My First Byline: Taylor Lorenz
My First Byline: Taylor Lorenz
Founder of User Mag
What is your current job?
Tech reporter and content creator, founder of User Mag, a technology and online culture newsletter
What was your first byline?
Technically my first byline was for myself! I started as a blogger in 2009 and was enamored with self-publishing. I grew an audience on my blog and that eventually led to a career in journalism. I wrote for many other blogs in the early days of my career, but my first official byline on a reputable news website was in 2013, I wrote a piece for the Daily Dot on emoticon usage.
What was your first real job in journalism?
I joined the Daily Mail as a social media editor in 2012. At the time the Daily Mail had zero social media people, so I established the media brand's presence on Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms. I was very quickly promoted several times within the organization to Global Head of Social Media, managing a team of a dozen social media editors and social media assistants around the world. I learned so much about headline writing and good storytelling from the editors there.
How did you get it?
At the time, the Daily Mail didn't have any social media presence. I heard through a friend that they just wanted someone to make a Facebook page for their recently launched U.S. site. I was able to get an interview with the publisher and I created a massively detailed 40-something page slide deck about how they needed to think about expanding their brand online and various audience growth strategies. I really went all in. They hired me almost immediately after.
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What advice do you have for people looking to break into journalism?
Be relentless and don't buy into any legacy media prestige crap. Legacy media bosses only respect you when you don't respect them. When you're young you should optimize for experience and learning and career growth above some prestige job that probably won't ever promote you out of an editorial assistant role.
Also, BREAK NEWS. I got noticed very early because I was breaking news regularly on my beat. If you break news all the legacy media people will be forced to pay attention to you because they will have to aggregate your stories. There's that saying, they can't ignore you if you're good and it's true. They can't ignore you when you scoop them. I used to keep a spreadsheet of all of my scoops and all the scoops from other reporters on my beat and rank myself. You don't have to be that intense, but if you want to get noticed in journalism you need to show that you can break news.
Also, never, never, never, never put any company's interests above your own. Always put yourself first. Always. Do not let anyone at these fancy media orgs gaslight you or downplay your worth. You should use these companies and use jobs to get what you want, but never rely on them. You could win them a Pulitzer and they'd lay you off the next day because they're losing money.
You should always be getting more out of your employer (whether it's money, experience, credibility, opportunities) than they are getting out of you. It's hard in the beginning, but try to always maintain the upper hand in the power dynamic. And the second that power dynamic shifts, quit or find a new job. None of these jobs will ever respect you until you quit, then they'll want you back. It's a very toxic dynamic sadly! But you cannot be afraid to quit. (which I know is very hard economically, so try to be as self-sufficient as possible by having side gigs and backup options).
It's very hard to believe in yourself while you're young. One thing I did for a long time (and still do) is think about all the rampant nepotism in this industry and how most of these legacy media outlets are full of spoiled rich people who only got there because of where they went to journalism school or because of who their rich uncle knows. Remember that you are better than all of them because they never had to really work to get where they are in life, so you deserve a seat at the table too.
Find Taylor on LinkedIn, X, Instagram, TikTok, Bluesky and Threads.