Fortune’s Garfinkle wants to be “interesting, useful or essential” with Term Sheet

Allie Garfinkle of Fortune, who writes its Term Sheet newsletter, was interviewed by VMG Partners about her job.

Here is an excerpt:

In the PE / VC world, your daily newsletter Term Sheet is one of our first reads of the day. With how busy this corner of the world can be, how do you go about deciding what to cover (and when)?

This one’s both art and science. Art, in that there are certain ways in which I can’t always rationalize exactly what draws me to a story or a person. Science, in that there is absolutely critical news for our audience that would be negligent at best to not cover.

For me it ultimately boils down to fairly simple principles — do I think the audience will find this interesting, useful, or essential? In a perfect world, every story has all three of those qualities. I really think it’s helpful when people clearly articulate to me what makes something a fit for the Term Sheet audience.

I know I’m using the word audience a lot here, but that’s really what it comes down to, constantly trying to answer the question: How can I make sure that Term Sheet is consistently providing the most possible value for those who are taking valuable time to read? What is the best possible expression of journalism I can give them? Honestly, that does almost by definition mean something different every day, even if the actual question I’m asking is identical.

Read more here.