Learning to Get Rejected: What Writing My First Article Taught Me
Did you know there is only one person in each state that handles media requests for the U.S. Postal Service? That is one of the many things that writing my first news article taught me. It also taught me not to quit the first time I failed in landing an interview, how to find alternative sources when the first ones don’t pan out and how to be annoying enough to at least get a rejection email instead of nothing at all.
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I wrote about the rising prices of P.O. Boxes and how it will affect the Ohio State University students who use the station on campus. Students don’t often have a lot of extra money, so any rising costs can seriously impact how a student decides to send and receive postage. To help me better understand how students felt, I talked to two students who rented P.O. boxes on campus, who were happy to tell me about the benefits a P.O. Box offers, despite the rising costs. Unfortunately, the easy part of writing the article ended there.
Nobody who worked at any USPS location was able to help me. Everyone I asked was directing me to talk to a woman named Naddia, the strategic communications specialist for all of Ohio. The only problem is I had already emailed and called Naddia multiple times, trying to set up an interview, with no success. I was being completely ignored by the only person who everyone was telling me to talk to. In an attempt to get an expert statement, I emailed a professor of supply chain management here at OSU, who was suggested to me by our school’s associate director of communications. I was excited to finally get a lead on a potential interview. Except, after a few short e-mails, he quickly stopped responding. I was back at square one.
I started looking for anybody that I could potentially use. I considered emailing communications specialists for other states. Then I found Marti Johnson, a senior public relations and media spokesperson for the USPS. She is a national spokesperson regarding pricing decisions. I e-mailed her early Thursday morning, only a few days before my deadline, and only a few hours later I got a response, not from her, but from Naddia, who had been cc’d by Marti. Going over Naddia’s head was what I needed to finally get a response from her.
Naddia politely declined my interview request. But I was just excited to finally get a response from somebody. I had worked hard for this, even though I was rejected. I might not get the best grade for this article, as it feels incomplete without an expert source. But I honestly feel like I tried my hardest. I couldn’t have imagined a story about P.O. Boxes could be so difficult to tackle, but I feel like this was an incredible learning opportunity to never let first obstacles stop you from pursuing the best story possible.
