it’s something I’ve been thinking a lot about since reading this piece about freelance journalist Sulome Anderson and the challenges of reporting overseas for a news cycle dominated by Donald Trump.
She talks about how several American news outlets have become less interested in international pitches if they don’t have a Trump peg. I don’t think this is solely a U.S. media problem — there’s plenty of palace intrigue on this side of the pond, and I’ve written more stories about POTUS from here than I thought I ever would.
Case in point: I’m pretty sure every tabloid and magazine I saw on the way to work this morning had something about Trump’s “get ready” tweet on the front page. But on the whole, it’s definitely less dominating here, and it’s given me the chance to see things from a more international (or at least more British) perspective, which has been really nice.
What was it like to make the decision to move abroad?? Were you scared??
Me? Scared? Psh … Yes. I was terrified. I mean, I was excited too, of course. The opportunity to report about Europe for The Atlantic — and from London, no less — was a dream. But reconciling that excitement with leaving DC and being further away from family and friends was a challenge. Thankfully, passing up the opportunity never felt like an option to me, since I knew I’d always regret it if I did. Taking away that choice, a bit paradoxically, made the whole thing a lot easier.
The magnitude of the move didn’t really hit me until I touched down in the U.K. Luckily for me, I was in the country no more than 24 hours before my friend and fellow Atlantic fellow Joseph Frankel flew into London on a pit stop en route home from France. He spent what few days he had in a city to which he’d never been helping me settle in (including a not-so-touristy trip to IKEA).
So my advice to anyone considering a move abroad: Just do it. If you’ll regret anything, it’ll just be that you didn’t try. And get yourself a friend like Frankel.
What issues in Europe interest you the most, and which ones do you think an American audience should be paying more attention to?
I’m really interested in the strength — and limitations — of the U.S.’s transatlantic relationships, which is something I think Americans should be paying more attention to. Everyone knows about the “Special Relationship” between the U.S. and the U.K., but I think just how special it is can be taken for granted.
At least it seems to be under the current administration, which has prompted people to question the strength of the relationship more times than I can count (I lied. Five times. One, two, three, four, five. I’m probably missing some.)
For what it’s worth, I don’t think the Special Relationship is doomed. Apart from slacking on diplomatic norms (like not criticizing your allies over Twitter), the fundamentals of the relationship don’t seem to have changed much.
But it's worth watching. At a panel a few weeks ago, I heard the U.K.’s shadow foreign secretary (the Labour party’s version of Boris Johnson) reaffirm that the Special Relationship “will survive this president.”
I guess that’s reassuring. But it’s also a bummer that it needs to be said at all.
Do you face any difficulty getting access or recognition as part of The Atlantic in the UK?
There aren’t as many people who are familiar with The Atlantic on this side of the pond, but they do exist! About 30 percent of our online readers are overseas, and the bulk of those people are in the U.K., so the potential is definitely there.
In terms of access, it’s been a gradual process. We’re not as known as Britain's more legacy publications, but it hasn't really hindered access. Plenty of think-tank folks, academics, and even a few MPs I've spoken to are familiar with the magazine and are always happy to chat. I think it'll get easier once we have more of a presence here, both on and offline (I spotted a dated copy of the mag on a newsstand in SoHo once, but that's about it).
For Deez Links readers / young peeps in media dreaming of working abroad in media, what advice do you have about being an "ex-pat"?
Moving abroad can be a disorienting experience and being outside of your comfort zone is, well, uncomfortable. But it's also a fun and exhilarating place to be, so my advice would be to go there! Totally lean into the discomfort of it all.
Because the good thing about the unfamiliar is that nothing really stays that way for long, and before you know it you'll be using words like "queue" and "knackered" and wondering how you ever got anywhere in life without the speed and reliability of the Victoria line.
For the Americans dreaming of moving to the U.K., a word of warning: "Pants" does not mean what you think it means here, and announcing that you wish you'd worn some (instead of a skirt) on an exceptionally cold day will get you some much-deserved taunting.
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That’s it for this week! Don’t forget to keep up with Yasmeen @YasmeenSerhan, and have a great weekend!
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