Mia de Graaf, Deputy Executive at the Business Insider (BI), joined me for an AlumNouse interview from across the Atlantic at BI’s New York office. As a previous Features Editor at Nouse, I was particularly excited to speak with Mia.
Joining York in 2009 as an English and Related Literatures student, Mia got involved with Nouse in her first year, after seeing the stand at freshers fair.
Mia: “It was like there was this immediate pathway, they were all doing really cool stuff and I knew that I wanted to be a writer.
Two weeks later they had the elections and I ran for Deputy Features Editor, and I managed to get that. And I just remember that it was this whole thing that happened in a month: I went to the stand, met these really amazing and motivated people; literally everyone in that cohort is still doing really interesting stuff.”
During her first year, Mia was also involved in this musical theatre at York, but said that “by my second year I was all in, Nouse was my entire life. I literally did nothing else.”
Mia reflected on her role as MUSE Editor in her second year. Mia: “It was really creative. Every single edition we were coming up with something new that you’d want to read in The Telegraph or The Guardian. As a student journalist, I could get interviews with anyone…and now as a professional journalist, these are not such straight forward interviews to get! It was such a cheat code and we really utilised it.”
Mia: “I found it really exciting that the design was part and parcel of it as well. One of my favourite things was the weekend before publication, sitting for the entire weekend playing music and designing, getting into Photoshop. You could do anything in that, when you get into professional journalism, you’re not really going to have the same opportunity to. There’s no downside to trying anything. And we’d try some stuff that completely panned. Like we tried to do this ‘40 years after John Lenon’s death’ and the way that we printed it was just completely illegible. And yes that was a flop, but it was really fun putting it together and you learn so much from it.”
In the middle of her three year English and Related Literature degree, Mia lived and worked in Buenos Aires for nine months.
Mia: “I tried to do a four year course, without doing a four year course.
I was really interested in Latin America, I had never been, and I was emailing a bunch of papers and blogs in Argentina. And then this website in Buenos Aires got back to me and said ‘we don’t have anything when you graduate, but we literally need someone now if you could come.’”
Grace: “Were you reporting in Spanish or in English?”
Mia: “Both, it was a bilingual paper for expats. We would translate into English and would write features into English and sometimes translate them into Spanish.”
Mia graduated from York in 2012. Mia: “I didn’t get on to any of the grad schemes, so I did an NCTJ at the Press Association and then whilst I was there I worked at the London Press.”
“Then I got offered the graduate scheme from the Mail Online. They send you to this place in Howden, this big house in the middle of nowhere. You were trained on how to write headlines, leads, picture captions: it’s this intensive one month where you’re writing headlines again and again. It was such a fantastic training because they just drill it into you, in a way that my NCTJ just didn’t. And then they dispatch you to whatever local paper they send you to; I went to work in Manchester for four months.”
Grace: “I wondered what your advice to students seeking internships and work experience would be?”
Mia: “It’s really tough. Honestly, I was really tapping into the alumni network. The job I got at The Telegraph was through Heidi Blake, who had been at Nouse. I was just sending out as much as I could, chatting to people and trying to do freelance writing.”
Mia explained an all too common misconception for new journalists: believing they need only to pitch the most serious stories on the biggest topics of the day.
Mia: “Actually what you want to show is that you’re writing creative, smart, finger-on-the-pulse, doing something that’s a little more fun and a little more bitesize.”
Mia explained to me that when freelancing for The Economist, anything she pitched that was “a little fluffy and a little fun,” was what they wanted.
So, Mia’s advice? “Don’t be afraid of your niche, lean into that creative side and try to embrace it.”
Mia: “I then went back to London and I was working at the Mail Online in High Street Ken, it was a pretty good education in terms of digital media, it was at the time where the Mail Online was just starting to get big. It was pretty brutal, because you’re working a lot of night and weekend shifts, but I was getting bylines and making connections.”
After working at the Mail Online, based in London, Mia was considering a move back to Argentina, but then the Daily Mail offered her a job in New York and a US visa.
Mia: “I was like, yeah sure! I’d never been to New York, so I was like yeah why not?” Mia explained to me that this experience was “a real education in the Wild West of American media law.”
Mia: “The editors were really fantastic; they’d give you really interesting Feature commissions. I got put on a Sunday shift, where you could kind of do what you want. I was really interested in science at the time, so I was trying to do science bio-tech features.”
“I just kept rolling over my visa, I thought ‘this is fun, I might as well stay’.”
Soon after this the health editor at the Mail Online asked Mia whether she wanted to come to the health desk.
Mia: “The day I moved onto her desk, she quit. And it turns out she was trying to find her replacement because she was moving to The Sun. So that’s how I ended up as Health Editor at The Daily Mail.”
Grace: “What was it like to work on an American paper?”
“I think in the UK we consume so much about the US through a very specific prism. So I think the challenge for me was trying to broaden out my understanding of this country, and get out of some of the stereotypes I would assume of it.”
“You have to adjust. Even though we speak the same language, I feel that I had to treat this place in the same way that I did Argentina. It’s so different, I had to not assume that I knew about everyone’s experiences.”
Mia also shared her experience of the US media landscape.
Mia: “It was really exciting for me as a young journalist, and that’s probably why I stayed here to be honest. And I know this is such a cliche, given the ‘Land of Opportunity’, but there was so much opportunity here. It's such a dynamic media market: Buzzfeed was coming up, Huffington Post, every city has multiple local papers which are all landmark papers in the country.”
Grace: “Do you think you’ll stay in America?”
Mia: “Yeah, I’m literally applying for my Green Card now! I’ve been doing that this morning in between meetings. So I’m probably sticking around here. I mean I’m still really attached to the UK, I try to come back here as much as possible, but definitely career-wise it’s been so much more fulfilling.”
Grace: “And what was it like becoming Health Editor just a few years before COVID?”
Mia: “I became Health Editor in 2016, and that was really fortunate because in 2020 everyone was trying to become an expert in Health and whilst I was by no means an expert in Health, I actually had had enough experience so that I came into it with a healthy dose of ‘I have no idea what’s happening!’ In the years prior to COVID, I went to about seven conferences a year, reporting on studies coming from it, meeting beat reporters, and building up contacts.”
In 2019 Mia got poached by Business Insider, and started as Health Editor in January 2020. She shared her experience working in health media during the pandemic: “It was daunting being the point person when COVID hit, suddenly you’re at the centre. But I was really glad to be at the Business Insider at that time.
“It was also a real education in fake news: fast and loose politics. I hold that so dearly: never assume you know what’s going to happen, stay grounded in what is true right now.”
In 2021 Mia was promoted to Senior Health Editor, before becoming Deputy Executive Editor in January 2024. In this role Mia works across the Business Insider’s London, US, and Singapore offices, overseeing health across the entire organisation.
Mia: “I also oversee our Culture and Features section, returning to my Nouse days.”
Grace “A real full circle moment!”
Mia: “Health really lends itself to Features. And that was something I was always trying to do, taking any room to write or edit a Feature. Now my main goal is to work with bigger picture Culture Features that speak to a moment or a trend.”
Grace: “What’s your favourite part of your job?”
Mia: “Chatting to interesting reporters, and people who have great ideas. It’s a real intellectual exercise. I actually just commissioned a story about Gen Z men - everybody is talking about Gen Z men right now, because of the election. But I’ve never seen anyone actually speaking with them!
This year I started a YouTube series at BI on ultra processed foods. And that’s really fun.”
Grace: “And is there anything you’ve found surprising or that you didn’t expect from your current role?”
Mia: “I think if someone told me ten years ago that this was my job, the roles I wouldn’t have assumed would be part of that job would be people management. Metrics is also a big thing, especially when you’re at the mercy of different algorithms and everyone is trying to work out what works. Business know-how comes into it a lot too; you don’t necessarily need to be a business person to get by in journalism, but I’ve learned that you probably should have a solid understanding of how business works.”
Grace: “And to finish. I’m going to ask you probably the most cliche question, but if you had any advice to give to your younger self, or to people wanting to enter into journalism, what would that be?”
Mia: “Number one is to really treat everyone with respect. I’m so grateful for the community I met at Nouse, we really built each other up. I don’t know what I would have done if I didn’t have them. And as soon as you get into the industry, be nice to each other! I also think writing as much as you can, which I know can be tricky when stuff lives on the internet forever, but it was a really good experience for me to find myself, push myself, and to experiment. Being friends with PR’s can sometimes be a really weird relationship, but honestly just make friends with everyone. That helped me so much when I started out.”
“And the last thing I’ll say is to read, read, read, read. Read all the time.”
Thank you so much to Mia de Graaf for joining this AlumNouse interview from across the Atlantic. It was brilliant to catch-up with a previous Nouse Features Editor.
Want to get involved? Whether you are a current UoY student and want to write for AlumNOUSE, or you’re a York alum and want to share your story, please contact me via my email: grace.bannister@nouse.co.uk
