News, ideas & conversations for communicators worldwide
 

« A rap song about Alexander Hamilton | Main | Oprah, WTF? »

Obama’s first job: Newsletter editor

Ask a man on the street what President Obama’s first job was and you’ll probably get this answer: community organizer.

That’s wrong.

When Obama graduated from Columbia University in New York, he took a job with Business International Corporation (BIC), a publishing and consulting company that helped American companies working abroad. A recent GQ article about Obama said the president held that job for two years before moving to Chicago to become a community organizer.

“At 22, Obama graduates college and enters the real world,” Robert Draper wrote for GQ. “The first job he lands, in 1983, is not the one of legend, the formative yes-we-can mission of community organizing. Rather, it’s a gig editing and writing business publications. His supervisor figures him for a frustrated novelist.”

During his tenure with BIC, Obama edited Financing Foreign Operations, a global reference service, and wrote for Business International Money Report, a weekly financial newsletter, according to Wikipedia.

So, take comfort newsletter editors, the president understands your toils and hardships—even though he rarely (if ever) mentions this job.

Comments (1)

Here's to wondering what it would have been like to pitch Barack Obama on a story-- Pretty cool to think about!

Post a comment

Important:
to protect against spam you must enter the letter "a" in the box.
(The comment will be posted ONLY when the safety letter is entered.)

About

This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on November 5, 2009 5:40 PM .

The previous post in this blog was A rap song about Alexander Hamilton .

The next post in this blog is Oprah, WTF? .

Many more can be found on the main index page or by looking through the archives.


Share |
Comment Feed Subscribe to this blog's feed
[What is this?]

Recent Responses

anonymous
‘Transparency’ tops the list of banned words for 2010
especially when it came to the health care bill being debated on C-SPAN and then the Speaker of the House coming out and...
read all | post a response

Anonymous
Do we need a sarcasm font? Oh, yeah, sure we do
Based on my experience, I would say that sarcasm is favoured more by men than women, both as a type of humour to employ ...
read all | post a response

FEATURED

Blogger Bios

About

Tell us how you manage unrealistic expectations, meet reporter needs, churn out news when there is none, deal with a client you can't stand, and what you say to people that slam PR. Or anything else that's on your mind.

Ragan Blogs

Trail Mix
- Patrick Williams


The Pulse
- Josh McColough


Coaching Success
- BRODY Professional Development


Other Blogs

- Shines a brighter light on the subtle roles played by public relations
- A gathering place for professional communicators
- Blogging at the intersection of communication and technology
- Ranting and raving about news, techniques, and development in the world of PR research and evaluation.

PR Newser

- PRNewser is a blog about Public Relations

- The latest and most effective strategies to market your business.

- Business communications for the real world

- The place at the intersection of business, communication and technology.
- Les Potter blogs about Strategic Communication and Public Relations

- Social Network for PR Students, Faculty, and Practitioners

- An award-winning public relations resource

- Conversations about Social Media and Marketing

- What would the LEAN Communicator do?

- educational resource for public relations with hundreds of articles to browse on various PR topics

Powered by
Movable Type 3.33

Home | Internal Communication | Public Relations | Speechwriting | Web Content | Government Communication | Tips & Tactics | Hot Topics | Back to Top
MyRagan | MyManageresNetwork | MyRaganTV | Blogs | Podcasts | Jobs | Forums | eNewsletters
About Us | Copyright 2007 Ragan Communications, Inc. | Privacy Policy | Search | FAQ | Contact Us | Store | RSS RSS | Widgets | Site Map