What is it like to be a columnist covering the aging beat?
We asked Mark Miller, who writes twice weekly for Reuters and monthly for Morningstar.com.
Miller is an experienced business and financial journalist who examined demographic trends several years back and realized that writing about aging would be an in-demand specialty.
Since Medicare is such an important issue for anyone age 65 or older, Miller gave himself a crash course on that government health care program. His columns on Medicare are some of his best-read pieces.
Miller knows that writing about health will be an important part of his work going forward and recently joined AHCJ to connect with other journalists and pick up story ideas. We welcome the voice and experience that he brings.
Mark Miller is a journalist and author who writes about trends in retirement and aging.
By Mark Miller
I first became interested in writing about retirement and aging about seven years ago, for a combination of personal and professional reasons.
I had just turned 50, so I was starting to think more seriously about the next phase of life. Also, it seemed to me that with all the millions of other baby boomers headed toward retirement over the next couple decades, there would be an enormous need for writers who could provide information and guidance; we’d need to get up to speed quickly, since most of us suffer from Peter Pan syndrome (“I won’t grow up …”). And, the retirement and aging beat also looked like a good match with my background in business and financial news.
I first delved into retirement as founder of a magazine and website launched in the Chicago area by Tribune Co., but have worked as an independent writer for the past five years. I focus mainly on personal finance, public policy, careers, housing and health care; for me, the sweet spot of the beat is providing helpful information and guidance to Americans who aren’t yet retired, but need to get smarter about this next phase of life and start planning.
Surveys suggest most people don’t start thinking about this much — beyond contributing to their 401(k) or IRA account — until they reach 40 or 45 years of age, so I look at the beat, roughly, as targeting readers from that age up through their 60s. I also write stories for younger readers who might be interested in tips on how to build now for a secure retirement.
As a freelancer, I started by writing a syndicated weekly newspaper column on retirement for Tribune’s syndicate, and also launched a blog, RetirementRevised.com. At first, I was interested to see if I could build the site’s traffic to the point where it could generate significant income. Although it’s only been a modest successful by that measure — generating about 14,000 visits in a good month — it’s still very helpful as a “home base,” for linking up all the articles I write elsewhere around the Web, and for my social media outreach. During my first couple of years freelancing, I contributed to The Huffington Post, which helped build visibility. The next step was writing a book on the challenges of retiring in the wake of the 2008 financial crash and recession, called The Hard Times Guide to Retirement Security (John Wiley & Sons, 2010).
Currently, I write a twice-weekly column for Reuters, and monthly columns for Morningstar.com and RegisteredRep.com. I also contribute occasionally to the AARP Magazine. I also spend some time each week tending to my website, editing a free weekly email newsletter that reaches about 2,000 subscribers, tweeting and updating my Facebook page.
After nearly three decades working in large news organizations, I really enjoy the relative peace, quiet and politics-free life of independent journalism. Juggling my various commitments presents challenges, but I find that the best defense against possible deadline chaos is good planning. I use a spreadsheet to schedule stories at least two weeks in advance and keep a running list of possible future story ideas.
Aside from being well organized, working independently also requires a strong sense of self-motivation. And while self-employment also calls for a certain amount of comfort with risk-taking, I like the idea that I’m not relying on any single gig for 100 percent of my income — especially considering the ongoing turmoil in news organizations.
The best path to success as an independent is to build a strong reputation as a specialist — so long as there’s demand for the specialized information you’re covering. The country’s demographic trends will drive growing demand for information about retirement and aging for the next couple decades; demand for health and health care news will be driven, in part, by the same trends.
My view of the beat has evolved considerably, especially since the onset of the recession, which has wrecked the retirement plans of many Americans over age 50. Well over half of Americans near retirement don’t have enough saved to carry them through retirement, and the recession has underscored the weaknesses of our patchwork, do-it-yourself retirement system.
Saving in 401(k) and IRA accounts hasn’t been sufficient to replace traditional defined benefit pensions, which are disappearing rapidly in the private sector. So, while I devote plenty of attention to the investing side of the beat, I also dig into stories on defined benefit pensions and annuities. I also write frequently about career strategies; many boomers hope to work longer to help close the retirement security gap – a great strategy but not easy to pull off in an economy where jobs are so scarce.
Social Security and Medicare are cornerstone topics. Boomer retirees will be relying heavily on these two programs to pull them through. My stories on both of these subjects always generate strong traffic, comment and controversy. Readers understand how important they are — and they’re hungry for straight information that gets beyond the political spin and outright lies we hear so often about them.
So far, my coverage of health care has focused mainly on the economic security and personal financial angles — primarily Medicare and implications of the new health care reform law for older Americans. I also have covered workplace insurance issues, and long-term care. I’m hoping to learn and write more about other critical areas of health care relevant to aging — long-term care, dementia and prevention.
I keep up with beat developments by monitoring newspapers like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, but also through weekly Google Alerts monitoring keyword topics. A handful of email newsletters are helpful, especially the Current Awareness in Aging Research E-Clippings distributed daily by the Center for Demography of Health & Aging at the University of Wisconsin.
I use Twitter not only to spread the word about my work, but to monitor the work of other journalists, publications research and advocacy organizations. I like the way Twitter “bubbles to the top” the most interesting work out there through re-tweeting; I also use Twitter’s helpful list feature to organize information by topic, and to carefully follow most-trusted sources.
Story ideas come from all these places, but also from talking to sources. Very few of the public relations pitches I receive become stories, especially since so many these days are based on manufactured news — marketing-oriented surveys and the like.
I expect the Association of Health Care Journalists will become a vibrant new source of story ideas, background and education. I’m looking forward to participating, and to meeting as many members in person as possible.
Mark Miller (@RetireRevised) is a journalist and author who writes about trends in retirement and aging. Miller is a columnist for Reuters and contributes to Morningstar, RegisteredRep.com and the AARP Magazine. He edits and publishes RetirementRevised.com, and is the author of The Hard Times Guide to Retirement Security: Practical Strategies for Money, Work and Living (John Wiley & Sons, 2010). His previous work in journalism includes stints at Tribune Media Services, the Chicago Sun-Times and Crain’s Chicago Business.
