King's Alumna Talks About Her Path To EuroNews, Columbia University And Forbes

Anastassia Gliadkovskaya came to The King’s College in New York City as a 17-year-old from California with a background in performance classical piano and a burgeoning career in fashion modeling. Very quickly at King’s, she started gravitating to journalism classes, reporting for The Empire State Tribune and pursuing training and internships from The Daily Dot in New York to EuroNews in France to the European Journalism Institute in Prague. She worked for Prof. Paul Glader and Dr. David Tubbs as a faculty assistant. Her tireless work ethic led her to Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, where she studied investigative reporting, and now is continuing her reporting career. She took a pause from reporting to answer questions from Prof. Glader.

Q: Tell us about your current role at Forbes magazine and what you are doing there?

A: I’m a reporting intern on the wealth team at Forbes, covering billionaires. My primary role is to help put together the World’s Billionaires issue, which comes out this spring. I help value the net worth of the billionaires on our list (possibly close to 2,700 this year!), and I also write about billionaires who are doing something unique or interesting.

Q: You put the time in with internships during your time at King’s. Tell us about that process and how internships helped you develop as a journalist. And how did the MPJI team help facilitate some of those internships?

A: Getting newsroom experience early is fundamental to getting ahead in the industry. Every employer looks for three things — newsroom experience, clips and the ability to find unique stories. Without the foundational internships in undergrad, I would be having a much more difficult time landing prestigious positions. Internships varied, but they ultimately all taught me to always think quickly and commit myself fully to what I was doing, even if I was afraid or uncertain. I’m lucky MPJI strongly encouraged me to apply for every right opportunity that presented itself. I was able to figure out what I like and don’t like early on, and what my strengths and weaknesses are.

Q: After college at King’s, you applied to the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, were you were accepted and completed a Master’s in journalism. Prof. Lisi and I were glad to see that as we are fellow Columbia alums. Tell us about some of the key skills and knowledge you gained at Columbia.

A: Some of the most memorable teachings to me have got to be ethics and information warfare reporting. My ethics class challenged me to consider scenarios both hypothetical and real that called for difficult decisions. Would I publish if I got my information this way? Would I approach a source, given x circumstance? Would I have done what that reporter did? In class we debated, considered and justified. We heard every argument for and against. Not every student had the same answer — and that was the point. We had to dig deep into ourselves to understand where we each wanted to draw lines, morally. It was a critical class for establishing my own standards and defining what kind of reporter I want to be. Information warfare reporting was a class I chose to take, but strongly believe every student should be required to. In it, we learned about the dynamics of platforms and ads, how to investigate them and the dangers of amplification. In a time when we are all vulnerable to bad actors and disinformation online, it is more important than ever to study the ecosystems in which they thrive and the myriad ways they find to take advantage.

Q: You studied at the Stabile center at Columbia, which focuses on investigative reporting. What are some key software, apps, skillsets you think are really helpful to young journalist today especially if they want to do investigative reporting?

A: In terms of investigative reporting, the first outlet and resource that comes to mind is Bellingcat. I see it as the holy grail of modern investigative and digital forensics reporting. In addition to incredible longform reporting, like this, Bellingcat offers everything from guides to case studies to newsletters to webinars. Bellingcat reporters rely on OSINT — open source intelligence — to conduct their investigations. What that means is they don’t just rely on people as sources, but also on publicly available data. On that note, I highly recommend Craig Silverman’s Verification Handbook, which you can find for free online. It’s as close to a comprehensive course on information warfare reporting as you can get. In general, knowing how to work with complex datasets is critical to investigative reporting. Taking a course on advanced Excel at Columbia propelled my work to another level — I strongly suggest taking a course on at least Excel, but also on R or SQL if you want to really get into data reporting. I am attending the NICAR conference this year, led by IRE, which is quite affordable since it’s online this year — keep an eye on this annual conference! IRE’s annual conference is great, too, but less focused on the data reporting aspect. IRE membership is a huge plus to have, and IRE also features fantastic resources on its website. Also, sign up for LinkedIn Premium — journalists qualify for a free version. It is my favorite hack for finding and connecting with sources.

Q: You graduated last May (2020) right? Into a tough Coronavirus-affected market. What has been your strategy to keep reporting and moving forward in your career?

A: I graduated last May, online. Columbia’s career fair got short-squeezed because of the pandemic, and it was clear that the job market would not be forgiving in 2020. But thanks to how much reporting I got to do at Columbia and King's, I felt comfortable freelancing if I had to. I was lucky to land a reporting fellowship during the summer through a program Columbia sponsored last-minute for graduates, but after that ended in August I freelanced for the rest of the year. The key to keep moving forward is to not think of reporting as the only thing that will strengthen your skills and qualifications. Reporters have tons of assets — copy editing, fact-checking, content writing, researching, filing records requests. There’s a job market out there for all of those, and we can definitely work those gigs to pay the bills if needed. So many reporters in the field have a side gig — and it typically pays much more than reporting does! I think one of the biggest misconceptions I overcame after graduating was that if I wasn’t reporting, I was failing. That’s just not the case. And as a freelancer, I had time to pursue longer investigations that I really cared about. My biggest advice would be to take every opportunity that presents itself and put yourself out there. Join Study Hall — an incredible network of freelancers that offers everything from a Slack chat to pitch guides to a database of editors’ emails. Be active on Twitter and network. Help promote other reporters’ work. DM editors with your questions and pitches. These things have not only kept me preoccupied during this turbulent time but also have helped me progress.

Q: Was there a pivotal moment for you when you realized you were all in on journalism as a calling or career?

A: My sophomore year, several King’s students including myself had taken a trip with you, Paul, to Washington, D.C., for a journalism conference. There, we got to hear Edward Snowden speak via video call. It was a once in a lifetime experience. I’ll never forget the things he said, how he encouraged us in our fight for the truth and for exposing corruption. I felt so alive and invigorated, I knew this was what I am meant to be doing.

Q: What would you tell high school or college students who want to be journalists regarding the importance of studying in NYC?

A: I realize it’s a privilege to study and live in New York City, and that not everyone can do so. But for me, it was the reason I got into this business, so I owe a lot to the city. Here, you're surrounded by the biggest and most important hallmarks in the world. I remember waiting in line in the dark, waking hours of a chilly fall morning to attend Good Morning America in Times Square. I remember touring the New York Stock Exchange, the Museum of American Finance, The Wall Street Journal, ProPublica, Vice. Few things can inspire a budding reporter like getting to walk inside some of the most exciting halls of our time. And learning to report in a place like NYC will make you a more dogged and patient reporter. You’ll be running around the city figuring out the subway system, hauling equipment and trying to convince strangers to talk to you, and that’s just your typical Monday morning. But that’s what will make you better as a person and more competitive as a reporter. You’ll prove yourself, and you will be rewarded; having lived here for several years, I have established many connections that I trust will go a long way to support my career. If you can be anywhere, this is the place.

Q: What else would you like to tell friends of MPJI and future students at our various programs?

A: Reach out to other reporters and editors. Ask questions. Apply again for jobs when you get turned down. Always be thinking about ways to tell unique stories and always propose new ideas! Figure out what you like and hone that niche. If your mother tells you she loves you, check it out!

Q: How did your time at TKC help you find your path in journalism?

A: I am so grateful that I ended up at a small school like TKC and that it had such a thriving journalism program. I realize that had I gone to a giant undergrad school, I would have been paid much less attention to by professors and mentors. It would have also been more difficult to get involved on campus, and there would have been more bureaucracy to push through to implement change or to experiment with, say, the campus paper’s content. Naturally, with such a small set of students, TKC is able to closely monitor and mold its students’ progress, when it wants to. I think the journalism program is a brilliant example of that. I never felt forgotten or unimportant thanks to the individualized mentoring and encouragement I received from professors and older students alike. Both the big things, like internship recommendations, and the seemingly smaller things, like resume workshops, were of key importance. You can’t succeed in the industry if you aren’t prepared, and you can’t succeed in college if you don’t have guidance. My consistent excitement about reporting and confidence in my own abilities was nurtured because of both.

MPJI is based at The King’s College in New York City. MPJI provides education, training and professional development projects for journalists at the high school, undergraduate and professional levels. It is named after the late John McCandlish Phillips, a legendary reporter at The New York Times.

Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook @JMPjournalism and LinkedIn at McCandlish Phillips Journalism Institute.

Will New York City Survive? A Q & A with Anne Hendershott

By MPJI Staff

Anne Hendershott, writer and visiting professor at The King’s College, will be returning this semester to teach a course on “The City,” which will be a core course for every student who attends the NYC Semester in Journalism (NYCJ) program and an elective for students at The King’s College. Hendershott has written many books including Renewal, Status Envy, The Politics of Deviance, The Politics of Abortion, Moving for Work, and The Reluctant Caregivers.

What will a student enrolled in The City learn?/What do you most hope students learn?

The goal of the course is to help students discover exactly what it is that made New York City the vibrant and exciting place it still is today.  We take what is called in urban studies an “ecological approach” to understand how New Amsterdam — a sleepy trading post — became the thriving metropolis it is today. 

The ecological approach looks at four different variables including Population, Organization, Environment and Technology to help us understand why New York – and not Philadelphia, or New Orleans, or any one of a number of cities—became the premier city in the country.  I allow students to conclude for themselves which of the four variables they see as “most important” in helping to explain how New York became New York. Many of them choose environment as the explanatory variable because of our deep water harbor and access to the hinterlands but I would argue that it is the people of New York City – from the earliest days — that made the access to the hinterlands possible by building the Erie Canal.  And it was the people of New York that actually created the deep water harbor.  Just a few steps away from King’s College is Pearl Street – it was called Pearl Street because at one time Pearl Street was just a big oyster bed—that filled with water.  The people of New York used technology to dig and create the deep-water harbor that facilitated trade.  To me, the people and the culture they created is what makes New York City what it is today.

How does the past relate to current issues?

Throughout the course we look closely at the people and events that shaped New York as a place for business, the arts and the media. For example, we begin with the Dutch who brought the capitalist spirit — the need the develop a trading post that would rival all others. I am Dutch — my father was part of an early Dutch family in Manhattan — so I guess I give a bit more attention to the early Dutch settlers here than most others. We look closely at Peter Stuyvesant and his role in creating New Amsterdam’s governance. Then, we move on to the Revolutionary War and the pre-Revolutionary role of journalist, John Peter Zenger—an immigrant from Germany who became a printer and publisher in the City.  We maintain that Zenger singlehandedly “won” for us, the freedom of the press. Zenger did this by printing the New York Weekly Journal—an early tabloid that was used in the pre-Revolutionary times to poke fun at the English leaders of the new colony.  Zenger published irreverent cartoons of William Cosby, the royal governor of New York — depicting him as assorted farm animals — in order to protest his policies.  In response, Governor Cosby had Zenger imprisoned.  But, with the help of very smart lawyer from Philadelphia, Zenger was released and the freedom of the press was officially established.  Zenger is still a symbol for the freedom of the press—and we are still debating today how much freedom the press should have.

Throughout the course, we look at the important role that Christianity has played—and continues to play—for the City. While the Dutch did not get around to building a church in New Amsterdam for more than decade, that did not mean that they did not worship and thank God for bringing them to this beautiful island. It was just that the Dutch believed that to honor God they needed to work hard and provide for their families in this new world. Establishing a flourishing trading post enabled them to later build a church and hire a minister for their fledgling colony.

How will we respond to calls for police reform?

The Black Lives Matter movement has great resonance for us in this course.  Since we take a socio-historical perspective, we will look at other periods in our City’s history when there were similar calls for police reform. As each wave of immigrants came to the City, there were calls for police reform as each new immigrant group experienced what they perceived as discriminatory practices by those who came before them.  When the Irish immigrants arrived in large numbers, they were treated harshly by those earlier immigrants who were charged with law enforcement. The word “Paddy Wagon” came from the fact that Irish criminals were far more likely to be arrested and put into the police carriages than any other ethnic group.  The Irish came to power eventually by becoming police officers, politicians and priests — and then they were able to determine who would be arrested and incarcerated.  The Irish then were viewed as discriminating against the next ethnic group to arrive in the City — the Italians and the Eastern Europeans—who were barred from jobs with the police department and were more likely to be arrested and incarcerated than the Irish.

This demographic imbalance on the police department became a problem in July, 1863, during the New York City Draft Riots when the anger of working class New Yorkers over a new federal draft law during the Civil War sparked five days of riots in the City. African Americans were often the target of the rioters’ violence — some were lynched, many were murdered and some of the perpetrators were on the City’s police force.

Today, the NYPD demographics have changed dramatically as white police officers are in the minority.  Of the 35,783-member police force, only 47% are White, and 53% are Black, Latino or Asian American. Still, the perception remains that the NYPD does not understand inner-city concerns about what some residents view as unfair treatment of Blacks and Hispanics. We will explore the cultural contributors to that perception in the course.

Are middle class and wealthier New Yorkers fleeing NYC?

While it cannot be denied that COVID has demonstrated to us that we may not have to be physically present in an office in the City in order to get our work done, I just cannot agree with the National Review and NYTimes claims that COVID has “changed” the City forever. We have faced challenges that were even greater in the past – during the Depression of the 1930s, we had more than 25% of the New York City workforce unemployed. The 1970s flight of businesses and jobs out of the City was actually much worse than the current crisis.  I am confident that New York will be back better than ever.  New Yorkers are resilient and even though there are indeed some jobs that can be done remotely, journalists, artists, actors and writers will continue to live and work in the City.  We are still the financial capital and although many businesses may believe they can have their workers relocate elsewhere, New York will remain the heart of the business world.

Have you taken on any new interests since COVID?

I have had much more time to devote to research and writing about the cultural fallout from the COVID lock-down.  And, now during this period of protest, I have been writing and publishing articles in the secular and religious press which attempt to explain our current cultural predicament.

What are you most looking forward to at King’s?

For me, the main attraction to King’s has always been the students. They are among the most highly motivated and talented students I have ever worked with in my more than three decades of college teaching.  I am grateful for their enthusiasm and their optimism – and the many gifts they bring including their great love for God and their desire to know and serve Him. I have had the great privilege to work with several King’s students even after graduation. A few years ago, I co-authored a book with a former King’s student. This student, Christopher White, was my research assistant during his undergraduate years and we stayed in touch and ended up collaborating on several articles that were published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today and other newspapers.  Eventually, we co-authored a book that was published by Encounter Books, Renewal. Now that student, Christopher, is a talented journalist for the National Catholic Register, formerly a correspondent for Crux. 

What was your most pivotal moment?

More than 20 years ago, I made a conscious decision to begin writing for a more general audience with my books and articles. Until that time, I had written primarily for a scholarly audience but was reaching very few readers. But, once I published my Politics of Deviance book in 2002—and directly targeted my writing toward readers who wanted to be part of the conversation, it has changed everything for me. Since that time, each book I have published, and all of the hundreds of articles I have written and published in the media is always geared to an educated reader who appreciates fact-based opinion writing.

Which book is most relevant to the times?

My newest book, The Politics of Envy is in the production process and is due to be released in October—before the election. The book, which is written from a biblical perspective on the sin of Envy, argues that when toxic envy grows unchecked, it will inevitably destroy an individual, a family, a society—even a civilization.  I believe that envy today has reached a tipping point, fueling acts of anger, violence, and revenge in America’s cities and corporate boardrooms. In the book, I argue that much of the attraction to socialism is driven by a malign envy that has been nurtured by craven politicians and incited by some in the media.  There is an entire chapter on the role of social media in encouraging envy.

Go-to Advice for student journalists?

Write!  Find a faculty member who loves to write and tell him or her your ideas.  See if they are willing to let you be part of their research or editing process.  I have published several op-eds and essays with undergraduate students.  The important goal is to develop your own “voice.”  When I taught the Persuasive Writing course at King’s several years ago, I would tell students to pretend that you are sitting in your office and you are telling a friend about an event that is occurring and you want that friend to know all of the facts.  And, if you are writing an opinion piece, write like you would want your friend to know what you think of those facts. 

How Does NYC still matter?

New York will always matter for young journalists, theater students, art students or business and finance students because each of these require the kind of human interactions in dense urban environments that only NYC can provide.  While some businesses may have left the City—as they did in previous economic downturns like the 1970s—there will always be newcomers in the years to come.  The course in The City will demonstrate that these newcomers have been arriving on our shores over and over again, from across the country and the world for more than four centuries.  Some are arriving right now and right here at The King’s College.  I share their spirit of adventure and optimism—and I am grateful that they are here! Our City’s history should reassure us that after previous declines, we lifted ourselves from the depths and flourished like never before.