How tech reporter Lorenz develops her sources

New York Times technology reporter Taylor Lorenz spoke with Digiday’s Kayleigh Barber about how she reports her stories.

Here is an excerpt:

On developing sources…
“I have written about that stuff and treated people who make a living off the internet as very valid from the beginning, which most people in mainstream media weren’t doing back in 2012 and 2013.

I don’t really use email. My Instagram DMs is the first [thing I check] in the morning. It’s just like email to me. It’s my main inbox. My DMs are open on every platform and I try to respond to everyone. I want them to know I’m not some reporter up in an ivory tower. I’m on the internet with everyone else and I want to hear from everyone. The internet is basically run by teenagers. If you’re on there enough, you end up coming into contact with them.

I comment on every single TikTok on the “For You” page, like ‘oh cool’ or ‘lol’ just to get the conversation going because that’s how you meet people. Part of it helps being a woman, to be honest. I think it’s much easier for me to slide into these people’s DMs in a non-threatening way than from a male journalist in his 30s kind of DMing random teen girls. So I definitely use that to my advantage.

Read more here.