BOSTON — New York Times Executive Editor Jill Abramson is bullish on the future of journalism.
At the Investigative Reporters and Editors’ national conference in Boston Saturday, she told Youth Journalism International students that young people with an interest in reporting should “keep the faith.”
“If you think you love journalism and you have endless curiosity and a desire to write clearly or do great television reporting or online reporting or interactive reporting, keep the faith,” Abramson said in an interview.
“Don’t let adults tell you that you won’t make a living at it,” the editor said. “There are many people here in Boston today who are living proof that that isn’t true.”
Abramson has been the top editor at The Times since September 2011. Before that, she served as the paper’s managing editor for eight years.
A Harvard graduate, she started her career at Time magazine and lagter worked for The American Lawyer, Legal Times and The Wall Street Journal before joining The Times in 1997.
Abramson spoke to YJI students Mary Majerus-Collins, Yelena Samofalova and Kiernan Majerus-Collins following a luncheon address to IRE where she questioned the national security crackdown on the press by President Barack Obama’s administration.
Here is a video of Abramson talking with YJI reporters: