Always Take Notes

#94: Patrick Radden Keefe, author and New Yorker staff writer

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Nov 3, 2020
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ADVICE

Report On Spec To Earn Assignments

  • To win assignments, spend months reporting on spec to prove you can access sources and build trust before a magazine assigns the story.
  • Keefe did this in Chinatown, slowly accumulating sources until The New Yorker gave an assignment.
INSIGHT

Secret Worlds Drive His Story Choices

  • Keefe repeatedly returns to stories about secrecy and hidden worlds because human dynamics in secret systems create compelling narrative twists.
  • His work focuses on people first, then uses their lives to illuminate larger institutional issues.
ADVICE

Subsidise Investigative Freelancing

  • Freelance investigative reporting is possible but financially precarious; subsidize it with other work or fellowships.
  • Keefe supported his early freelancing with a think-tank job and paid screenwriting gigs while pursuing long investigations.
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