Jo Piazza Talks Integrity, Ingenuity, and Crafting a Crackling Beat

If you can’t cover the beat you love, make something remarkable out of the one you write about.

That’s the advice of Jo Piazza, senior digital editor for Current TV, and in it there are lessons for every freelancer who’s trying to work out an exciting niche.

Piazza shared some of the freelancing and writing tips she’s learned during her varied career at Freelance Writers Meetup at Contently‘s headquarters in Manhattan on Monday.

Piazza’s course: Follow the beat

Fresh from university in the early 2000s, Piazza though she’d end up in political journalism. But her career took off in an unexpected direction with a gig writing celebrity gossip at the New York Daily News.

Surprised at her fate but determined not to sell out, Piazza impressed her editors with a combination of rock-solid reporting and diligence. With these skills, she separated herself from the fast-and-loose world of other writers on the celebrity circuit.

“The best lesson for me, early on, was to be a very, very good reporter, no matter what the story is,” Piazza said. “It’s easy with blogging, especially with stories about celebrities, to not go back and check sources, to not have a second source. That’s something I started doing from the beginning, and I’ve done it ever since.”

Soon, Piazza was a prominent reporter for the gossip column at the paper — making friends and enemies among the famous (she has at least one harrowing tale to tell regarding an elevator ride with some celebrities who decidedly despised her). And her profile grew until she’d become a contributor to the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and a frequent commentator on TV.

Carving out a space: ‘Source Gaps’

How did Piazza make waves in a crowded celebrity field that she wasn’t even certain was for her in the first place? As the adage goes, she followed the money.

It was while covering Britney Spears’ very public meltdown in 2007 that Piazza realized that there was money to be made in falling apart on camera, and then putting oneself back together as a new “brand.”

“I felt really guilty about it,” she said of covering Spears. “This poor woman was obviously in the middle of the throes of a mental breakdown, but everyone was profiting from it.”

A curious thing happened during her reporting: Piazza realized there was a gap in the sources that gossip reporters frequently tapped. Although these days its commonplace to talk about celebrities branding and re-branding themselves, back then none of Piazza’s contacts could come up good answers about the economics of being a celebrity and redefining one’s personal brand.

And so, a beat was born. It led to a book deal for Celebrity Inc.: How Famous People Make Money.

The lesson, Piazza said, is to pay attention when you hit such a gap in your reporting. A source-gap can be an indicator that others may not be writing from the angle you’ve discovered. When you see a gap, fill it.

Balance and paying the bills

Still, just finding a new beat doesn’t mean your work is through.

Whether it’s Britney Spears melting down or it’s the ins-and-outs of municipal finance — both beats that Piazza has covered — if you’re writing steadily about what doesn’t thrill you, but the work pays the bills every week, the trick is to find your fulcrum between the job you have and the one you want. You can transition over time.

“I was a freelance writer for almost four years. It’s definitely about finding a balance,” she said. “It’s really important to have that one project on the side that you really do love doing. You’re setting aside a set amount of time every day, even if it’s only an hour.”

Getting sources to respond

When first contacting a new source, as a freelancer — if you can’t say you work for the Wall Street Journal, or for the New York Daily News — work to craft questions that your sources can’t ignore, Piazza said. 

“If it’s something they have to respond to, or else they’re kind of screwed, then they’re going to answer you, no matter who you are,” she said.

Elbow grease still pays off, and it pays off for freelancers especially, at the start.

“It’s about doing your research beforehand,” said Piazza. “And, it’s always going to be more work when you are not working with an outlet.”