Fortune editorial leaders tell FoxTalk what student journalists need to stand out in the AI era

ASPEN, Colo. — Andrew Nusca said student journalists covering major events should start with the basics: research, preparation and judgment.

Nusca, editorial director of Fortune Brainstorm Tech, told FoxTalk that reporters covering panels have to look for more than what each speaker does. They need to find common lines of thought, places where speakers might disagree and questions that move beyond the obvious.

“You have to research,” Nusca said. “You have to do your homework.”

Generative AI can help reporters test possible questions, he said, but it cannot decide which ones are worth asking.

“It’s your job as the human to decide which ones are actually any good or not,” Nusca said.

That judgment becomes more important when student reporters cover executives, public companies or large institutions. Nusca said Fortune 500 companies are complicated, and reporters can miss the real story if they take simple explanations at face value.

When FoxTalk asked what mistakes student reporters should avoid when covering Fortune 500 executives, Nusca’s answer was blunt.

“Asking them the same questions that everyone else will,” Nusca said.

Executives at that level are used to being questioned, he said. Public-company leaders regularly face investors, analysts and reporters. The best response may come from a question they have not already answered.

“These folks are professional interviewees,” Nusca said. “They are asked questions all day long.”

His advice: ask the less obvious question.

Kristin Stoller, an editorial director at Fortune, told FoxTalk that students should not wait until after graduation to act like journalists.

Stoller said she worked for her student newspaper at Penn State, The Daily Collegian, and said student reporters should not shrink their ambitions because they are working at a student publication.

“Don’t think of yourself as a student journalist,” Stoller said. “Think of yourself just as a journalist.”

That means trying to cover the topics they want to cover, including technology, AI and business, even before they have a full-time newsroom job.

“If it’s about tech, go try your hardest to get interviews with the top people,” Stoller said.

She said student journalists should cover what they can reach, including local meetings where technology or AI is being discussed, and build experience from there.

“Confidence is key,” Stoller said.

Amanda Gerut, Fortune’s West Coast editor, told FoxTalk that students who want to cover AI and business should focus on the reporting skills AI cannot do for them.

“Really work on skills that AI can’t do,” Gerut said. “If you want to cover AI, you also don’t want to be replaced by AI.”

Gerut pointed first to source-building.

“AI can’t build sources,” Gerut said. “AI can’t get people to tell them about issues that are happening.”

AI can still help reporters, she said. It can help brainstorm ideas or shape a headline. But it cannot replace the core job.

Gerut said student journalists covering AI should also follow the money behind it.

“Track AI,” Gerut said. “Track where the money is going.”

That means understanding funding rounds, data centers, capital spending and what investors expect from the companies building the AI economy.

Rachel Ventresca, Fortune’s director of audience and social growth, gave FoxTalk a different kind of advice for young journalists trying to enter the field: start publishing where people can see it.

“Just get started,” Ventresca said. “Just start posting to your social channels.”

She said young journalists can review a news situation, summarize a story for an audience or add their own reporting and analysis to what others are covering. The point is to show judgment, interests and voice before an employer has to guess.

“They’re looking at your social profiles to see what kind of content you’re making, what interests you,” Ventresca said.

Taken together, the advice from Fortune’s editorial leaders was not to avoid AI. It was to make sure AI does not become a substitute for reporting.

“You absolutely should throw your hat in the ring for every opportunity you’re given,” Stoller said.