In light of the importance of journalism for a cohesive civil society, healthy democracy, well-informed public and transparent government, some of New Jersey's most remarkable women journalists reporting on cities and communities around the state will share their stories of success, struggle, purpose and wisdom: What drives their work despite the challenges, the importance of white and non-white women in journalism, and tips and insights for others looking for support and inspiration in the field. 

Part one of this series comes during Women's History Month, a time to honor and celebrate women's achievements and contributions in history, including women journalists. We feature three women journalists in the state who have built their careers in primarily white-male-dominated newsrooms and continue the struggle to make a difference in the state, their communities and the media. Although it's not easy to build and sustain a journalism career, they say their readers are worth it.

Before diving into their insights on the media, we take a look at the state of media in New Jersey. 

Women continue to be underrepresented in leadership positions, and only 46% of reporting journalists surveyed in a Pew Research study are women — while 76% of all reporting journalists are white, 8% are Hispanic, 6% are Black and 3% are Asian. Given white and non-white women's lived experiences and understanding of position, power, language and cultural nuances within immigrant and non-white communities, their importance in the newsroom is glaring. 

 New Jersey is one of the country's top five most diverse states — on the way to becoming a majority non-white state — but with little representation in mainstream news and a lack of local news in burgeoning non-white communities to help bridge gaps in information and support, non-white and community media outlets in the state are on the rise. While research on community journalism and writers from the community is limited — and not all outlets are always included in data — about 140 non-white and community media outlets exist in the state, and about 85% produce content in languages other than English. 

While the number of non-white and community media has also increased over the years, there are approximately 779 news outlets statewide, with non-white and community media comprising around only 15% — a sliver of the media landscape in New Jersey. The Center for Cooperative Media says the current media landscape is failing to reflect the diversity of the state's population. "It is generally oriented to the needs and perspectives of affluent and mostly White communities," Assistant Director Cassandra Etienne wrote in a 2023 article on an initiative for Racial Equity in NJ News Media.

Diversity in demographics, experiences, socialization and perspectives helps newsrooms cover more stories and viewpoints that better reflect civil society — improving the quality of journalism and ensuring all people have equal access to the information they need. But the question of who selects, assigns and writes stories in the media doesn't only affect information needs but people's perceptions of the world, their concerns and their behavior, such as voting. It can even affect government decisions, such as creating or changing legislation and deciding the terms of public investment opportunities. 

The Medill Local News Initiative found that the continued loss of local and representative journalism around the country contributes to increases in misinformation and disinformation, political polarization, eroding trust in the media, and a digital and economic divide and social stratification between citizens. Areas without a credible local news source saw voter participation decline, government and business corruption increase, and residents pay more taxes.

More than a fifth of the nation's citizens live in news deserts, meaning they have minimal access to local news or are at risk of losing access — and local news is lacking most in marginalized and low-income communities. The disparity between those who have and don't have a strong news organization is the result of market demographics, ownership structure and available funding. 

Local newsrooms play a role in equitable access, with ethnic or non-white-and-legacy media and press now a vital source of local news: They provide information left out of mainstream media, support and connect local community audiences, and address the biases and failures of mainstream media in covering the perspectives of immigrants and people of color. 

As the need for more financial support for local newsrooms and equitable representation in the media and press continues, so does an unstable job market. The industry faces a serious restructuring with seemingly unending layoffs, increased economic challenges and political pressures that make it harder for journalists across the country to find work and do their jobs. In January alone, over 500 journalists were laid off, and like the rest of the country, newsrooms in New Jersey aren't immune. 

While New Jersey ranked fourth as one of the best states in the country for journalists — with a median wage of $67,280 — that's if journalists can find local full-time jobs, with freelance journalists across the country saying rates from prominent publications haven't changed in years. 

Although the challenges of being a journalist are real and persistent, these women journalists carry on for the sake of their readers and communities. If not them, then who?

Q: What brought you into journalism? What was your path? 

A: I was a business major in college, but I had always written for the paper. I've written for my high school paper and then for the college paper but wasn't really thinking about it as a career path. I got a degree in finance, but when I graduated, I realized I didn't really want to work at a bank. 

So, I did a little bit of traveling, and while I was traveling, I realized I was writing about my travels. And one of the pieces I wrote and shared with some friends, a friend asked me if they could ask this local paper to publish it in the U.K. — and they published it. And it clicked for me that I could do this for a living. It could be a way that I could really live out my passion, which is more getting to know people and societies and writing about how the world works. So, I decided to come back to the States and do journalism school. And that's how I ended up in journalism.

Q: What challenges have you faced? 

A: One of the biggest challenges for me was that I didn't really know anybody who was a journalist. So, I didn't have mentors. 

When I was starting out in my career, I had to pave my own path a little bit. Even in the first job that I had in Washington, D.C., as a congressional correspondent, a lot of people in the newsroom didn't look like me. A lot of my bosses didn't look like me — all my bosses actually were men. And it was challenging. I realize that now in retrospect, because I didn't necessarily have mentors who could guide me on my career.

 So, a few years after I started that job, my husband's mother got sick, and she passed away from brain cancer. And I wanted to go and be with the family who was living in Texas, so I had to move from D.C. and negotiate being able to work remotely. And that was not really something the newsroom allowed then, but I was able to do that.

After that, a couple of years later, I was pregnant and having a kid, and once I had my son — like really struggling to keep up with the job — I really felt like I needed to take some time off. So, in both those life moments, I didn't really have mentors who could tell me how I could make my career work. I ended up leaving the job after I had my son and became a freelance reporter — just because it gave me more flexibility to be home as I was having children.

Q: What encourages you to continue this work? 

A: I think back to when I was starting to freelance because I was sort of doing it part-time. And yet, I couldn't quite quit it. It wasn't like I could 100% just put it aside. And that's because I really do feel passionate about journalism and the role that it plays in society. I think it's very important. And I am an immigrant; I came from Pakistan. So, I come from these communities that are not covered as often in the media. And I think I always had a personal desire to do journalism because I knew there weren't many people like me in the field. 

So, I felt like I could contribute something unique. I could help bring voice to communities that aren't covered as often — offer some nuance into their day-to-day lives. And so that kept me going.

 And I also just really love reporting. I love interviewing people and getting to know about their lives. And I think it's such a gift that people offer you their time and tell you their story and are willing to trust you with publishing it. That has always meant a lot to me. I just think it's such a luxury for your whole career to be talking to people and then writing about it. 

I love writing and thinking about the right sentences and crafting narratives. And it just feels like such a gift when a lot of people have jobs that feel monotonous or mundane or repetitive for us to just have what we have. There were moments when I was a political reporter when I would think, "Is this my job? I just have to go to this congressional committee and then write what happens, and that's what I have to do all day? Like what a gift." It just feels like such a great job, honestly — if you don't think about all the challenges of sustaining a career in the field.

Q: Why should more women join the field? 

A: More women should join every field; we need diverse voices. And I think there are a lot of women in journalism now, but it hasn't quite made its way up to management. 

In a lot of places, at least in my experience, there are still a lot of men in senior roles and executive roles — in the places where the decisions are happening. And anytime you're missing somebody at the table in those decision-making places, you're going to have gaps in your coverage. And it's really important for us to have a full understanding of the society we live in. We can only really have that if we have a diversity of voices making the decisions about what to cover and what to include — if we have a diversity of perspectives. 

And you can see the outcomes of this in the reporting at places like the New York Times and the Washington Post, as they have leaned into writing more about topics like parenting, or women struggling with the wage gap, or childcare challenges during COVID: The stories that were told could only really be told because women were able to share their experiences. And I think it's really important for women to be the ones writing those stories, not just the ones talking about it to male sources. And that goes for any kind of diversity, not just gender. I think it's just so important: The more diverse a newsroom is, the healthier the civic debate that's happening there will be.

I feel like it sometimes offends people, but my boss was a white man who reported to a white man who reported to a white man all the way up the chain. It was just white men. And I don't think I processed then that was the case. But later, I thought, "Well, that's weird." There wasn't a single piece of diversity all the way up the chain. And I was just like this weird Pakistani girl who didn't know that much about this field and had a lot of insecurities. I felt a lot of impostor syndrome when I moved to D.C. because my family had a very different background. We got the newspaper when we were growing up, but it's not like my parents were journalists. I didn't live and breathe this world until I became an adult. So, I felt really like an outsider to it. 

In the years that have passed, when I've reflected on that, I'm like, "Well, that makes sense," because if you look at who is reading my pitches or telling me how to do journalism, none of them had any idea what kind of lived experience I was walking in with. And I didn't have enough voice at that point to talk about it. It took me a really long time to realize how important it was to be open and really talk about it. And I think journalism has changed a lot. So now we really have permission to bring that to the table and raise those questions. But I'm talking about 15 years ago; it was a very different place.

Q: What would you say to young women thinking about becoming journalists?

A: I would highly encourage it. I think it is a hard path. It's not an easy way to make a career, but I have these four reporting fellows right now working on my newsletter with me, and they're all young women. 

I think they have an innate desire to tell stories and to learn about the world around them and share what they know. I can feel that they have that calling within them. And even though it is hard to find your way, I think that in the end, we're all going to benefit if they're able to sustain careers in this field and bring their perspectives to it. So, I guess what I would say is, do it but do it with your eyes open about what it's like. 

Maybe don't go into tremendous debt going to journalism school because it will be hard to pay off. And some of the fellows that I'm working with don't plan to do journalism full-time. They plan to have other careers but might be freelancers that are occasionally writing. And I think that's an option too.

I think sometimes we take it for granted that women are in this field now. We sort of assume that it's all taken care of. But I actually taught a class at The College of New Jersey on race and gender in the news. When I was doing research for that class, I realized what I said earlier: Even now, there's still a big gender gap, and it gets bigger the higher up you go in management in newsrooms. So, there are still a lot of pieces of that to address.

Q: What brought you into journalism? What was your path? 

A: I found journalism by accident. As a college freshman, undeclared major, I was leaning towards English or something related because I enjoyed writing. 

I was in the student council — I was always interested in activism — and had a meeting with an upperclassman about an upcoming election. He was a television journalism student, and we met in the news studio where he was editing a project, and I fell in love. With journalism. 

During college, I did a lot of internships at different news outlets and worked part-time as a producer at Shadow Traffic (which does the traffic reports on radio stations) while looking for my first full-time job. There was a job offer as a television reporter for $13,000 a year in Alaska. I declined that one. Before long, I got a job with a new "multimedia" unit with NBC News — this was before MSNBC was launched — and it was located in the same building as CNBC. It was the first job I could find locally that had benefits. I knew nothing about business news, but within a year, I was working as an assistant producer on a new CNBC personal finance show called "The Money Club." I learned business news on the job, and by the time I was 25, I was the show's executive producer. 

Throughout this time, I met and married my husband and partner in crime, who was a newspaper reporter for The Trentonian. When he got a job at a larger newspaper in Boston (The Boston Herald) we had a decision to make. We were both early in our careers, but I made more money than he did (television vs. newspapers). We were a young couple both wanting to build our careers. I was offered TV jobs in Boston, but the pay wasn't as good. We decided to rent a place in Boston, I would move back with my parents on Long Island for an undetermined amount of time, and we'd have a "commuter marriage" for a while. I drove up to Boston with Trixie, our boxer, every weekend for two years. 

Then we decided enough was enough. We knew we wanted to have children, and a television career wasn't exactly conducive to being around for them, so we took the plunge. Personal finance news was my niche, and I would move to Boston and try to freelance. If it didn't work, I could always go back to television. We didn't know it at the time, but I was six weeks pregnant with our first kid. So, I had about nine months to establish myself as a freelancer, and I did. 

I was lucky in that I was hired to do a weekly personal finance column for the Herald — so I had regular and reliable income — and I sold other stories to women's magazines.

About two years later my husband was hired by The Star-Ledger and we moved back to Jersey. I continued the freelance work for the Herald but eventually started weekly columns for the Ledger, which led to my current position. 

Q: What challenges have you faced? 

A: As a young woman at CNBC, in a mostly male-dominated newsroom, I had a few women who were advocates and role models for me, specifically Brenda Buttner, who was the anchor of my show. 

I did find, though, that many of the women I worked with there felt threatened by other women — as if there was only so much room for women there, so rather than lift each other up and treat each other as allies, they jockeyed for position. 

Then there was freelancing in general. You need to have a thick skin and patience. I can't say it was easy, but I found having a niche made it easier. When I was new, I pitched all kinds of stories I was interested in, but it was the money and personal finance stuff that sold because I was considered to have expertise. 

Key to my ability to freelance was being married. Separate from the massive support I have always had from my husband, who is my first, best and favorite editor, as a practical point, I didn't need a staff job anywhere because I had his benefits. 

I worked from home long before the pandemic, so I was able to juggle our three kids with work, driving them where they needed to be and even coaching soccer for years. Freelancing gave me the flexibility to be mom and reporter.

Q: What encourages you to continue this work? 

A: It's job satisfaction and actually being able to help people beyond just informing them. As a consumer columnist, readers come to me when they feel they've been wronged by a company or government agency. I try to get their money back or otherwise encourage companies and governments to right wrongs. It doesn't always work, but it often does, and it's the best job I've ever had. 

That doesn't mean there are no challenges. It's a hard time for news. I try to keep my head down, though it can be hard not to get discouraged or distracted by the noise. But when a reader tells me they learned something after one of my stories, I've done my job.

Q: Why should more women join the field?

A: I think women by nature are better multi-taskers than men, and our life experiences give us a different view on the world, whether on a local or macro level. We just ask different questions and tell stories from a perspective that connects with audiences in a different way. And women make up more than half of New Jersey's population. That should be reflected in every newsroom.

Q: What would you say to young women thinking about becoming journalists?

A: That's a hard one. Many of my colleagues would tell people to pick another career. This was never an easy business, and it's harder today in so many ways, not specific to women, but to anyone. But if you love what you do and you're passionate about it, forge ahead. Find mentors. Ask questions. 

But be realistic in your expectations. You may want to change the world and you will (!) but you also have to pay your dues. Few people at the start of their careers get to cover what they care about, but if you put in your time, develop your skills and stick with it, you'll get to the point where you have more control over what you cover. Work harder than the person next to you. Become indispensable. Be the "go-to guy" for your editors. 

Balancing a personal life with journalism is hard, but this isn't meant to be a 9-to-5 job and it's not for everyone. I see two types of newer reporters: those who prioritize their personal time (who are people before they're reporters) and those who live the job. There's nothing wrong with either and being a person first is probably better for your mental health, but it makes it harder to establish yourself and be that go-to guy. There are always sacrifices that need to be made and choices you'll face, and you have to decide what you're willing to do and what you're not. Making the sacrifices when you're young will build your reputation and help you to earn respect, giving you more flexibility for when you're more experienced. 

If you dread the idea of answering the phone in the middle of the night, getting in your car and finding the story, it's not the career for you. It might make you miserable. 

As a side note, I'm lucky in that my life partner is also a news person, so we both understand what needs to be done if the phone rings at any time of the day or night with news that needs our attention. We can tag team, we always have and we still do. Not everyone will have a life partner who gets it, though, but it helps.

Q: What brought you into journalism? What was your path? 

A: I never finished my bachelor's degree. It took me decades. I went to school. It was a weird experience, and I was like, "Yeah, who needs a BA? I'm working. It's all good." Then I went to my friend's wedding in Morocco, and I went to visit my sister in Spain, and on both of those trips, people told me, "Look, if you want to live here, all you need is your BA, and you can teach." And I was like, "This is stupid. Go finish your degree," so I went to the community college down the street for me, Los Angeles City College.

While there to finish up classes, I started to fall in love with school in a way I had not when I was supposed to the first time. Literally, I'd be in theater class, and they'd say there's a film competition, so I entered the film competition. And when I was there, I was like, "I'm going to take some film classes;" I'm in the film class, and someone starts talking about a radio show. And I was like, "Yeah, I want a radio show." So, I went to the journalism department and said, "I heard that you're going to start up a radio, and I'd love to have a slot." I'm thinking play music, a little chitchat — the cool stuff.

The professor gave me this look and said, "You have to take Journalism-101." And I was like, "Okay, sure" — just casual about everything. 

At the end of the semester, the professor wanted me and a 19-year-old girl — we got along — to lead the newsroom and be co-editors of the newspaper. And the stress of it — the young co-editor left before the term ended and never came back. And I, of course, was like full-on, no sleep, eating bad food, getting abuse from everyone on campus — this is for me. So that's how I got into journalism. And we had a great department.

We had a bi-weekly print newspaper and an annual magazine. So, I was learning how to produce content and lead on both of those platforms. It was an incredible experience. You would think Community College is not where other schools are, but we had drones, we had all the latest camera equipment, we had green screens, learning how to speak with a teleprompter — literally any part of journalism that you would want to go into, you at least got your foot in that department. It gave me the foundation of everything that I do now.

The beauty of Community College — the one I went to, I'm so blessed — I was there with teenagers, a lot of people in their 30s, 40s, 50s. Diana Campbell, who I adore — she was a good writer and passionate about journalism — she was in her early 80s or late 70s. So literally, you're working with people in every decade of life, returning citizens, everyone you can think of was there, and so it made the talent pool rich because you had all of these perspectives. And then LA, especially where I was, was multicultural. You have different communities. We won awards for covering the Armenian Genocide March, which a lot of people don't even recognize that there was a genocide. And so, it was really cool.

After community college, I thought, "I'm older. What am I going to do? Maybe I can teach. That'll be my backdrop. I like teaching. And I like being with younger people." It's still something I want to do, but in order to teach, you need to have your master's, so I applied to two schools: Berkeley and Newhouse School at Syracuse University. I was accepted to both, but because I didn't want to drive across the country, I went to Berkeley — which is almost like driving across the country when you live in LA. And then COVID hit. So, I was studying remotely at Berkeley. And while at Berkeley, we had a job fair. I made sure I had a meeting with everybody I could — we're talking LA Times, Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, all of these top tiers because it's Berkeley — and there was one company called NJ Advance Media or NJ Advance Local.

I met with the recruiter, who said, "I have a job. You're perfect for it." And in my mind, I'm not looking for a job. I have another year of school. I didn't even know what this company was. I just wanted to fill the slot, but he stayed on me. He was like, "I want you to call the editor." I never called. I had to finish stuff for school. I had a project to edit. But he stayed on me.

And I was like, maybe I should do this for the practice — to practice interviewing — so that when I really have to, I'll know what to do. And so I went through a series of interviews, and then I was like, "I wonder how much money they're offering."

In my head, if they offered me decent money, it would be a consideration because I was dirt poor — sharing a house and working retail because I wanted to be in school. I had to make that economic sacrifice to pursue higher education. So, I was really poor. If they give me decent money, I should think about this — and they did. They offered me money, and I actually countered: "I need more if I'm going to move across the country," and they did. And so, I ended up not finishing my last year of school because they said I had to move out now — which was stupid in hindsight — but here I am.

Q: What challenges have you faced? 

A: The challenges are age and money. So, I've had jobs where I've made decent money. And I had to, in pursuit of this goal, not make any money, really; I was just in survival mode. 

The other is related to age. We are a very youth-oriented society. So, people don't take you seriously when you say you're pursuing something with such passion. I had people be like, "I don't know why you want to get into journalism." They disparage the career choice. Or they would look at me like, "Well, what is this your third, fourth career?" And I'm like, "What do you care?" And this was at school. And this was also at the Press Club.

I used to volunteer at the LA Press Club. And that's what the director of the Press Club said to me, "I don't know why you want to pursue journalism." I'm like, "You're the head of the Press Club. Why would you say that to me?" We give awards, like to Jamal Khashoggi's wife, and we have the Daniel Pearl Award, all of these really beautiful things that have come out of journalism, and you're asking me why I want to go into it — I love it. So, ageism is a challenge.

 Money is a challenge. I was very lucky when COVID hit. And I know this sounds strange, but when COVID hit, I was able to pay off a lot of debt because we got that extra money. And if you're rich, that's nothing. If you're poor and you have credit card debt that's about $4,000, but you're never going to be able to pay it because you don't make enough, getting an extra amount paid off all my debt. Also, I got laid off from my retail job. And I could collect unemployment insurance. So, I literally had more money than I had during normal operating times. And so that really helped me a lot. So, the challenges were money and age and the perception of age — the perception of what you should be doing at a certain age.

Another thing is that people don't always see how they're contributing to our lack of representation and having agency over a story can be challenging. Even though I'm older, people will say, "Oh, she's been doing this for a while," but I haven't. I'm coming to this as if I'm new, it's fresh for me and I'm passionate about it. I'm out in the community and when I talk to people about how I'm going to write the story and then it's enhanced with information that is not germane to the story, I worry that my credibility with the public is tarnished. For example, the way we describe people constantly evolves. I like to use the terms that people use to describe themselves. There was a time when I was referred to as a Negro, now we use Black — things evolve. 

The irony of it all is that you can be hired to represent and be that person to say, "Hey, look, this is the approach I think we should take to this particular subject." And your bosses will say, "No, no, we've decided this, and this is how it is." So, then they're contradicting themselves. You're still labeling people the same way. You're still reporting the stories the same way. It's just that you see more Black and brown faces. That's the only difference. But that's not a real difference. That's just a skin tone difference.

From the reporter's side, we shape what the public understands to a degree, and we are complicit in the nonsense. To read any New Jersey publication, you'd think it's just Andy Kim and Tammy Murphy running for Senate — two other strong contenders are running for that office, and we give them no play. It doesn't have to be that way, but we've set it up where the public thinks that there is no option when there are other options. Mainstream media has this issue, too, but New Jersey publications have to take the lead on our homegrown stories.

Q: What encourages you to continue this work? 

A: I really like what I do. I really like it when people tell me I've helped make a difference. And sometimes that difference is just helping someone say something out loud that they haven't said, which I think for many people is huge — "I could never talk about this before, and I'm talking about it now, and maybe it's helping someone else." 

I'm writing a horrible story about how this woman lost her home because of predatory banks. And it's heartbreaking because it could happen to any of us. And so that's one thing, and the other is that sometimes the things we write lead to or nudge legislation. 

I get a personal sense of satisfaction. I was working on a story just before on how to craft a story — just the craft of it. "What's my lead? That lead's boring — can you do a better lead?" I struggle with nut graphs to this day. I'm like, "Do I really need a nut graph?" And clearly, I do — so the craft of it always challenges me. The challenge is really good; I can't get bored. And I don't have a beat — I'm social justice, health, education — the piece I was just working on was arts and entertainment, so all of those things help with my lack of focus. I get to do everything.

Q: Why should more women join the field? 

A: More women should be in journalism, and I would say more women should be in medicine; more women should be in everything. We make up more than half of the world's population. And yet, there's perspective for the longest time — it's only changing recently — is that of a white man, a Eurocentric white male that can do these things, and older — that can't be right. And things aren't going too well these days. So, it's not right.

Q: What would you say to young women thinking about becoming journalists?

A: The passionate side of me says, "Go for it." But you're going to have to innovate; you're going to have to think of how you're going to make that living. Even for me, I was lucky in that my school experience mirrored a traditional newsroom experience — give or take some scenes — but these days, there's not that traditional newsroom. And certainly, if there is a newsroom, it's remote, which kind of suits the profession in a way — so, you have to be innovative. You should really try to work on a brand. I mean, I'm 110 years old, and I'm like, "Oh, I guess I need a brand." 

But the practical side of me says, have another thing that you can do that maybe is completely different from journalism, so that if God forbid something goes down, you could fall back on it because I hate not having money. You can at least have something you can do while you're figuring out the next steps in your chosen career. 

I think it's hard to create and give of yourself when you are constantly worried about "Are they going to evict me? Can I pay the car note? Oh, I can't afford to get a checkup. They closed the Planned Parenthood near me; now what am I going to do?" All of that.