After her Peace Corps experience in Africa during the early 90s Jocelyn Zuckerman was convinced she was on the track of becoming a foreign correspondent. But when she landed at Gourmetafter grad school, she unexpectedly discovered a passion for food, health and the environment.
Inspired by the way the magazine started to rethink food journalism infused enthusiasm in Zuckerman for environmental and political issues that affect food production, distribution and consumption. She hopes to extend that same innovation and out-of-the-box concept today, as the newly appointed executive editor for Whole Living.
In her new role, she works closely with editor-in-chief Alanna Stang, and co-executive editor Holley Bishop, to develop story ideas for the magazine.
“I will be focused on features, especially involving food politics and the environment,” she said. “I am also looking to bring some new voices into Whole Living.”
Zuckerman is also drawing lessons from her previous position at OnEarth magazine, where she served as the articles editor, and is very excited about the larger reach in audience as well as what she can bring to her new position.
“I’m excited to bring more of the environmental stuff that I had been doing at OnEarth into the pages of Whole Living,” she said. “It is fun to be back at a big consumer publication with lots of pages to fill. I love the idea of bringing important issues like the use of antibiotics in livestock and the dangers of Bisphenol A (BPA) to a larger audience.”
As the green and sustainability trend continues to expand, Zuckerman’s knowledge and niche focus on food and the environment is a strongpoint..
“The natural lifestyle movement gets more mainstream every day. Environmental concerns now go into the making of everything.” She added, “I think we have a tremendous opportunity with this magazine to lead that conversation, and to continue to point consumers to the best ways to adapt a more sustainable way of living.”
In addition to food and environmental issues, Whole Living plans to bring more male voices into the mix and grow their digital footprint. Zuckerman feels that the magazine is already on its way with an ever-expanding digital presence. She confesses, however, to being an irregular participant in online platforms, but praised the magazine for its efforts in regard to social media.
“I check in with people whose reporting I respect—but at the moment it’s not really my thing,” she said. “It’s very possible that my habits may begin to change in that respect.”
Zuckerman also finds the frequency and immediacy of news with the shift of print-to-online media to be positive and stresses the continued importance of skilled journalists. Across the board, no matter where she practices journalism, the ability to produce compelling stories is crucial to audience engagement, she said.
“By [Whole Living] doing more investigative stories and bringing in more literary voices, we hope to become even more indispensable to readers in terms of both education and entertainment value,” she said. “Our hope is to encourage and inspire readers to live in a way that makes them feel good both physically and psychologically, and that also contributes to the betterment of communities and, ultimately, the planet.”
Pitching Tips
Zuckerman said she is more interested in “bigger stories, whether involving interesting people or trends, than in the latest eco-gadget.”
Additionally, she suggested a few general rules of thumb for communications professionals, which included knowledge of the publication and brevity.
“The pet peeves are the usual ones: People who haven’t familiarized themselves with the magazine before pitching; pitches that are way too long; pitches addressed to an editor at another magazine; writers who pitch several different editors at the same magazine, without telling any of us that they’ve done so.”
She also encourages freelancers to submit their ideas.
Follow Whole Living on Twitter at @wholeliving, and Zuckerman at @jocelynzuck
