“In every single story I write, I’m nervous.”
By Kwanwoo Jun
MANHATTAN, New York -- David Barboza, 45, The New York Times correspondent and bureau chief in Shanghai, has a glittering career that aspiring young journalists covet: starting as an intern and then moving up to become a staff member and correspondent at the paper.
Barboza, based in Shanghai since 2004, won the Gerald Loeb Award for Deadline Writing in 2005 and the Nathaniel Nash Award in 2008, both prestigious awards in business reporting.
Both hard work and luck led Barboza, formerly an aspiring journalist born in Bedford, Mass., to an internship at The New York Times. Working at the student newspaper of Boston University in 1985 and 1986, Barboza did an investigative reporting on Martin Luther King Jr.’s academic papers being damaged by the university and drew attention from The New York Times. The paper soon interviewed him for a story and then offered him an internship at its bureau in Boston from 1986 to 1987.
Studying history at Boston University and a graduate school at Yale University, Barboza worked as a research assistant for The New York Times for six years until 1996, a year before becoming a staff writer.
Despite a shining 21-year-long journalism career at The New York Times, Barboza still lives in tension not to make a mistake in reporting. “In every single story I write, I’m nervous,” Barboza, recently on a business trip to New York, said during an hour-long interview at 20 Cooper Square, Manhattan. “If there is one mistake, it’s bad. If there are two corrections for one story, you are going to be in a big trouble. If I have four corrections in a year, it’s a disaster.”
Barboza said The Times was maintaining an uncompromising standard of high quality in publication. “One of the amazing things for me working at The New York Times in my first years was to go into the meetings with editors and see them beat up other editors -- not literally beat them up but in the way they asked questions,” he said.
Barboza said he put enormous effort in his work. “My process is exhaustive research and then figuring out what this is meaning and then outlining it,” he said. “I need to do that 30 times before I write a story. So, my process is a torture. It’s a necessary torture.”
He said he often had to abandon his busy office and find a Starbucks coffee shop nearby to better focus on a story. “If I’m doing a feature story and if I’m doing an important story, I’m at Starbucks,” he said, smiling. “Every journalist has a different process. This is mine.”
He said he was still pursuing a goal at the paper. “My goal was The New York Times,” Barboza said. “And my goal now is to be one of the best reporters at The New York times.”
Barboza served as the paper’s Chicago-based Midwest business correspondent for five years. His coverage included the Enron scandal. In 2004, he was posted as correspondent in Shanghai.
In 2005, Barboza and four of his colleagues wrote about Chinese multinational company Lenovo’s acquisition of IBM’s personal computer business. His team won the 2005 Gerald Loeb Award for Deadline Writing.
Barboza was once held hostage while reporting on a Chinese toy factory suspected of making tainted products. “As an American journalist based in China, I knew there was a good chance that at some point I’d be detained for pursuing a story,” he wrote in an article published by The New York Times on June 24, 2007, shortly after being released from a nine-hour detention by Chinese factory officials. “I just never thought I’d be held hostage by a toy factory.”
When Barboza won the Nathaniel Nash Award in 2008, The New York Observer described him as having “captured the complexities of China today by immersing himself in its culture in a way that few foreign correspondents can.” He has a Chinese wife, Lynn Zhang.
Responding to my follow-up e-mail question, Barboza said he was enjoying his job in Shanghai very much. “So let me just say, traveling in China, speaking Chinese and interviewing everyone from migrant workers to CEOs are a wonderful and memorable experience,” he said. “Getting to know another world, another culture is quite special.”
Q: Would you tell me how you started work in journalism?
A: My father had a small printer, and I got my father give me a typewriter. I typed up sports stories, and I put together a magazine when I was in junior high school and high school. That was my semi-beginning in journalism. And then when I went to a college, I started to read a lot of non-sports books. I felt, “You know sports journalism. It’s nice to follow sports, but I want to do something really important. I don’t want to just write and follow athletes.” So I started reading politics, history, et cetera. I started going to non-sports journalism. At Boston University. I was one of the editors of the student newspaper. And I did an investigative story on how my university was damaging the Martin Luther King papers. And The New York Times picked up the story. The Boston Globe did it too. A week later, The New York Times said, “We want you to be our intern. It’s unpaid. It’s working at the Boston bureau and clipping paper." I said, “Great.” So I was working at the Boston bureau during the weekend in summer.
I read everything about The New York Times. I subscribed to The Christian Science Monitor. I became a news junkie. On the weekends at Boston University, I had a filing cabinet that had clippings of The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Christian Science Monitor, Newsweek and Time Magazine. Every weekend, I had files on every subject. I remember meeting Richard Bernstein, a correspondent who interviewed me in Boston. He said, “I was very impressed with your investigative story on the Martin Luther King papers. I think someday you will get to The Times.” That gave me an even more motivation. Everyone doesn’t have to work at the top-tier papers or publications, but you can decide what is your goal. My goal was The New York Times. And my goal now is to be one of the best reporters at The New York Times.
Q: Has journalism changed you?
A: It’s made me more balanced and thoughtful and also taught me to question and wonder about the world.
Q: Tell me about working at The New York Times?
A: Reporters have power, but the editors and the top editors in the end make a decision. Unlike other newspapers or wire services, in which it is more lightly edited, it is going to go through a whole line of people again on the paper. If it is a front-page story, it’s going to be pretty intense. And they may just rewrite parts of it for you if you can do it or if you want to do it. You can’t say, “I disagree with you.” One of the amazing things for me working at The New York Times in my first years was to go into the meetings with editors and see them beat up other editors -- not literally beat them up but the way they ask questions. I couldn’t event think of those questions. Even though I’ve been in The New York Times for 20 years, I’m still amazed to see the quality of the editors and questions and reporters.
I’ve written probably 1,200 stories for The New York Times in my career, maybe more. In every single story I write, I’m nervous. If there is one mistake, it’s bad. If there are two corrections for one story, you are going to be in a big trouble. If I have four corrections in a year, it’s a disaster. So, I’m nervous when the story is handled. I’m going back and trying to think if all these names are right. It’s very easy to make a mistake. So, you have to be on alert to correct every single story even after 15 to 20 years now.
Q: Where do you usually get story ideas?
A: Newspapers, magazines, TV shows, friends and dinners. I’ve got hundreds of story ideas. My problem is how I finish the story ideas. Once you are in journalism, you are used to picking up story ideas everywhere. Wherever you go, you are asking questions and you’re wondering about things. Story ideas are all about asking questions. Creativity in story ideas is about asking questions that people don’t generally ask.
Q: How do you develop your story?
A: I get a folder, interview people, call people, take notes and especially investigate a lot. Then I go through everything again, all the notes and everything. Then I start making an outline of my article -- what are the main themes, what this article is about, what I can use and what are the best quotes. Then from there, I have all the subjects. Then I start to think. Maybe, I put them in this order. Then I go to Starbucks. I have a notepad and I start writing my story by hand. If it is a breaking story, I don’t do that. If I’m doing a feature story and if I’m doing an important story, I’m at Starbucks. Every journalist has a different process. This is mine. It’s been working pretty well lately.
Figuring out what the story is is hard. I want to be able to tell you what the story means in two sentences. If I can’t, I don’t understand the story. What is the essence of this article? Everything else will flow off of that.
We really need as a journalist to understand the structure. Even though I
have been at The New York Times for 20 years, I still take my favorite articles, clipped them and put them in my good writing files and then dissect them. This is my process. My process is exhaustive research and then figuring out what this is meaning and then outlining it. I need to do that 30 times before I write a story. So, my process is a torture. It’s a necessary torture.
Q: In your career, what are you most proud of? Why?
A: I’m most proud of being able to do great work for The New York Times. In college, I aspired to work at The New York Times. And now, I’m here and working as the Shanghai Bureau chief. I’m interested in education, learning and writing about the world, and that’s what I do.
Q: Any memorable experience at work?
A: This is too difficult to answer, kind of like asking what special has happened in my life. So let me just say traveling in China, speaking Chinese and interviewing everyone from migrant workers to CEOs are a wonderful and memorable experience. Getting to know another world, another culture is quite special.
Q: Would you give some advice to young, aspiring journalists?
A: Follow your passion, learn from the best, and don’t worry about jobs, just about getting better. And if you are focused and determined, good things will happen.
Q: Have American newsrooms changed over the years? How? For better or worse?
A: Certainly American newsrooms have changed. We basically do the same thing at The New York Times, but we contribute to multimedia, radio, television, etc. Probably newsrooms today have more women than they did two decades ago. But basically we have the same principles. Reporters are probably younger since the web and fast pace has pushed some of the older journalists to retire earlier.
Q: What do you think of the state of American journalism today?
A: I think the state of journalism has to reflect the state of America. Great strengths, particularly at The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, etc., but people seem to read less. And that’s troubling. I think TV journalism is generally worse than it was two decades ago, but print journalism is a mixed bag – some of it much better, some of it worse. The very best journalists today, though, are as good as we’ve ever seen.
Q: What do you think is the future of American journalism?
A: The future of journalism remains bright because people have a hunger for knowledge and information, they want to understand the world, they need context, they need people to help make sense of what’s going on around the world – content is king, as they say – so American journalism will thrive. But we need to be prepared to figure out new ways to deliver the news.
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