A good experience in tea leaf reading

Bloomberg News executive editor Laurie Hays talks with reporter Christine Idzelis of the International Women’s Media Foundation about her career.

Here is an excerpt:

Idzelis: You were a reporter in Moscow while working for the Wall Street Journal. Why Russia, and how did spending time abroad influence your career?

Hays: We went to Moscow in 1990. My husband was working at the Philadelphia Inquirer and was asked to be the bureau chief there. There was so much going on that the Wall Street Journal was just delighted to have me be a tag-along spouse. I worked there for almost four years. After covering the Kremlin, I think I felt that I could pry information out of just about anybody.

It was a very good experience in tea leaf reading and figuring out between the lines what was really going on in a story. There was a lot going on there.

Idzelis: How did you manage raising a family while staying on track to becoming a top editor?

Hays: Well, first of all, I was blessed with great children. They have always been really the best thing that ever happened to me. I have two girls. They are now 24 and 22. If I hadn’t been so lucky, it might have been harder. They’ve always done really well in school, and they’ve been very understanding of my need to work. My husband has been extremely supportive. I had fabulous babysitters and nannies. It’s just a matter of being able to stay focused on one job or the other, and to juggle. So when I’m home, I’m home. When I’m at work, I’m at work.

Of course, the Blackberry then came along. I don’t know if I would have been so successful if I had been raising children with a Blackberry. I think that would have hurt us.

Read more here.