We have asked dozens of journalists at the top of their profession to explain what they do and how they got there. Here is a collection of our conversations with them, sorted by department.

business editor

Bob Shallit of The Sacramento (Calif.) Bee
Inspired by his work at his high school newspaper, Shallit lucked into business and never left. Business stories shouldn't be boring, he says. Not if they're written and reported right.

Vindu Goel of the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News.
Business and money affect everyone, which is why Vindu Goel enjoys his job as deputy business editor in San Jose so much: relevance.

business reporter

S. Mitra Kalita of Newsday in Melville, N.Y. She works in Kew Gardens, N.Y.
Business journalism is interesting -- even in high school. Kalita gives tips on student coverage of business issues -- and tells how she does her daily job.

cartoonist

Aaron McGruder of "The Boondocks" syndicated cartoon.
The creator of this popular — and edgy — comic strip talks about the strip and its creation in this video Ask a Pro.

city/metro editor

Marilyn Garateix of The Boston Globe.
As a student journalist, Garateix liked making decisions on how to produce a newspaper, from beginning to end. That's why she worked to become an editor.

Yvonne Dennis of the Philadelphia Daily News.
From working on the city desk of the feisty Philadelphia Daily News, Yvonne Dennis knows plenty about editing reporters and doing it gently.

Tiffany Alexander of The Denver Post.
Despite being born legally blind, Alexander was drawn to the written word. She now leads coverage of education, religion and the obituaries at The Denver Post.

Nora Lopez of the San Antonio Express-News
After covering courts and police for several years, Lopez was offered a job as a city editor. Now she understands all the fuss: editing, mentoring, coddling, scolding and negotiating. Most of all, she juggles to make the stories the best they can be.

columnist

Columnist of the Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram.
Dave Lieber, a Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram columnist, says journalists must tell stories, not simply write rote articles.

Ana Menendez of The Miami Herald.
Columnist Ana Menendez of The Miami Herald "challenges the establishment and speaks for the poor."

Alice Demetrius Stock of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
A love of writing has taken Stock to almost every corner of the newsroom -- and allowed her to write about what interests her. The key is to write, write, write, she says -- even if it's for free.

O. Ricardo Pimentel of The Arizona Republic in Phoenix.
A longtime reporter and editor, Pimentel now is editorial columnist in Phoenix, where he writes columns with a Latino point of view.

Gary Massaro of the Rocky Mountain News in Denver.
A local columnist in Denver, Massaro has to come up with unique column ideas several times a week. How does he juggle it all? How does he get people to talk to him?

Tracey O'Shaughnessy of the Waterbury (Conn.) Republican-American.
This columnist says journalism is the ultimate outlet for the relentlessly curious. And columns are even better.

copy chief

John McIntyre of The Sun in Baltimore.
As assistant managing editor for the copy desk at The Sun, this former high school journalist's job is to make sure stories are fit for readers' eyes.

design editor

Debra Leithauser of Knight Ridder/Tribune Special Sections in Washington.
As lead designer, she is responsible for the group's full-page, one-subject pages, including the teen pages.

Pankaj Paul of The News Journal in Wilmington, Del.
Being a leader is difficult because you succeed through helping others do their best. Paul answers questions about leadership and what an aspiring editor needs to know.

Monica Moses of the Star Tribune, Minneapolis.
Moses finds that the newsroom has the same energy as a good party -- and is just as fun to be at.

designer

Eric Hegedus of The Philadelphia Inquirer.
Hegedus, a page designer for The Philadelphia Inquirer says that being a journalist has helped him meet countless interesting people and given him a wonderful creative outlet.

editor

David Ng of The Star-Ledger in Newark, N.J.
Although his job is stressful, as assistant managing editor/production (aka the person who is responsible for getting the paper out) he says he's still having a blast and willing to prove himself evey day.

Eric Newhouse of the Great Falls (Mont.) Tribune.
Newhouse won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service Journalism for his series on how alcohol affects his community. Series, he says, are much harder to write than daily stories.

editorial cartoonist

Dwane Powell of The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C.
This longtime cartoonist sees himself as a journalist who uses India ink and Strathmore drawing paper instead of words.

editorial page editor

Arnold Garcia of the Austin (Texas) American-Statesman.
Arnold Garcia considered law school for a career, but after "falling into" newspapers, he loved it. He still does.

Jane Healy of the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel.
Editorial Page Editor Jane Healy of the Orlando (Fla.) Sentinel wrote a series of editorials on how the laws and policies in Florida for managing growth were a sham.

editorial writer

Brian Colligan of The Daily Reflector, Greenville, N.C.
Colligan's love of writing and of news and a need to inform others of events drove him into journalism, but his ability to form an opinion based on facts drove him to editorial page.

education reporter

Ana Valle-Greene of The Ledger in Lakeland, Fla.
Valle-Greene finds education reporting exciting because it touches on important issues -- children, learning, social issues, success stories and tragedies.

Inara Verzemnieks of The Oregonian, Portland.
As a youth reporter Verzemnieks writes about reading, raves and respect for teens (or the lack of it).

Patrick Healy of The Boston Globe.
Healy loves storytelling. And he decided what he wanted to cover early: education. These two skills -- and the willingness to work hard at both -- landed him a job at a prestigious metro daily in one of the biggest university towns there is.

feature writer

Angelo Henderson of The Detroit News.
Henderson is a special project editor for The Detroit News.

features editor

Wendy Zang of the Reading (Pa.) Times/Reading Eagle.
Working with teen-agers isn't what she thought she'd be doing when she studied journalism in college, but that's just what Wendy Zang does every week for the Voices section.

Jan Tuckwood of The Palm Beach Post in West Palm Beach, Fla.
Tuckwood always thought journalism was fun, and now that she is a journalist, she's in charge of the look of the paper and editor of all its "fun sections."

Features Editor at USA Today in McLean, Va.
Kim Willis, features editor for USA Today, likes that she can "really shape the way a newspaper covers its community."

graphic artist

Jason Terrell of The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tenn.
A longtime graphic artist, Terrell says that artistic sense and journalistic accuracy can exist in harmony -- and depending on the project, one can take precedence over the other. It's a matter of balance and judgment.

investigative reporter

Dan Keating of The Washington Post.
Keating uses computer databases and other electronic methods to do investigative journalism that would otherwise be impossible. And it's won him a Pulitzer.

Judy Thomas of The Kansas City (Mo.) Star.
As a projects reporter, Thomas may take weeks or months to write a story. Frequency isn't as important as the fact that her stories "move people and right wrongs," she says.

managing editor

Gary Graham of the Press & Sun-Bulletin in Binghamton, N.Y.
As managing editor, the whole newsroom is Graham's responsibility, from reporters to graphics to budgets. His job that the paper be accurate, well-edited and worth reading.

news executive

Bryan Monroe of Knight Ridder Inc.
Now assistant vice president/news for Knight Ridder, Monroe's rise through the company is testament to his skills -- and his commitment to newspapers. He believes they have soul.

ombudsman/public editor

John X. Miller of the Detroit Free Press.
Newspapers are changing, and one of those changes is to be more receptive to their readers. John X. Miller's role of public editor is to bring a voice to people who haven't always had one in the newsroom.

online producer

Jennifer Montgomery of the Houston Chronicle.
This online worker found that working as a reporter and editor first made her a better online journalist.

William Chang of The Wire, The Associated Press's Web site.
As an online editor for The Associated Press, the world's largest news organization, Chang often has his finger on the pulse of news as it's happening. Racing the clock and working with a team to get information online is his favorite part of the job.

Ronald Dupont Jr. of the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times.
Now head of an Internet department, Dupont got interested in journalism long before he got online. If you want to be an online journalist, he says, learn to be a regular journalist first.

photo chief

Clyde Mueller of The Santa Fe New Mexican.
Clyde Mueller wasn't sure he wanted to be a photographer -- he was going to be a teacher. In the years since trying it out, he has become the photo director of the paper in New Mexico's capital and a leader in his profession.

photographer

J. Conrad Williams of Newsday in Melville, N.Y.
After buying a camera to shoot some family photos, Williams got hooked and realized what he wanted to be: a photojournalist. He walked away from his area of study to pursue his dream and hasn't regretted it.

Suzanne Kreiter of The Boston Globe.
Suzanne Kreiter, a photographer for The Boston Globe, says she's a modern-day cave painter -- and we need those.

Craig Sailor of The News Tribune in Tacoma.
As a photojournalist, Craig Sailor has traveled and photographed from the jungles of Guatemala to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Elizabeth Flores-Joles of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.
A native of New Mexico, Flores-Joles followed her heart into photography and can't imagine doing anything else.

John Beale of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
As a photojournalist, Beale is more interested in the content of a photo and the story it tells than any technology he happened to use to get it.

recruiter

Joe Grimm of the Detroit Free Press.
Although he loves people and news, Joe Grimm never envisioned himself hiring journalists for a living. But creative enterprises like newspapers need creative people doing the hiring and he was it.

reporter

James Bruggers of The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Ky.
Inspired his parents to help the world and by national events to enter journalism, this reporter combined his passions into an ideal job -- environment writer.

Rosa Maria Santana of The Plain Dealer in Cleveland.
Now a reporter in Cleveland, Santana believes that hard work and reading have been key to her award-winning success.

Andrea Elliott covers Islam in America as a metropolitan reporter for The New York Times.
Elliott of The New York Times profiled a New York imam to show what it's like to be Muslim in America.

C.J. Chivers of The New York Times.
Chivers of The New York Times often covers wars. His mission is to show it to readers, with all its implications, both noble and ugly.

Anne Hull of The Washington Post.
Anne Hull of The Washington Post goes where politicians don't -- into homes and, maybe, heads of those touched by the Iraq war.

Barbara Brotman of the Chicago Tribune.
Barbara Brotman of the Chicago Tribune looked at the final months of life of one man and found a universal tale.

Erica Pippins of The Herald in Rock Hill, S.C.
Pippins had a different career in mind when she went to college, but once she started writing for the newspaper, she found her true passion. Now a reporter in South Carolina, she meets new people, learns new things and reaches for more -- every day.

Jeff Mays of The Star-Ledger, Newark, N.J.
Although not long out of school, Jeff Mays is responsible for covering three towns for a major metro daily. Anything that happens there is his responsibility. And he loves it.

Mae Cheng of Newsday of Melville, N.Y.
Patience, curiosity and the ability to listen to America's newcomers has helped Mae Cheng succeed on the immigration beat in immigrant-rich New York.

Ta Brant of the Anchorage (Alaska) Daily News.
Brant covers police and crime in a state full of quirky, interesting people who she gets to talk to every day.

Giselle Goodman of the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram.
After starting as a newsroom secretary and taking chances, Goodman got a job as a reporter. Now she's responsible for writing about everything in a town in Maine. If it happens, she covers it.

Christine Evans of the Palm Beach Post in West Palm Beach, Fla.
Although she didn't know what she wanted to do when she graduated, Christine Evans liked researching and talking to people -- the ideal reporter.

Robyn Adams of the Republican-American in Waterbury, Conn.
Robyn Adams, a reporter for the Republican-American in Waterbury, Conn., worked her way up from clerk typist at the paper.

Along the way, she saw what was happening to her city -- street by street, abandoned house by abandoned house -- it was becoming blighted, full of trash and nothing was being done.

When editors asked Adams what project she would like to work on, documenting and doing something about this urban blight was the first thing she thought of.

sports editor

Brian Wong of The San Diego Union-Tribune
Wong was an award-winning high school sports journalist before working his way up to the sports copy desk in San Diego.

sports reporter

Lori Nickel of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Nickel covers college basketball and professional football.

Karen Wall of the Asbury Park Press in Neptune, N.J.
After realizing she had a talent with words, she found a niche as a copy editor/editor for high school sports at the Asbury Park Press in Neptune, N.J. Now they even pay her to write about her fishing trips.

Mike Sielski of The Intelligencer in Doylestown, Pa.
This lover of sports and writing says it's harder to cover high school sports than college or pro games: you have to keep your own stats, block out distractions -- and there's no instant replay!