Steven Beschloss

Steven Beschloss began his journalism career in the 1980s. He was the editor-in-chief of his high school newspaper. At first, Beschloss did not major in journalism in college. He spent his time reading and deepening his knowledge of the world around him. Later in his life, he went to Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism where he received practical training on the basic craft of a news reporter.

Upon graduating, he was offered jobs in Washington D.C. but chose to pursue other options he thought would give him a better chance to explore the world and not be a “press release” reporter. His first job was in a small county in rural Pennsylvania. From there he went on to report for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune and other notable publications. Beschloss lived in countries around the world as a reporter. While living in London, he decided to study at the London School of Economics and received a graduate degree there. Bescloss also lived in Helsinki and Moscow where he reported on the collapse of the Soviet Union. Throughout his almost three decades as a journalist, Beschloss has received numerous awards and distinctions for his work. He has produced numerous documentaries and authored a book in addition to his work as a reporter.

Q: What do you find rewarding about being a journalist?

Steven Beschloss poses for a portrait. Photo courtesy of Steven Beschloss.

“One is when I came back to America from London I took a job as a special projects writer for The Virginian-Pilot. … I had developed an idea for what would turn out to be a seven-part series looking at the growing disparity between urban and rural areas in the southern United States,” Beschloss said.

Beschloss was able to travel in 13 southern states and do detailed on-the-ground reporting. The goal of the project was to tell the story of the growing discrepancy between the rich and the poor in urban and rural areas in the South. At the same time, the South was experiencing what some may refer to as a boom in growth, but really there was only growth happening in 12 urban areas. The rest of the region told a different story.

Coming back from traveling over 3,000 miles and collecting hundreds of interviews, his series was published over seven consecutive Sundays.

“That was one of my most rewarding experiences in terms of reporting and the impact the stories had,” Beschloss said. “Coming out of it, I won a lot of awards and was offered a lot of jobs, but what was the best part of it all was having the opportunity to tell a big story through all those sorts of pieces I thought were important and worthy.”

Q: What is an example of an experience where you struggled in your career?

“I lived and worked in Helsinki for four years from 1994 to 1998, but I had been going there since early 1991. That was the year when the Soviet Union collapsed officially,” Beschloss said. “One day the Russians went to sleep and the next day when they woke up their country didn’t exist. It changed everything.”

Steven Beschloss films as part of his documentary in Russia. Photo courtesy of Steven Beschloss.

While in Helsinki, Beschloss worked on countless different projects from documentaries to long-form reporting and storytelling. While working on a documentary Beschloss had to interview young Russian children and gather stories from them about the world they were living in and their ideas for the future. From the mafia to brain surgeons who were now dealers in a casino and school nurses working as prostitutes, Beschloss saw firsthand how the economic collapse in Russia was affecting everyday people. He took the opportunity to dive into the issue and learn how it was affecting all of the people he had met.

“As I was making the documentary in St. Petersburg, I had this experience where I started to think about how everyday life was so troubled. As a journalist, storyteller and filmmaker it became harder in some ways for me to commit myself to stay overtime,” Beschloss said. “On one hand, I had the desire to tell these stories and on the other hand, I realized they were taking a toll on me and I had to ask myself ‘How long do I want to keep doing this?’”

Q: Before having your first job as a journalist, did you have any idea how your stories may affect your mental health?

Beschloss’ first job was in Beaver County, PA. He didn’t know a single person when he moved there. In this county, people who are from there never really move anywhere else. People would ask him if he had friends or family in the area, but he had come only to work.

“I went there cold because I wanted the experience. I worked really hard and I met people and had a little life outside of work, but my mind, especially in the early years, was all about the work I was doing,” Beschloss said.

When asked if he would take a different approach to his first job and think more about life outside of work, he was quick to say no. He felt that at the beginning of his career, he knew he wouldn’t get to where he wanted to be if he didn’t give all of his time and energy to his job. His beginning jobs were “very stressful” and he considers himself “lucky for not having much else going on besides work.”

Q: Do you think mental health is an area where the journalism industry lacks discussion and resources?

“Yes, 100%. In that way, there was no safety net. You were on your own and, you know, if you were struggling emotionally, that’s your problem. You were expected to just get it done,” Beschloss said. “That’s the hard-headed attitude about it.”

He hopes in the future there will be more mental health support in the industry. In his experience, especially with daily newspapers, if a reporter doesn’t deliver on a deadline no one cares why. They just want it done.

Q: Have you experienced anything during your career that has affected your mental health? If so, how do you cope?

With almost 300,000 followers on Twitter, Beschloss has seen his fair share of hate. He tends to be open with his thoughts and feelings over the past six years. Beschloss has received death threats and other hate that goes alongside that because of the views and work he shares on his account. There was even a time when a package arrived at his house, and his wife was worried it would be an explosive.

“I have pretty thick skin, but there have been times when it was really starting to get to my mental health. I don’t want to compare myself to anyone else, but I do get a pretty heavy amount of anonymous attacks,” Beschloss said.

Over the holidays, Beschloss even ended up getting into fights with his own family from being stressed about the backlash he was receiving on social media. What happens online can easily affect a journalist's personal and professional life offline.

“I never used to block people, but now you know if it's just ad hominem attacks and now an argument or someone disagreeing with me, I just block them. Probably in the span of two months, I’ve blocked 2,000 people. I even stopped getting notifications from people who don’t follow me which seems to have filtered out a lot of the abuse,” Beschloss said.