Oral History: Stephanie Mehta

A foundation builder, Sarah Bartlett fostered the graduate school of journalism at City University of New York and helped to advance the careers of students and alumni, more than half of whom come from underrepresented communities.

She was instrumental in raising nearly $70 million for new programs at the J-School, including a $20 million gift in 2018 from Craig Newmark, the founder of Craigslist. In appreciation for his generosity, the school formally changed its name to the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York.

On her path to academia, Sarah worked initially as a reporter at Fortune magazine, did a couple of stints at BusinessWeek, was a banking, financial and Metro section reporter at The New York Times, and served just shy of two years as editor-in-chief of Oxygen Media, founded by Oprah Winfrey, Geraldine B. Laybourne, and others.

In late August 2021, Sarah announced that she would retire from CUNY in June 2022, at the end of the academic year.In late August 2021, Sarah announced that she would retire from CUNY in June 2022, at the end of the academic year.

This oral history, conducted by Dean Rotbart, editor-in-chief of NewsLuminaries.com, was recorded on June 29, 2020.

Photo by Avital Rotbart, Time In A Bottle Photography

Charles Duhigg combines skillful reporting and voluminous research with a deft storytelling style to ‘show,’ not merely ‘tell,’ readers and listeners how to improve their lives and gain a better understanding of the world around them.

He currently serves as a writer for The New Yorker and host of “How To!,” a weekly podcast produced for Slate. He is the author of two global bestselling books: “The Power of Habit” and “Smarter Faster Better.”

In 2013, while a reporter for The New York Times, Duhigg and his colleagues received the Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for their articles exposing the darker side of business practices at Apple and other technology companies.

Duhigg attributes the enormous success of his two books to his style of storytelling, designed to deliver actionable advice. “One of the reasons people like [my books] is because [they] take these stories and draw insights from them that other people can use in their own lives,” he says.

This oral history, conducted by Dean Rotbart, editor-in-chief of NewsLuminaries.com, was recorded on November 13, 2020.

Photo by Avital Rotbart, Time In A Bottle Photography

The daughter of Asian-American immigrants and a woman of color, from the beginning Stephanie Mehta, editor-in-chief of Fast Company, “checked all the right boxes” for journalism advancement: smart, innovative, tenacious, tireless, empathetic, and accessible.

Fast Company attracts a broad audience of younger, up-and-comers in the worlds of business, technology, innovation, and design. It is a gateway for many of its followers to more established business titles, including the Harvard Business Review, The Economist, and Fortune.

Among her many talents, Stephanie has mastered the 21st-century art of “live journalism” — conferences and workshops that translate the editorial ethos of a magazine or newspaper into effective, in-person or virtual events.

Stephanie is a newsroom leader in the true spirit of Fast Company’s commitment to eyeing the future and serving the most progressive movers and makers. The days of the imperious editor-in-chief are past. Today’s forward-thinking newsroom leaders are accessible, inclusive, and empathetic - just as are today’s forward-think CEOs and entrepreneurs.

This oral history, conducted by Dean Rotbart, editor-in-chief of NewsLuminaries.com, was recorded on October 16, 2020.

Photo courtesy of Fast Company

Only 43-years-old, Andrew Ross Sorkin is the rare superstar business journalist who has done it all, successfully, and likely hasn’t even come close to reaching his career zenith.

The founder of The New York Times’ DealBook, he is an accomplished business reporter, blogger, editor, author, anchor, and film producer.

Sorkin currently serves as a columnist and editor-at-large for The New York Times and co-anchor of CNBC’s signature morning program, “Squawk Box.”

He is the author of “Too Big to Fail,” the 2010 bestseller adapted as a movie by HBO Films, and co-producer of “Billions,” now in its fifth season on Showtime.

In his oral history interview, Sorkin, a masterful storyteller, credits his lifelong interest in trying to understand people and consider what it is like to walk in their shoes for helping to make his reporting stand out.

“A lot of people look at the world of money or business or politics or whatever as about big institutions, about math, about numbers, and I’ve never seen it that way,” he says. “I’ve always seen it through the prism of people. What makes you tick and what is motivating you, and what are the incentives that make you do what you do?”    

Before Andrew even graduated New York’s Scarsdale High School, he had talked his way into an internship at The New York Times.

This oral history, conducted by Dean Rotbart, editor-in-chief of NewsLuminaries.com, was recorded on February 19, 2020.

Photo Credit: Avital Rotbart, TimeinaBottlePhotography.com

When Adi Ignatius was named editor-in-chief of Harvard Business Review in 2009, at the tail end of the Great Recession, he inherited a magazine and brand rich in tradition but sorely outdated for the digital age.

Along with his editorial team, Adi set about transforming HBR while carefully protecting its most essential attributes and values.

Today, a vibrant HBR is a multi-channel franchise that includes videos, podcasts, webinars, and fresh articles published daily at HBR.org.

Moreover, with Adi’s guidance, HBR adopted an expanded definition of “good management” to include an ecosystem of multiple stakeholder interests, encompassing sustainability, diversity, income-equality, and inclusion.

Since 2017, Adi has also served as publisher of Harvard Business Review Press, which specializes in publishing books that contribute to the most important conversations taking place in business. It is a mission that uniquely suits Adi and HBR.

This oral history, conducted by Dean Rotbart, editor-in-chief of NewsLuminaries.com, was recorded on July 30, 2020.

Photo Courtesy of Harvard Business Review

An oral history with Karen Toulon, a role model for newsroom achievement and diversity.

Since joining Bloomberg News in 1999, Karen has led by example, helping Bloomberg News’ global journalists establish a cohesive identity and encouraging team members to realize their full potential

Karen has demonstrated through her accomplishments that journalists and their newsroom colleagues will rise to meet a wide variety of career challenges, if they believe in themselves and if others will believe in them.

In the summer of 2020, Toulon assumed a position as a senior writer on Bloomberg’s global, cross-platform team that explores inequality in all its forms.

“The whole notion of role modeling is something I take very seriously,” Toulon explains in her oral history, acknowledging that she considers herself a representative for her gender, race, and “a profession that I continue to adore.”

This oral history, conducted by Dean Rotbart, editor-in-chief of NewsLuminaries.com, was recorded on February 19, 2020.

Photo Credit: Avital Rotbart, TimeinaBottlePhotography.com

An oral history with Susan Antilla, a career-long investigative reporter who fights for individual investors and others victimized by those who abuse their positions of influence and trust.

Her trailblazing 2002 book, “Tales From the Boom-Boom Room: The Landmark Legal Battles That Exposed Wall Street’s Shocking Culture of Sexual Harassment,” was first to expose the pay discrimination and sexual abuse that plagued women in the brokerage industry. The book presaged the #MeToo movement that eventually felled the careers of hundreds of prominent executives, politicians, athletes, and entertainers.

In 2017, the Consumer Federation of America presented Susan with its prestigious Betty Furness Consumer Media Service Award.

This oral history, conducted by Dean Rotbart, editor-in-chief of NewsLuminaries.com, was recorded on October 30, 2019.

Photo Credit: Avital Rotbart, TimeinaBottlePhotography.com

As director of Columbia University’s Knight-Bagehot Fellowship in Economics and Business Journalism, Terri Thompson oversaw 239 mid-career journalists enrolled in the prestigious program.

Today, her alumni include many of the most respected and influential financial journalists.

She, herself, was a Bagehot Fellow during the 1980 to 1981 academic year. That experience, she recounts, “changed my life.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by literally 100s of Knight-Bagehot alumni, most of whom returned from their 9-month academic sojourn to new jobs, better beats, greater compensation, and often more-coveted employers.

This oral history, conducted by Dean Rotbart, editor-in-chief of NewsLuminaries.com, was recorded on May 7, 2020.

Photo Credit: Avital Rotbart, TimeinaBottlePhotography.com

Matt Quayle joined CNBC as an intern while he was still in college. He knew next to nothing about business and investing, journalism, or television production. But he recognized an opportunity when it arose, and he seized it.

Perhaps an established broadcast journalist could have accomplished all that Matt has achieved at CNBC over a span of nearly 30 years. Still, it’s likely that his fresh perspective on creating and producing financial news for television allowed him to be the extraordinary innovator that he became.

Matt was the co-creator of CNBC’s “Squawk Box” and “Squawk on the Street,” among other programs, and he continues to help define and transform business and financial television.

This oral history, conducted by Dean Rotbart, editor-in-chief of NewsLuminaries.com, was recorded on December 10, 2019.

Photo Credit: Avital Rotbart, TimeinaBottlePhotography.com

Matthew A. Winkler and Michael R. Bloomberg defied the odds and the naysayers to build Bloomberg News, launched on June 14, 1990, into one of the world’s most-respected news organizations.

On the 30th anniversary of Bloomberg News, Winkler discusses the the origins and growth of the news provider, which was the first to marry voluminous data — both real-time and historical — with context and analysis provided by qualified journalists.

Together, Winkler and Bloomberg revolutionized financial journalism.

This oral history, conducted by Dean Rotbart, editor-in-chief of NewsLuminaries.com, was recorded at Bloomberg News’s headquarters in Manhattan on February 15, 2020.

Photo Credit: Avital Rotbart, TimeinaBottlePhotography.com