Quiz: What Publication Are You Destined to Write For?

When I took my first journalism class freshman year of high school, my dream was to write for The New York Times. This dream isn’t unique. Everyone who writes nonfiction has, at one point or another, wanted to contribute to the Times. There’s a general consensus that it’s the best publication in the world. But just because everyone wants to write for the Times doesn’t mean everyone should write for the Times. Each journalist has a very particular set of skills, qualities, and tastes that may not line up with the Grey Lady’s ideals.

It’s been a decade since that first journalism class, and while I’d still love to write for the Times, I’m not putting it on some writerly pedestal. Knowing my strengths and areas of interest, there are other publications I’d prefer to write for, such as Grantland and The New Yorker. At this point, The New York Times has really become the Yankees of the publishing world. And I happened to grow up as a die-hard Mets fan.

When I took this quiz myself, I got The New Yorker. Fittingly, I wrote my first piece for them last year. Still working on that second piece, but, again, I’m a Mets fan, so what do you expect?

I want to thank our social media editor Kieran Dahl and our assistant editor Dillon Baker for helping get this quiz off the ground. We used a highly unscientific process that everyone from Freud to Skinner would disapprove of.

So please take the quiz, share your results, and let us know what you think @TheFreelancer.