20JOHNSON%20PROFILE

During his second day as an in-tern at the Los Angeles Times, Ted Johnson was searching for hot spots and talking to vic-

tims who had lost their homes in a raging fire in the Cleveland National Forest in Or-ange County.

There was no time to plan, or write a few small stories to work his way up to the big one. This was his cue, and missing it was not an option. Over the course of his career, Johnson has displayed his pro-pensity to land on his feet. Johnson’s keen senses would serve him well, and what be-gan as an internship, following his senior

year at Northwestern University, would become his full-time job—for the next six years.

Almost missing his cue, Johnson was the last born in a family of 10 children, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. There was no shortage of activity in such a large family, so Johnson began writing his own family newspaper to keep everyone abreast of such news, and produced it three times a week. The budding journalist was born.

He continued his passion for writ-ing throughout his youth and became edi-tor for the high school paper before go-ing off to study journalism in Chicago.

The Los Angeles Times

After college, Johnson came to Los Angeles to live with one of his broth-ers, who was attending The University of Southern California. Johnson applied for a single internship, following his final year at Northwestern University. Johnson began a charmed voyage on the path of professional journalism and never looked back. Currently deputy editor at Variety Magazine, Johnson has written for major publications since his career began. A solitary application for internship led his expedition. That was his cue.

“I had always loved the LA Times. It was the only place I applied to,” Johnson said. “… but only because I was kind of lazy. I wanted to enjoy my senior year, and didn’t want to spend my time applying for jobs.” Johnson calls this advice “the worst ever.”

Clearly, it worked for him. John-son was hired as an intern, stayed on as a stringer (a type of freelance writer or in-dependent contractor who comes into the office daily but is not an employee with benefits), moved up to staff writer and covered everything from business, to the police beat to the calendar section.

Always attracted to entertainment journalism, Johnson was convinced that he preferred to focus his writing on en-tertainment, while he was writing for the calendar section. In 1995, The Times had a wave of layoffs, and he was let go. That was his cue.

“Well this is a good time to make a transition,” Johnson says he told himself.Relying on contacts, Johnson passed his resume to a friend of a friend. The resume landed on the desk of the editor-in-chief of Variety Magazine. One interview later, Variety hired him as a staff writer.

Entertainment Journalist

Johnson was on assignment for Va-riety in 1995. On the sidewalk in front of the International Creative Management (ICM) Talent building, protestors lined Wilshire Boulevard and marched with signs expressing their displeasure that the agency represented a man who they be-lieved had killed his ex-wife and her din-ner companion. It was clear that the public wanted the agency to drop O.J. Simpson from its roster. Johnson recorded the sen-timents of the crowd in his first story for Variety Magazine. Shortly thereafter, ICM decided to drop Simpson from its talent ranks, and Johnson decided that entertain-ment journalism was indeed his passion.

This would be one of his many sto-ries where politics and entertainment meet. Johnson still covers that beat, but his path was not a straight one.

Hungry to continue broadening his experiences in journalism, Johnson want-ed to add more magazine writing to his resume. After he heard about an opening at TV Guide, Johnson had lunch with the bureau chief and received his next cue. He was hired.

“With me, things either tend to take a long time, or they happen very quickly—probably more quickly now,” Johnson said.

During his tenure at TV Guide, Johnson took advantage of the resources available there and enjoyed on-location coverage of major film shoots across the globe, sometimes even taking trips over-seas. Johnson feels he gained a great exposure to magazine writing, which dif-fers significantly from that of writing for newspapers. He remained with the maga-zine until another round of layoffs. As is typical of Johnson’s career, the layoffs oc-curred just as Variety was doing an experi-mental lifestyle magazine called V-Life. He received his next cue.

“I think it’s a good thing. Each of these layoffs has been a blessing in dis-guise,” Johnson says. “Something I’ll al-ways remember, especially in the journal-ism profession is to never take these things

prOfiLe LOs AngeLes COLLegiAnWednesday, June 9, 20104

He arrived at LACC in spring 2002. Variety Magazine’s deputy editor, Ted Johnson, was pleased with the diversity of the cam-pus and was happy that he did not “feel like an old guy among

all these young students.”

By Toi Troutman

Photo by Claudine Jasmin/Collegian

Ted Johnson, Managing Editor at Variety Newsroom in Los Angeles headquarters office.

Watching for Cues

prOfiLeLOs AngeLes COLLegiAnWednesday, June 9, 2010 5

personally. Sometimes it’s just the cue to leave.”

Los Angeles City College

As Y2K approached, the business of journalism began to change. Print journal-ists, as well as those in all other areas of journalism, were being encouraged to ex-periment with video editing because it was thought to be the wave of the future. John-son’s superiors—and those in the business

of print journalism in general—began en-couraging journalists to bring cameras out into the field to cover stories. Johnson’s friend, a fellow journalist, suggested that he take a video editing class along with her.

“Journalists need to do a little bit of everything,” Johnson said. “It [Final Cut Pro] doesn’t seem to have a lot to do with journalism, but it actually does.”

Always happy to find a parking space on campus, Johnson carried his lap-top to an evening Final Cut Pro class at LACC, in spring 2002, to meet with his instructor who was repeatedly frustrated with him because he never seemed to have enough memory in his machine to work on his assignments.

Though it was not always easy to park, Johnson said that the thing he found most enjoyable about attending LACC was the diversity in the student body.

“There were people of all ages

there. I was happy not to feel like an old guy among all these young students,” Johnson said.

Johnson still uses the editing skills that he gained at LACC. He has added oth-er video editing software programs to his knowledge base, and said he is glad that he took the Final Cut Pro course.

“I’ve edited a few pieces for Vari-ety, and now I use iMovie as well,” John-son said.

Variety Magazine

Variety Magazine launched V-Life, a lifestyle publication, and brought John-son on as managing editor. Despite its best efforts, things did not go as Variety had planned and the magazine soon failed.

“We were proud of the magazine venture [V-Life] but it didn’t work. It last-ed two and a half years and the economy started to crumble,” Johnson said. “There was a pressure to beef up our Internet pres-ence.”

After the failure of V-Life, Johnson continued his upward journey at Variety, and was promoted again to editor-at-large. He quickly moved up to managing editor and then into his current position of deputy editor. Johnson currently covers the occa-sional nexus of law, politics, government and entertainment.

“Deputy Editor is a title that encom-passes two things. You do a lot of editing and a lot of reporting at the same time,” Johnson said. “There is a mix of editors; exclusive editors and those that do a mix-ture of editing and reporting. That’s the kind I am.”

There is a good mix of writing and editing. In a typical day, Johnson rises at around 7 a.m. and an hour later, he is on the computer searching for blog topics. By 11:30 a.m., he attends a planning meeting for weekly Variety, which he must edit. At 2:30 p.m., there is a breaking story. On this day, the breaking news involves a proce-dural court issue in the Roman Polanski case. Johnson writes the Polanski story and at 4:30, he again attends to his blog. He is interviewing a director of a docu-mentary about the selection of Supreme Court justices, following the appointment of Elena Kagan.

Journalism Today

In addition to his duties at Variety, Johnson writes for his own political enter-tainment blog called Wilshire and Wash-ington. Johnson blogs about political top-ics of interest to him and his readers, and says that the current climate of the Internet calls for a firm position and opinion in your prose.

“It’s an interesting quandary that a lot of journalists are going through, which is finding their voice in the new Internet age, when it seems like it’s more important to have an opinion than to be objective,” Johnson said.

In addition to building your Internet

brand, Johnson recommends that journal-ism students adopt the backpack journal-ism model. However, he feels it is impor-tant not to go overboard with the concept.

During the 2008 election, in a mo-ment of clarity, Johnson found himself almost simultaneously reaching for his camera, his tape recorder and sometimes even his notebook. After he witnessed an extraordinary occurrence at a routine func-tion, Johnson says he made the decision to turn everything off and “not miss the mo-ment.” He advises that print journalists use the ‘one man band’ model sparingly.

“You cannot be all things to all peo-ple at all times,” Johnson said. “You have to play to your strengths.”

The Next Cue

In the next five years, Johnson said that he would like to be an entertainment columnist. Judging from his past, his fu-ture seems bright and certain. From intern to deputy editor, Johnson has taken his cues and navigated through the mines of the ever-changing field of journalism like a skilled dancer in the grandest of perfor-mances.

“Instead of relying on our employers to set our agendas, we set our own agendas and brand ourselves,” Johnson said.

Johnson’s advice for today’s gradu-ate is to place no limits on what you can do. Johnson recalled that when he gradu-ated from college, his path had to be spe-cific—in his case, either print or broadcast. Today’s graduate is not bound by a clear line, and can forge his own path.

“Be quick and accurate,” Johnsonz says. “Don’t miss your cue.”

“I think it’s a good thing. Each of these layoffs has been a blessing in disguise,” Johnson says. “Something I’ll always remem-ber, especially in the journalism profession is to never take these things personally. Sometimes it’s just the cue to leave.”

In addition to building your Internet brand, Johnson recommends that journalism students adopt the backpack journalism

model.

Photo by Claudine Jasmin/Collegian

“You cannot be all things to all people at all times. You have to play to your strengths.”

- Ted Johnson Variety Magazine