This is an article from the June 2025 Civitas Examiner (Volume 2, No. 3) and was written by one of our students, Benjamin Y. The opinions expressed herein do not reflect those of Civitas other than respect for the value of open dialogue. To read more Civitas Examiner stories or to submit your own, click here.
Ray Hartmann, born in 1952, founded the Riverfront Times, was on Donnybrook for 37 years, contributed to St. Louis Magazine, and now has a political commentary blog on Substack. As you would expect, he has some substantial journalism experience and some tips for aspiring journalists. On June 16, he came to Civitas’s summer internship to share some of these and talk about current events.
One vitally important word of advice is to go into journalism only if you intend to improve it. Hartmann says that journalism is currently often sensationalized and focuses on topics that are not newsworthy. Still, it will earn money, so to keep the news free of misinformation and filler, ensure that you have a vested interest in good journalism. He also says that there are many ways to pursue an interest in journalism, so don’t feel confined to print or TV. You can go into photojournalism, filmmaking, blogging, posting on social media, and many more fields. He even has advice on how to research for a story: get interviews and reports from all sides of an issue and give them equal weight. Don’t go into a story with a closed mind or wanting to prove your view.
Some of his most important information is on how to start your career as a journalist: what you publish in high school and college is crucial. In other professions, your grades are essential. To become a good lawyer, you must get good grades in law school. To become a good doctor, you must get good grades in medical school. But the journalism industry wants outspoken, eager-to-publish writers, not relatively inexperienced people who are good writers but have not worked often in the field.
