Class of 2005

Michelle Rabinowitz Producer MTV News, New York

Bio:

Michelle Rabinowitz is a producer at MTV News in New York, her hometown.  Since making it to Times Square in the fall of 2005 she has produced segments on topics ranging from sexual health and education policy to post-Katrina New Orleans and Green Day.  Recent projects include an interview with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and a half-hour special on Viral Video posted by U.S. servicemen and women. 
Before joining team MTV, Michelle was a Carnegie Fellow at ABC News’ Brian Ross unit and an editorial assistant at KNBC in Los Angeles.

ATVN positions and duties:

Producer, one time on-air reporter (never again).

How did ATVN prepare you for your current job?

As a producer at ATVN I had to manage a team.  Let’s just say teamwork was never my strong point.  I had to reel in my temper, evaluate peoples’ strengths and weaknesses in order to properly assign tasks and eat some humble pie from time to time.  I was working in a “real world” job while producing at ATVN, but I was a peon.  Learning how to write, encode and edit is important.  Learning to manage, however, is how you get the really good jobs.

What is your advice to aspiring journalists?

Learn how to do everything.  More doors will open up for you and you will eventually make more money. 

What are the top three skills college journalism students should be working on in order to be prepared for their first broadcasting job?

Writing, writing and writing.  The fourth would also be writing.

What is the most important thing a college journalist should know when he or she is trying to negotiate his or her first job?

Do not oversell yourself.  Employers are looking to invest in talent when they hire a young journalist.  Don’t act as though you know everything. 

What prepared you most for your current job?

Writing constantly for two years of graduate school.  Having to pull five pitches out of the ether also trained my brain for this crazy place.  I can now find great stories in the strangest places.

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