Click on the picture to read Luis Arroyave's blog(Photo credits goes to Luis's Twitter page)
Listen to an introduction of Luis ArroyaveI interviewed Luis Arroyave from the Chicago Tribune for my interview with an online journalist. Luis has his own blog/column where he recaps the previous night which includes going to the hottest parties and interviewing the coolest celebrities. His blog is cleverly titled "About Last Night." Luis grew up in Highland Park, Ill to Colombian parents who did thier best to keep their roots in a predominately white neighborhood. Luis did pretty well for himself by having one of the coolest jobs in the world.
MA: You graduated University of Wisconsin-Madison with a degree in English; did you have other aspirations before deciding to become an online journalist?LA: I never planned on being a journalist, which is why I never wrote for my high school or college newspaper. To be honest, the only reason I chose the English degree was because I could graduate in four years. When I graduated college, I actually planned on going to film school. Unfortunately, I missed the deadline (or fortunately, depending on how you want to look at it) and then started thinking about other careers.
MA: You've said that your first big break came when you landed the internship at FHM, what was that experience like? How exactly did you land that internship?
LA: I found a job positing on mediabistro.com and emailed FHM a joke heavy résumé. In other words, I made sure that it stood out. They called me and said I would have to go to New York to interview, so I did - and I brought all my stuff with me. Good thing I got the job.
MA: After your internship, how did you end up at the Chicago Tribune and how has that been so far? You began covering soccer at first, right and then continued to cover celebrity appearances in Chicago.
LA: I couldn't find any fulltime writing jobs after my FHM internship ended and was even considering a career change. One day I hit the employee list on the Tribune website and emailed the first person on the alphabetical list "Who do I talk to about a job in sports?" In what can only be described as fate, the person responded something like "That's me." I was pretty lucky that the sports editor's name was Bill Adee. He told me to contact him if I was ever in Chicago. I once again packed all my stuff, headed to Chicago to meet with him, and was offered a job a few months later.
As for the experience so far, I complain a lot - it's a quality I'm not proud of - but deep down inside, I'm saying "Holy shit, how did you get this lucky?"
MA: How do you know when and which celebrities are going to be in Chicago? What exactly is the process of landing an interview with any celebrity?
LA: Because I'm still somewhat new to this, I usually have to do a lot of research to see which celebs are coming (I look at nightclub websites, ticketmaster.com and read other local entertainment writers). If I'm interested in interviewing a celeb that's coming, I'll contact their publicist and we'll go from there. Lately, I've had more and more publicists contacting me about their clients coming to Chicago, which definitely makes my job easier.
MA: Have you ever been star struck?
LA: Surprisingly, I really haven't been star struck. My biggest test was Dan Marino - my childhood idol - back in 2007. Once the interview began, I got in the zone and treated it like any other interview. If I could do that and not get star struck, chances are I can handle any interview.
MA: Is there any celebrity whose personality was unexpected in either a positive or negative way?
LA: I never know what to expect heading into interviews. Samuel L. Jackson wasn't the fun guy I thought he'd be while Vanilla Ice was way friendlier than I expected.
MA: Your column/blog "About Last Night" recently contained a feature called "About This Week" but has disappeared early September. What happened to it?
LA: I dropped it because I planned on putting a shorter version of that feature in the right hand column of the blog. That way people can see which celebs are coming just by looking at the right hand column. Obviously, we still haven't gotten around to adding that feature.
MA: Lastly, what advice would you give to aspiring journalists in this state of journalism?
LA: I'd love to give you encouraging advice, but I'm not a very good liar. It's tough out there - and it seems like it's only getting tougher with more and more newspapers struggling. But if this is what you really want to do, then I recommend you write for your school paper, try to land an internship in the summers and freelance for any publication that will take you.
My first article ever was for Chicago Innerview, a free publication that you find in front of a bar. You need to get a bunch of articles under your belt before anyone will take you serious. Lastly, make sure you read Luis Arroyave's articles. I hear he's quite good.
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