Huffington Post: ROB FISHMAN

While it’s strange to think that before 2005 the Huffington Post did not exist as a staple news source, it’s even more unbelievable to consider how extensively news media has changed over the past decade with opportunities provided by the Internet. At 24, Rob Fishman, who graduated from Cornell in 2008 and Columbia’s Graduate Journalism School in 2009, has known no other employer than the Huffington Post in his adult life. Although many writers have the privilege of blogging for “Huffpo,” the website only hires a very small and trusted paid managing staff, of which Rob is one. Rob started on the staff as the associate blog editor in 2009, and in May 2010 was promoted to the position of social media editor.

Rob's truly a journalist of this generation, adeptly navigating a network of social media tools to receive and transmit news, yet with a hunger for reading that makes him one of the gifted news writers of his age. And, of course, there's charm in his wit that extends beyond the professional arena (we swear we did not pay him to plug our blog).
 
Describe your typical day:
On a good day, I’ll wake up and devote five miles to the exercise bike, and an additional mile to the treadmill (good days being too few and rather far between). At work, I spend a lot of time with our editors and writers on social media projects—not just with their Facebook and Twitter accounts, but with longer-term strategies and promotions—and with our tech team to make the site work better. In the past two weeks, I’ve also been working on busing 10,000 people to Jon Stewart’s rally in Washington.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Still working in—and maybe being in—the news.

What do you consider your best asset:
A facility for wordplay.

Your favorite word:
Perspicacious.

Perk to being good with words?
It’s an inexhaustible passion that makes reading indispensable.

Talent you most wish you had:
A photographic memory.

Real life role-model:
Aaron Sorkin (the dialogue, not the drugs).

Your greatest indulgence:
Chocolate chip cookies. Lots of them. My current favorite is from Birdbath.

Your greatest fear:
Solitary confinement.

Your motto:
“I’m not too worried about it.”

How do you see journalism changing in the next 10 years?
It will retain all of its fundamental tenets—newsgathering, editing, publishing—but the structure already is vastly changed. Instead of sprawling, bureaucratic operations like the newspapers of old, newspapers will operate more like The Huffington Post and other new media organizations. There may be more bloggers than staff reporters; editors who are as expert in search engine optimization as they are in split infinitives; and a continuous production cycle online instead of a daily printed paper, but the essential public service remains. The advent of social media is making news reading a shared instead of a solitary experience.

How do you get your news?
The Huffington Post!

And a few other outlets… For a while, I was relying almost solely on Twitter for breaking news and otherwise. With the iPad, I’ve returned to some of the old publishers. I look at the Times’ app on an almost daily basis, and I’m really enjoying the New Yorker’s new app. On the web, I read the Times, NY Mag’s Daily Intel, Page 6, Gawker, and whatever else comes my way (mostly through Twitter or Facebook).

Best-kept secret in New York:
Most certainly the QuestionNYaire blog.